Skip to content

Queens

Elmhurst

Thai curries on Woodside Avenue, Indonesian rendang on Whitney, and Southeast Asia along Broadway.

Elmhurst is one of the most linguistically crowded square miles on earth, and it does not dress itself up for visitors. The neighborhood is apartment blocks, the long diagonal of Broadway, and storefronts layered with signs in Thai, Chinese, Bengali, Spanish, Tagalog, and Bahasa. What it offers is not scenery but range: more Southeast Asian cooking within a short walk than anywhere else in the city.

Start on Woodside Avenue in the high 70s, the stretch New Yorkers call Little Thailand, where the kitchens cook regional — the sour, funky dishes of Isan, southern curries, boat noodles — rather than the pad thai of a delivery menu. Then cross to Broadway and Whitney Avenue, where Indonesian warungs serve rendang and lontong sayur, Malaysian counters flip roti canai, and northern Chinese dumpling houses hold the corners.

Eat here the way the neighborhood does: early, cheaply, and in small rounds. Order a curry at one place and a bowl of noodles at the next. Grocery aisles are part of the tour, stocked with pandan, galangal, and fruits you will not see in Manhattan. Few people come to Elmhurst to look around. They come to eat, and they come back.

Regional Thai kitchens along Woodside Avenue's Little Thailand

Indonesian and Malaysian counters around Broadway and Whitney Avenue

Storefront signs stacked in half a dozen alphabets

Groceries full of pandan, galangal, and unfamiliar fruit

Local notes

Ayada Thai

On Woodside Avenue since 2008 and the anchor of Elmhurst's Little Thailand, with a long menu that reaches across the country's regions: Isan sausage, sour kaeng som curry, fried fish with plenty of chili. A Manhattan outpost came later; the Queens original is still the one to visit.

Whitney Avenue's Indonesian warungs

The short blocks of Whitney Avenue off Broadway have long been the home base of Indonesian New York, with small family kitchens serving Sumatran rendang, lontong sayur, and noodles in shrimp-rich gravy. Storefronts turn over, so go with an appetite and an open plan rather than a single address.

Broadway's Southeast Asian corridor

Between Elmhurst Avenue and Queens Boulevard, Broadway holds Malaysian roti canai, Taiwanese pork chop rice, Chinese dumplings, Vietnamese pho, and more bubble tea than anyone could need. It is the neighborhood's main street and its best tasting menu.

Through the lens

Elmhurst is a signage neighborhood: shoot the layered storefronts along Broadway from across the street with a short telephoto. Woodside Avenue is lower and calmer, good for doorways and window menus in late afternoon light. Ask before photographing inside small family restaurants.

Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 13, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.

Where to eat & drink