Five Pleasing Things To Try at the New Chinese Food Court in Long Island City

Including a Hong Kong soup, Shaanxi stuffed flatbread, and Okinawan rice ball

There’s a new food court in town, and you should drop everything and pay it a visit. The generic sounding LIC Food Hall – referring to Long Island City – debuted earlier this month at 27-17 42nd Road, a mere two blocks from the Queensboro Plaza (7, N, and W) and the Queens Plaza (E, R, and M) subway stations. It occupies the ground floor of a swanky new high-rise apartment building, one of many in the vicinity.

The food court is much smaller than it looks from its loud signage.

LIC Food Hall offers 10 counters, and most are Chinese. In fact, the place feels like it originated in Flushing, and crawled westward along the 7 train route. But it did not arrive unexpectedly, since the vicinity is already teeming with Asian restaurants, including Red Sorghum, a movie set of a Sichuan-Hunan spot specializing in cocktails made with baijiu.

By contrast, LIC Food Hall fills a hopelessly cramped hallway – as if space is at a premium — and the counters are arranged on either side of it. As you venture inside, you’ll expect the space to open up, but it never does, and there is little seating. Apparently, the food is mainly intended for carryout; maybe the food court is intended as a commissary for the surrounding towers. A vending machine selling Labubus is conveniently provided at the end of the hallway.

In contrast to other Chinese food courts, there’s only one communal table on the main floor.

I spent an afternoon eating my way around the hall, and here are five things worth trying, in order of preference.