The Best Asian Food in New York, Dish by Dish
Ride the 7 train east from Sunnyside to Elmhurst and you pass through Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal, Tibet, Bangladesh and Indonesia in a dozen stops. Here is what to order at each, and the few Manhattan tables worth crossing the river back for.
35 dishes · 35 kitchens
Chinese and Korean New York have guides of their own. This one follows the rest of Asia, and for most of it, the map is the 7 train. Get off at 46th Street in Sunnyside for Goan curries and Filipino doughnuts; at 61st and 69th Streets in Woodside for SriPraPhai, the Thai pioneer, and for Little Manila under the tracks on Roosevelt Avenue; at 74th Street for the momos and thenthuk of Jackson Heights' Himalayan blocks and the Bangladeshi carts beside them. Then walk south into Elmhurst, where Woodside Avenue and Broadway hold the city's densest run of Thai kitchens and the side streets off Queens Boulevard hide its Indonesian ones.
What makes these neighborhoods worth the trip is how specific the cooking is. A counter that serves only Thai chicken rice. A steam table of southern Thai curries that the New York Times ranks among the twenty best restaurants in the city. A one-table Tuesday lunch in the back of an Indonesian grocery. A Kathmandu grill chain's first foreign outpost, on Queens Boulevard. Most of these places are inexpensive, several are cash-only, and nearly all of them reward a group that orders more than it needs.
Manhattan has its claims too, and we've included them where they're the best version of a dish in town: southern Thai in Hell's Kitchen, Singapore chicken rice on Ninth Avenue, Hanoi street platters on Forsyth Street, tsukemen on Orchard Street. The picks are grouped by region. Hours change and menus rotate, so check before you travel — especially for the pop-ups and the weekend-only dishes.
Thailand
From Bangkok chicken rice to Isan larb, northern khao soi and the curries of the south — most of it within a few blocks of each other in Elmhurst.
- 01
Khao kaeng (curry over rice)
Khao Kang · ELMHURST, QUEENS
Point at two or three trays on the steam table and they go over jasmine rice. The southern sour curry with fish and bamboo shoots is the fiery one; the garlic black pepper pork, sweet and caramelized, is the one nobody skips.
- 02
Khao man gai (Thai chicken rice)
Eim Khao Mun Kai · ELMHURST, QUEENS
The only thing on the menu: poached chicken chopped to order over rice cooked with garlic, ginger and chicken fat, with liver, gizzard and a cup of broth. Season it yourself with garlic and chilies.
- 03
Yum pla duk (crispy catfish with green mango)
SaRanRom Thai · ELMHURST, QUEENS
Catfish fried into a light, crackling weave and topped with sour green mango salad — the dish Michelin's inspectors single out. The long menu also reaches north and south, so add a regional curry.
- 04
Duck larb and som tum (Isan)
Zaab Zaab · ELMHURST, QUEENS
The northeast at full volume: minced duck larb with crisp skin, liver, charred galangal and mint, and som tum pounded to order, at the Elmhurst original of a Bib Gourmand Isan kitchen.
- 05
Roasted duck green curry
SriPraPhai · WOODSIDE, QUEENS
Coconut-rich, with tomatoes and pineapple, from the Woodside restaurant that taught New York to come to Queens for Thai. Order pork larb and papaya salad alongside, and pork leg over rice if you have room.
- 06
Khao soi with sai ua sausage
Soothr · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
The Chiang Mai curry noodle soup, crowned here with the herb-packed northern sausage. For something darker, the nam tok moo — a pork-blood noodle soup in the boat-noodle style — is on the same menu.
- 07
Baerng golae (grilled shrimp in coconut curry)
Chalong · HELL'S KITCHEN, MANHATTAN
The southern Thai dish to know, at a Hell's Kitchen room Michelin made a Bib Gourmand in 2025. Add the garlic-braised ribs and finish with mango sticky rice.
The Philippines
Little Manila runs along Roosevelt Avenue under the 7 through the high 60s in Woodside, with its bakeries spilling over into Elmhurst and Sunnyside.
- 08
Kamayan feast with kare-kare and lechon kawali
Ihawan · WOODSIDE, QUEENS
A banana-leaf spread eaten with your hands: charcoal pork skewers, chicken barbecue, lechon kawali, lumpia, vinegar-cured milkfish and oxtail kare-kare with shrimp paste. Book it for six and add sisig on the side.
- 09
Sizzling sisig
Renee's Kitchenette & Grill · WOODSIDE, QUEENS
Kapampangan cooking under the tracks since 1992, and on the New York Times' 2026 list. The sisig arrives sizzling and crackling on a hot plate; sinigang and oxtail kare-kare are the next orders.
- 10
Halo-halo and sizzling biko
Kusina Pinoy Bistro · WOODSIDE, QUEENS
Next door to Renee's, and the place to finish a Little Manila night: halo-halo, sticky-rice biko still crackling on its skillet, and a sampler of cassava cake, leche flan and ube halaya.
- 11
Ube pandesal and torta cebuana
Kape't Torta · ELMHURST, QUEENS
A Filipino bakery counter on Queens Boulevard: cheese-stuffed ube pandesal, the little coconut-scented Cebu cakes called torta, cheese ensaymada, and strong kapeng barako to drink.
- 12
Leche flan doughnut and ube everything
Kora · SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS
Brioche doughnuts with a miniature flan inside, ube in the dough and glaze, ube babka and an ensaymada croissant — a pandemic pop-up turned Sunnyside bakery in 2025.
Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore
Elmhurst is home to most of New York's Indonesian community and its oldest Malaysian kitchen; Manhattan holds the chicken rice and the nasi lemak.
- 13
Beef rendang and nasi padang
Sumatera · ELMHURST, QUEENS
West Sumatran Minang cooking by the LIRR tracks: rendang braised until nearly dry and dark with spice, a nasi padang plate of curries and sambal, and nasi ayam kapau.
- 14
Nasi campur (Tuesdays only)
Warung Selasa at Indo Java · ELMHURST, QUEENS
Rice crowded with small dishes, cooked once a week at a single table in the back of the Indo Java grocery. The menu changes weekly — nasi gudeg and soto ayam turn up too — so follow the Instagram and preorder.
- 15
Bakso beranak (the 'pregnant' meatball soup)
Awang Kitchen · ELMHURST, QUEENS
Jakarta's meatball soup, here with a giant meatball that hides smaller ones inside. Ketoprak, gado-gado and soto Betawi fill out the table.
- 16
Singapore kari laksa and roti canai
Taste Good Malaysian Cuisine · ELMHURST, QUEENS
Coconut curry noodle soup and the flaky, chewy flatbread with curry, at the cash-only Elmhurst room that has anchored Malaysian cooking in Queens for about three decades.
- 17
Nasi lemak
Nyonya · CHINATOWN, MANHATTAN
The full plate — coconut rice, crisp anchovies, pickled vegetables, curried chicken and a hard-boiled egg — at a Bib Gourmand Malaysian room on Grand Street. Prawn mee is the soup to add.
- 18
Hainanese chicken rice
Uncle Ray's Chicken Rice · HELL'S KITCHEN, MANHATTAN
Roasted birds hang by the counter in Hell's Kitchen. Get the combo to taste roasted and poached side by side.
The Himalayas: Nepal, Tibet & Bhutan
Tens of thousands of Nepali, Tibetan and Bhutanese New Yorkers live around the 74th Street station in Jackson Heights and a few stops west in Woodside and Sunnyside.
- 19
Jhol momo
Nepali Bhanchha Ghar · JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS
Dumplings half-submerged in a warm, sesame-deep broth, from the repeat winner of the neighborhood's Momo Crawl, steps from the 74th Street station. Finish with sel roti.
- 20
Thenthuk (hand-pulled noodle soup)
Phayul · JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS
Up a flight of stairs off 74th Street: hand-pulled thenthuk in a long-simmered broth, in a plain second-floor room above the busiest block of Little Tibet.
- 21
Mutton sekuwa
Bajeko Sekuwa · SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS
Spice-marinated meat grilled over fire, the specialty of a Kathmandu chain whose Queens Boulevard room was its first outside Nepal. The adventurous order the fried goat head.
- 22
Shakam datshi (Bhutanese chili and cheese)
The Weekender · WOODSIDE, QUEENS
Sun-dried beef and green chilies melted into soft cheese, served beside the snooker tables at one of the city's first Bhutanese dining rooms. Order rice to cool it down.
South Asia
Jackson Heights is the center of gravity, but the best plates are spread from a Flushing temple basement to a Staten Island parlor and a Sunnyside side street.
- 23
Goan lamb vindaloo
Cardamom · SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS
The original vindaloo, sharp with vinegar rather than simply hot, from a Goan chef's Indo-Portuguese menu section. Pair it with the gentler Goan fish curry.
- 24
Goat dum biryani
Angel Indian Restaurant · JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS
Sealed under a pastry lid and sliced open at the table, at the Bib Gourmand dining room on 37th Avenue. BYOB.
- 25
Fuchka (Bangladeshi pani puri)
Tong · JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS
Puffed puri filled with spiced yellow peas and potato, topped with onion and grated egg, with tamarind water to spoon in — from the 73rd Street truck that started the craze.
- 26
Paper dosa
Temple Canteen · FLUSHING, QUEENS
So long it hangs off the plate, with idli, sambar and coconut chutney, in the canteen beneath Flushing's Ganesh Temple.
- 27
Lamprais and kottu roti
Lakruwana · TOMPKINSVILLE, STATEN ISLAND
Rice and curries baked in a banana leaf, Dutch Burgher-style, and chopped flatbread clattering on the griddle — the Sri Lankan table worth the ferry to Staten Island.
- 28
Five-cheese kulcha
Bungalow · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Vikas Khanna's stuffed flatbread at his East Village tour of India's states. Follow it with the yogurt kebabs wrapped in kataifi.
Japan
Manhattan still holds the city's best Japanese noodle and sake counters.
- 29
Tsukemen (dipping ramen)
Okiboru House of Tsukemen · LOWER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN
Thick noodles and a dense, concentrated broth served separately, for dipping, at an Orchard Street counter on the New York Times' 2026 list.
- 30
Cold soba on a bamboo mat
Sobaya · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Buckwheat noodles made fresh by the window, at an East 9th Street anchor open since 1996 — eaten cold with dipping sauce to taste the noodle, or hot with duck in winter.
- 31
Izakaya small plates and a sake flight
Sakagura · MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN
Down the stairs from an office lobby near Grand Central: grilled black cod, crab clay-pot rice and more than 200 sakes, organized by region.
Vietnam, Burma & beyond
The Southeast Asian kitchens that don't fit a neighborhood — each one the city's best case for its dish.
- 32
Bún đậu đặc biệt (Hanoi tofu-and-noodle platter)
Mắm · CHINATOWN, MANHATTAN
Vermicelli cakes, fried tofu, herbs and several cuts of pork — blood sausage the best of them — with fermented shrimp paste for dipping. Add the stuffed snails.
- 33
Bánh mì and bánh cuốn
Bánh Anh Em · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
A baguette Michelin calls airy, light, flaky and warm, and steamed rice rolls with minced pork, at a 2025 Bib Gourmand on Third Avenue.
- 34
Tea-leaf salad and mohinga
Little Myanmar · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Fermented tea leaves tossed with crunchy beans, nuts and sesame, and the catfish-and-lemongrass noodle soup Burmese families eat for breakfast, at a Bib Gourmand family kitchen on East 2nd Street.
- 35
Crispy whole fish with Khmer dipping sauces
Bong · CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN
One of the city's only Cambodian kitchens, in Crown Heights: the fish comes with lettuce for wrapping and two sauces, and the tamarind clams beg for rice.
Every kitchen here was confirmed open as of 2026-10-13. Menus change — confirm a dish is on before you make the trip.