Choopan Kabab House in Flushing, NY
Choopan Kabab House
43-27 Main Street
Flushing, NY
718-539-3180
Take out: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Credit Card Accepted: Yes
Opened until 11PM on Saturdays
Flushing is an ethnically diverse neighborhood with many different restaurants to choose from. I have always thought that Flushing is predominately home to East Asians, in particularly Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. But that is only one part of one the neighborhood. The other side is home to a lot of South Asians like the Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, and Aghanis. I am sure when you are driving into Flushing, you’ll notice a lot of South Asian stores. I have never really been to the stores there nor have eaten in the restaurants because I’m not familiar with their culture. I have eaten at Indian restaurants, and that’s probably it for South Asian cuisine, but slowly and very surely with the help and encouragement from my friend, I will get more exposure to that cuisine!
My friend introduced me to this Afghani restaurant called Choopan Kabab House. Like many South Asian restaurants that I have personally encountered, like Ali Baba (Turkish Cuisine) by the Horace Harding Expressway in Flushing, there are neon lights flashing right outside the restaurant! I guess that’s a good way of attracting customers, but in a very old and tacky kind of way which is cute in my opinion. Moving forward, I believe the only time I’ve had Afghani food is really the chicken and rice platter by the vendor on 53rd and 6th avenue in Manhattan. Scratch that. I have been informed that the chicken and rice halal cart on 53rd and 6th is Arabic! I really need to eat Afghani and Arabic food one after the other so I can distinguish the two cuisines!
Now, unfortunately I did not take a photo of the outside of the restaurant because it was raining really hard. But rest assure that I do have photos for your enjoyment, so make the jump to the next page to see!
Interior of Choopan Kabab House in Flushing, NY
Debasaki Japanese Style Chicken, Flushing, NY – Part 2
My apologies for the delayed post! I will continue from part 1 and show you some of the dishes that I have tried at Debasaki.
First thing you must keep in mind when you’re seated is there is a red button, shown below, that you must press in order to call the waitress. If you don’t do that, you’ll end up sitting forever until you wonder why no one is showing up. I think that is unique because sometimes I don’t want to be rushed and want to call the waitress when I’m ready. Already this is a good sign of a good restaurant experience!
Debasaki Call Button
When you’re seated, the waitress will immediately bring you their complimentary Coleslaw which has honey mustard and mayo for the dressing.
Complimentary Coleslaw w/mustard and mayo
Kimchi Fried Rice w/egg
This kimchi fried rice has spam in it! Yes spam and I was definitely excited! I know it might sound disgusting, but it actually went very well with this spicy dish! Sometimes you need that soft texture to balance out the hard texture of the fried rice. The egg made the dish even better, so I would highly recommend to try this!
Please click on the following link for more:
Picnic Garden: Korean BBQ Buffet (Flushing, Queens)
Picnic Garden Barbeque Buffet
14742 Northern Blvd
Flushing, NY 11354
(718) 358-5959
Update 2009/03/24: Appended to this post with new pictures!
This is possibly the only Korean BBQ BUFFET in town. I can’t think of any other left since Northern Buffet is gone. If anyone else knows of a Korean Buffet, please let us know. In the mean time, I’ll be going back to Picnic Garden for more!
Picnic Garden Korean BBQ Buffet
Parking is a problem since it’s metered outside during the day (except Sunday) and residential is dense, so not alot of parking at night. Be sure to circle around and look for parking. The buffet is fairly cheap at about $25/person and it feels like a family runned restaurant.
Picnic Garden Korean BBQ Grilled Kal-bi
More after the jump!
Nan Shian Soup Dumpling House in Flushing, NY
Nan Shian Dumpling House
38-12 Prince Street
Flushing, Queens – NY
(718) 321-3838
Elaine Louie of the New York Times wrote an article about this restaurant and claimed that their soup dumplings are the best soup dumplings in New York City, if not the world, and that includes China. That is a bold statement! I got so excited after reading this article that I had to go out there and try it for myself. Can their soup be better than your Joe Shanghai or your local ma and pa dumpling house?
Nan Shian Dumpling House
On this cold Sunday rainy afternoon, Finechinaguy and I + 2 guests decided to come to warm up our bellies by coming to his famous soup dumpling restaurant. After nearly 15 minutes of grueling wait for parking in the Municipal Parking Lot, we were definitely hungry. The time was 2:10pm, and when we opened the door, there was a long queue that almost backed out of the door! Mind you, like what the NY Times article wrote, the restaurant has a capacity of 30 people, so it’s a very small place. Usually in a situation like this, I would just leave and go to the other many soup dumpling restaurants in Flushing, but of course that isn’t an option so we went inside.
When you go inside, you have to tell one of the waitresses how many people are in your party. You will then grab a ticket and patiently wait inside the restaurant, if there is space, or out in the hall like Finechinaguy did. I stood in the restaurant and waited patiently until my number was called out.
My party waited about fifteen minutes and that was considered to be fast because there were some groups who refuse to leave even when they were done eating. They were pretty much lounging around and chit chatting until the waitress asks if they want the check and decides to order another entree of food. In a small restaurant like this, I think it’s just in good manners to eat and then leave.
Sunway Cafe Chinese Diner
39-07 Prince St
(Near 39th Ave, 7 train to Flushing)
Flushing, NY
After watching Simpsons The Movie at the glamorous College Point Movie theatre, the bf, bf’s brother, and I were craving for food. We left at about 10:30 pm and tried to figure out what the hell we were going to eat. No, not Wendy’s or White Castle again. For once, we were all sick of fast food and thought that we needed to sit down tight at a civilized place with plates of real food. Since we were on a tight budget, we decided to head out to Flushing for some cheap ol’ Chinese food. The bf’s younger sweet 16 brother, Alvin, suggested that we go to Sunway. He swears that it’s the best place ever and claims that he’s been there over 20x. It must be dam affordable if he goes there religious. With growling tummies and a loose wallet, the bf and I decided that we should hit this joint and find out.
If you’re in Flushing, you have to be blind not to see this restaurant. It’s smacked right in the middle of Flushing, literally a block away, and it’s right on the corner of Prince and 39th Ave. We got there around 11pm and had to wait on line because there were so many people waiting for a seat! Outrageous! Well, it’s better than it being deserted because then it would get creepy, like in manhattan’s Chinatown.
After about 10 mins, we got seats right under the plasma tv. The baseball game was playing, but not like anyone was paying attention to it. Most of the people here were younger kids that looks really fobby. A pack of young teenage girls were giggling in the back of the restaurant, and a good sprinkle of older fobby guys were sitting in the middle chatting it up like gangsters.
Anyways, after we were seated for like 10 mins, a waitress came to us and asked what we liked to drink. Let me tell you, the best part of the menu are their drinks. I’ve never seen anything more colorful and cocktail-like in my whole entire life. They serve an array of bubble teas and mixed fruity drinks. I opted for the Phoenix Sunrise drink, picture below, because it sounded so kickass. When the drink arrived, I was oh so impressed by the color because it looks like how it sounds and it tasted very sweet, which I love. I can taste mango and orange. Exactly what they put their drink is beyond me. And Alvin got the mango smoothie, which to me didn’t look anything special. The taste wasn’t that great too.
Alright time for the chow part of this blog.
Rice noodles with duck, wonton, and choy sum
Price: $3.75
I wished they gave more rice noodles. Apparently Alvin didn’t finish this bowl due to the dim sum that we ordered, which I will get to. I did have a taste of the duck and wonton and to me, it wasn’t anything special. I grew up eating this stuff, and I figure as long as the taste doesn’t get worse it’s fine by me.
My Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended: Yes especially if you never had this before, or you’re craving for delicious duck and noodles.
Rice noodles with braised beef
Price: $3.75
Again, what’s up with skimping with the dam rice noodles?? I ordered this thinking that this dish can absolutely cannot go wrong, but it did. I’m pissed as hell with the skimping, but to give me the hard ass part of the beef and a few pieces of meat is not cool with me. The broth tasted pretty good, but I’m not feeling this skimping part.
Rating: 2.5/5
Not Recommended
Dim Sum!
Price: $2.25/each
Beef wrapped with Rice Noodles (In Chinese, it’s called Ha Chern)
Malaysian Spongcake
Ha Gow (Shrimp covered with thin rice paper)
Pork Bun
I give them props for having dim sum at this hour. These didn’t taste bad at all. If you are craving for dim sum late night, I’d definitely recommend it.
BBQ Spare Ribs
Price: $5.25
This is the cheapest piece of meat that I’ve ever seen. There’s not a lot of meat and this is the most oily thing that I have ever eaten. I didn’t really like it and wouldn’t recommend anyone ordering this.
Remember, you pay for what you get. The food is decent here and it really gives a quick fix for a staving stomach. The drinks here are absolutely phenomenom. People were ordering it here like crazy. I really recommend that. Alright, I’ll leave you with the health inspection results from the city.
SUNWAY CAFE
39-07 PRINCE STREET, QUEENS 11354
Violation points: 9
Inspection Date: 09/14/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
Sanitary Violations
1.) Plumbing not properly installed or maintained; anti-siphonage or backflow prevention device not provided where required; equipment or floor not properly drained; sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly.
2.) Evidence of flying insects or live flying insects present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
