Try the catapones — it's a sandwich, but instead of bread, the insides (the best ones are filled with cheese, shredded chicken, or pork) are held together by two giant smashed, fried plantains.
Vanessa’s is best known for its cheap eponymous dumplings, but the sesame pancakes — warm bread stuffed with pickled vegetables and either duck, beef, chicken, or egg — are the real stars.
This truck, silly name aside, parked daily on 52nd and Park, is an oasis in midtown. An oasis in the form of fresh chorizo and hot carbohydrates with egg and cheese in the middle.
Corner 28 in Flushing is a whole restaurant, but what you want is the $1 Peking Duck bun from the stall outside.
Debate all you want about the best burger in town — this one is at the top of the list. Plus, it’s called the Royale With Cheese! Also on site: “bacon picklebacks” and a nice garden in the back.
The Trinidadian speciality — a chickpea-based filling with crusty bread around it — makes for a really good breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner.
The cronut turned Dominique Ansel into an international celebrity, but did you know he also makes a great little egg sandwich? And you don’t have to wait in the stupid cronut line for it.
Alidoro’s sandwiches — which get stuffed with prosciutto, chicken, mozzarrella, eggplants, and so on — are huge without being sloppy. They’re like a refined version of an Italian deli sub.
Cocoron offers “dipping soba,” where you dip cold noodles into a hot, concentrated broth. When you’re done, you get a pot of the water used for cooking, which, combined with the broth, makes a soup.
The deliciously chewy, slippery peel noodles at Sheng Wang, a mostly tourist-free noodle shop on Eldridge, are hand-cut with a knife so that they end up in jagged uneven strips.
A big plate of excellent pierogies (potato and cheese recommended, but take your pick) topped with onions and sour cream costs just $5.50.
Xi’An Famous Foods indeed has a bunch of famous foods — their noodles, soups and lamb burgers are beloved by everyone with a brain who likes cheap spicy food. Now they make dumplings too.
If you’re looking for ramen on a Tuesday night at 3 a.m., meet Benkei, a late-night ramen pop-up that opens in the space of Lower East Side restaurant Hill & Dale after they close up for the night.
It’s a Chinese steamed bun, but instead of a roast pork filling, you get gooey pumpkin paste. For less than a dollar. All year round. Stand down, Starbucks Pumpkin Spice lattes
Taim is famous for its excellent falafel, but the real star is a drink made from dates and bananas blended with…soy milk and…lime.
Takoyaki are Japanese fried balls of savory pancake-like patter, with octopus in the middle. They’re served piping hot with gooey insides, and covered in a bunch of sauces and bonito flakes
Unlikely as it may seem, fries made out of chickpeas can taste better than fries made out of potatoes.
Since 1990, Maria Cano has sold highly satisfying cheese-filled arepas at her Arepa Lady cart on Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights. She’s opening a restaurant nearby soon, which is great news.
Not your grandmother’s babka. Breads’ version tastes less like dried-out coffee cake and more like challah French Toast, delicately striped with super-high quality chocolate.
This DUMBO bakery sustained serious damage after Hurricane Sandy, and was forced to close for almost a year. They’re back up and running now, and their almond croissant makes New York a better place.
Come once for the rotating selection of esoteric gelato flavors, like gorgonzola, or the pesto-like basil and pine nut. Come back for the hazelnut, which tastes like a cold jar of Nutella.
Slices of bottarga (pressed mullet roe) & little chiles are placed between two Italian crackers spread with butter, which are called carte de musica because they’re so thin they look like sheet music.
Sesame Seed is the ice cream flavor you never knew you needed. Soy Sauce flavor is sometimes available here, too — it tastes surprisingly like salted caramel.
swin·gle [swin-guhl] (n.): A frozen key lime pie dipped in chocolate, on a stick. Best enjoyed with a view of the Statue of Liberty from a pier in Red Hook.
French sources confirm the cream puff might be the best French pastry in the five boroughs.
A few blocks past the very last stop on the 1 train lies the best cream cheese frosting in these five boroughs. Or anywhere, maybe.
The best pizza place in Queens has been around since 1959. And their best slice of pizza is the pesto slice.
A perfect iteration of Staten Island thin crust pizza. Try the, M.O.R., which stands for meatball onion ricotta.
Instead of waiting in an hour-long line for grumpy service at Di Fara, enjoy Brooklyn’s actual best pizza (maybe) with a square slice here.
Those who swear no good breakfast burritos exist on the East Coast have not been to Stan’s.
From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays, the Greenpoint warehouse that supplies Russ & Daughters is open to the public. Pro-tip: There are no bagels, so BYOB.
The freshly-made, still warm mozzarella makes this place worthy of the name “House of Mozzarella."
There are dozens of places to eat creative sushi in New York, but nowhere will it be as much fun as at the homey Bugs in the East Village, run by Sho Boo, one of the city’s few female sushi chefs.
Here’s what you do: go with four people, order the $60 combination, which gets you basically all of the restaurant’s best dishes for $15 a person.
Top your grits with pesto and bacon. And bring those people who say good grits are only in the South.
