How to eat in Jackson Heights
The best food neighborhood in New York is a 7 train ride away and almost nothing costs more than $15. A first itinerary for the overwhelmed.
If you gave me one neighborhood and one twenty-dollar bill and told me to eat as well as possible, I wouldn’t have to think about it. Take the 7 to 74th St–Broadway and start walking.
The short version
Jackson Heights is where Tibetan, Nepali, Indian, Bangladeshi, Colombian, Mexican, and Ecuadorian New York share about fifteen blocks. The food is extraordinary and the prices haven’t heard about the last decade.
A first crawl
Start with momos. The Tibetan dumpling situation here is the best in the city, much of it served from small counters and food carts around the 74th St station. Eight dumplings, a few dollars, life-changing chili sauce.
Walk Roosevelt Avenue for the tacos. Under the elevated 7 track, the evening cart economy is its own restaurant district. Follow the longest line of people who look like they’re on a lunch break from a kitchen — cooks know.
Finish at a Colombian bakery. A pandebono and a coffee costs about four dollars and the bakery will be full of people arguing pleasantly at 9pm, which is the whole point of living in a city.
The rule for this neighborhood
Don’t research too hard. The failure mode in Jackson Heights isn’t picking a bad spot — there barely are any — it’s standing on the sidewalk reading reviews while three better meals walk past you. Pick the busy place. Order what the table next to you has.