The dim sum lunch, or yum cha (literally “drink tea”), is the Cantonese answer to Spanish tapas. It is as much a tradition in New York City's Chinatown as weekend brunch on The Lower East Side. The bustling scene is all too familiar: packed tables, servers pushing metal carts while hawking their selections, the din of impatient, hungry diners. They wait for shrimp dumplings, steamed pork spareribs, roast pork buns, pork and shrimp shu mai -- the seemingly endless variety goes on and on.
But for vegetarians, the choices can be few. When it comes to dim sum, seafood and meat dominate the menu. New York vegetarians need not despair, because there are two very appetizing dim sum havens for non-meat eaters, and they’re right in Chinatown.
Buddha Bodai on Mott Street serves a completely vegetarian and kosher menu of dim sum favorites, ranging from shrimp dumplings to beef rice rolls. The restaurant is usually packed on weekday lunch hours with City Hall municipal types, while the weekend clientele consists of tourists, locals and the environmentally conscientious. An all-day menu of vegetarian iterations of Chinese standards is also on offer, with creative takes on dishes like roast pork and sesame chicken. Using seitan, tofu and yam starch (among other vegetarian and kosher-friendly ingredients) as substitutes, many of these plates will fool even the committed carnivore in appearance and flavor.
The line outside the door on Sunday afternoons may be the best way to spot Vegetarian Dim Sum House on Pell Street. Crowds tend to gather on weekends, anxious for healthy vegetarian takes on traditional dim sum dishes. The array of vegetarian dumplings -- pan fried, watercress, snow pea leaf, monk dumplings -- draw in voracious vegetarians who want the variety of a full-scale dim sum restaurant without sacrificing their principles or lifestyle choices. The menu is comprehensive, full of inventive vegetarian fare using Eastern and Western-style vegetables, not to mention an exhaustive list of diced, sliced or sautéed mushroom dishes. At Vegetarian Dim Sum House, there’s no need to solely imitate meat dishes. Here, vegetables are allowed to take center stage.
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Restaurants in Queens Village
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Big John's Pizza, a casual eatery located on Jamaica Avenue, serves up a menu of Italian, Greek, and American classics. Specialty pizzas, chopped philly cheesesteaks, and gyros on pita bread are just a few options. Diners can devour savory courses or Breyers ice cream while seated at red booths, or they can opt for delivery.
219-11 Jamaica Avenue
New York,
NY
US
Chef Steve Thomas at The Kountry Style learned how to prepare the traditional dishes of his native Jamaica from the best teacher he knew: his mother. Tapping into the methods and recipes that had been perfected and passed down in his family for generations, he honed his skills in his mother’s restaurant, where he learned how to create the perfect blend of spices to marinate jerk chicken and the best way to create the complex curries in which to stew tender goat meat. In Kountry Style’s kitchen, Chef Steve cooks these traditional dishes for guests hoping to get a true taste of the Caribbean or those who are missing the fresh seafood of their own home. In addition to the food, the decor helps transport minds to the shores of Jamaica, with walls portraying colorful and historic island scenes that often inspire daydreaming and spontaneous plane ticket purchases.
198-18 Linden Blvd.
St. Albans,
NY
US
Italian pastas, meats, and veggies dressed in tasty sauces pepper Trattoria Lucia’s dinner and lunch menus, resting alongside a varied assortment of wines and specialty cocktails. The caprese—a duet of tomatoes and mozzarella ($8.95)—sings an opening number for the spaghetti alla Frank Sinatra, its noodles backed by shrimp, chopped clams, attractive bodyguards, and olives ($15.95). Meanwhile, arugula salad and tomatoes top a crisp breaded cutlet in the veal capricciosa ($17.95), and the tricolor salad ($8.95–$10.95) sends teeth traipsing through a garden of sliced pears, pignoli, and shaved ricotta. Once satiated, diners can cheers to good health and lucrative penny stocks after clinking together a couple glasses of the sparkling brut (a $6 value per glass).
24763 Jericho Tpke
Bellerose,
NY
US
By the Rock Pizza & Gyro has dished out American, Italian, and Greek dishes from its Saint Albans kitchen for more than a quarter century. Deluxe six-ounce cheeseburgers join sandwiches such as meatball parmesan heroes and gyros with tzatziki sauce. The cooks also fire specialty pizzas such as the Grandma, which tops crushed tomatoes and fresh mozzarella with leaves of basil. By the Rock caters special events throughout the area, such as weddings or Thursdays.
10911 Farmers Blvd
Saint Albans,
NY
US
At Villa Rustica, charming murals that speak of Italy’s countryside encircle a dining room filled with classic Italian décor and cuisine. Take tongues on a luxury cruise with the clams oreganata, which consists of six baked Little Neck clams lounging languidly on a plate ($9.95), or drum up appetites with fried zucchini sticks dunked in Italian tomato sauce ($7.95). Deep-sea dinner divers can fish for shell-dwellers with the linguine pescatore, pasta topped with shrimp, mussels, calamari, and clams and sautéed in a choice of marinara, fra diavolo, or garlic and virgin olive oil ($17.75), while birdivores can spear a hearty serving of chicken rollatini, a dish that’s stuffed with prosciutto and romano and mozzarella cheeses, and sautéed in a marsala wine sauce with mushrooms ($17.50). Brick-oven pizzas, baked Old World style, arrive as 10-inch disks bearing the distinctive marks of margherita ($8.50), vegetarian ($10.50), and fra diavolo ($10.50). Wash away your mouth’s leftovers with an espresso ($3), a glass of zinfandel, or a beer imprisoned in a bottle ($4.25).
73-28 Bell Boulevard
Oakland Gardens,
NY
US
