10 Great Cheap Eats Destinations in NYC, Volume 3
More than just noodles and dumplings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx
This bimonthly column features cheap eats worth a trip from any corner of the city. Note that seating may be rudimentary or almost non-existent. Check out the first and second editions of this column.
Shu Jiao Fu Zhou
295 Grand Street, Chinatown
This cluttered storefront has rapidly become the neighborhood’s favorite cheap eats destination, beloved of visitors and denizens alike. Study the menu on the wall and order soups, noodle soups, or dumplings, some involving offal, but most not. Pork and chive dumplings (10 for $4.50) are a favorite, steamed and served with a choice of bottled condiments. Peanut butter noodles are another good choice. Meal-size soups are $5 or $5.50.
Souk El Shater
43-03 Queens Boulevard, Sunnyside
Located right on Sunnyside’s main drag, Souk El Shater is a small Lebanese grocery with a steam table in front and butcher counter in back, from which the meats come that go into the stews and shawarmas. The chicken shawarma sandwich is the thing to get, an amazing bargain at $9. It comes in a puffy flatbread with lots of pickles, poultry, tomatoes, onions, and lettuce. The white garlic sauce, toum, and the gritty chile sauce, harissa, are also available. When you’re asked if you want the wrap in a double flatbread (thinner and quite different), say “Yes!”
Roll N Roaster
2901 Emmons Avenue, Sheepshead Bay
Don’t be put off by the crazy appearance of Roll N Roaster, which looks like an Arby’s on acid and satisfies the long-held tradition of Brooklynites eating roast beef before or after a beach visit. The roast beef sandwich ($8.45), drenched in juices with extra gravy on the side, is handed over the counter steaming and full of flavor. The strip steak sandwich, at nearly the same price, is worth considering, and so are the clam strips, the taste of which benefits from the breezes blowing off Sheepshead Bay, just across the street. Parking is available.
Kaieteur Express
120-04 Liberty Avenue, South Richmond Hill
Though Guyana is technically in South America, it looks to the Caribbean — and specifically, Jamaica and Trinidad — for its foodways, with lots of indigenous tribal and Chinese influences. The cuisine is a wonderful patchwork, whether you want jerk chicken, roast pork fried rice, curry goat, fried shark, or a simple half-fried chicken with french fries ($12).
El Floridita
4162 Broadway, Washington Heights
Founded in 1995 merging Cuban and Dominican cuisines, Floridita in Washington Heights is open 24 hours. Dominican breakfasts featuring mashed mangu or yuca are a specialty, with prices as low as $7.25, and so are the hero sandwiches flattened in the sandwich press, coming in at $9.25. Meal-size soups are discounted at lunch.
VPho and Pizzeria
2004 Williamsbridge Road, Pelham Parkway
This amazing combo Vietnamese cafe and pizzeria offers bargain overstuffed banh mi ($9 to $11), of which the most unusual is made with slightly sweet Chinese-style sausages, and there are several other filling choices. Bowls of pho are gigantic, and a surprising specialty is three species of snails served in flavorful sauces with a toasted baguette, meant for sharing.
Noods n’ Chill
170 South 3rd Street, Williamsburg
A section of noodle dishes, fried rice, and curries with rice start at $15 at this remaining branch of a once-great Thai food empire that started in Elmhurst and once extended to Prospect Heights and Kensington. The interior is relaxed and playful, the menu dotted with interesting ingredients that include pork knuckle, pork-and-fish balls, crab, and mock duck, with plenty of vegetarian choices.
Polonica
8303 Third Avenue, Bay Ridge
Plates of seven homemade pierogies chosen from a list of eight and sided with sour cream and applesauce still cost $11 at this Bay Ridge stalwart, open since 1991. Soups are even cheaper, and full-blown entrees are often $20 or less, running to goulashes, schnitzels, kielbasa, and stuffed cabbage — real stick-to-your-ribs fare, served in an Old World atmosphere.
Stall #13 at New York Food Court
133-35 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing
It’s hard to spend more than $10 for a full meal at most of the 30 or so stalls in this overlooked food court, just downhill from the Flushing subway station. #13 is a particular favorite, offering Shanghai food like lion’s mane meatballs and stir fried rice cake, but with a Sichuan dish thrown in here and there. One meatless choice goes by the name of braised eggplant, but is also known as fish-fragrant eggplant ($8.75), a tour-de-force of vegetables in which the main ingredient is substituted for the fish that, according to fable, a Sichuan housewife didn’t have.
Emily’s Pork Store
426 Graham Avenue, Williamsburg
Vestige of what was once one of the city’s most thriving Italian neighborhoods, with its roots in Nolo and Teggiano, Campania, Emily’s Pork Store was founded in 1974. Its tightly organized shelves are stocked with imported groceries and more kinds of pasta than you can count, and a long counter displays cured meats, sandwiches, and prepared foods. No menu is posted but its most famous sandwich ($14) is one made with spice-rubbed roast pork, broccoli rabe, and aged provolone that lends powerful flavor, and so does a dribble of balsamic vinegar. The sandwich is easily big enough to be shared.
Roll and Roaster has been open at least 50 years. My husband worked there for one night only in 1972 while a college student. He never went back to work because he smelled of French fries. He expected to smell like roast beef!
Fuck yes Roll N Roaster 🙏🖤