Queens
Auburndale
Garden apartments, a commuter stop, and Korean dining rooms strung along Northern Boulevard.
Auburndale is the kind of Queens neighborhood people drive through without noticing — and that is the mistake. It began in 1901, when a New England development company bought farmland from the Willet family just as the Long Island Rail Road began stopping here; the name came from Massachusetts, home of the developer. It grew into a calm place of garden apartments, detached houses and leafy side streets between Murray Hill and Bayside.
Its commercial spine is Northern Boulevard, and since the early 2000s that spine has belonged largely to Korean New York. As families moved east from Flushing, restaurants followed: barbecue houses with parking lots, soup-and-rice specialists, chicken joints and bakeries, set back from the boulevard behind wide sidewalks.
This is suburban eating in the best sense — larger rooms, easier tables, families at every booth. Take the train to Auburndale station, walk north to the boulevard, and keep going east until something smells right.
Korean barbecue and soup houses on Northern Boulevard
Garden apartments and quiet tree-lined side streets
A small LIRR stop on the Port Washington Branch
Family tables, parking lots, and no hurry
Local notes
A name from Massachusetts
Auburndale was developed from 1901 by a company led by Lewis H. Green, who named it after his Massachusetts hometown; the name became fully official only in the 1930s, when residents insisted the new branch library carry it.
Northern Boulevard
The old road to the North Shore is Auburndale's main street and part of the Korean corridor that runs from Flushing to the Nassau line. Restaurants here tend to be roomier than in Murray Hill, many with their own lots.
Francis Lewis Boulevard
The cross street that meets Northern Boulevard in Auburndale is named for Francis Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who lived in nearby Whitestone. It makes a useful landmark for orienting a dinner walk.
Through the lens
Northern Boulevard is wide and car-heavy; shoot the restaurant signage at blue hour from across the street, and save the close work for the tables inside. The residential side streets are pleasant in autumn, when the street trees turn.
Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 13, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.