My partner on a late Saturday evening was planning to get some food with their friend, so that means I can venture out on my own. As people know from reading this site, I’m a ramen fiend. I love to try all sorts of ramen, and I never mind eating it by myself. This ramen location recently opened only a few weeks ago, and I definitely prefer early dinners. It’s located very close to the 7 train Court Sq stop, and is just around the corner from the Long Island City Trader Joe’s.

The Kyuramen restaurant chain has been slowly making its way throughout the greater NYC area. They just opened a location out in Long Island City which is not too far from where we live. This restaurant had construction signs early in the pandemic and just never opened until now. We thought we would be able to get seated right away on an early Sunday afternoon, but they checked us into Yelp and we had to wait around for about 15 minutes for a table of 2.

I’ve somehow gotten my partner to enjoy pasta a bit more. Some sacrifices have to be made such as looking for lasagna, but it’s worth it. I have to thank Tony Soprano and how he always made Italian sandwiches and pasta look so delicious. We had to stop by the pharmacy, and nearby was this incognito Italian wood fire pizza place. We were able to walk in without reservations on a Saturday evening around 5:30 PM.

Having been to Sweet Chick before in North Williamsburg, I vaguely remember this place having pretty good crust. I often get Pies N Thighs confused with this. In Williamsburg, there’s always a line outside, so when we walked by here with no line, we decided on a spur of the moment to try this out. When you sit at a table, there is a QR code that you can scan and even place your order.

We have been here before prior to the pandemic when it was a weigh by the pound buffet-style. My partner took me here once because they had been here before several times and said it was their favorite. However that one time, I didn’t really enjoy it because the meat was all overcooked, and the rest of the sides were very mediocre. They agreed with me and were surprised by how mediocre it was on that day.

This Peruvian restaurant was also on my partner’s list of cheap eats to try. The menu was quite similar to the prior Peruvian restaurant, Caravan Chicken we went to a few weeks ago. It’s conveniently located off the Ditmars N/W train on Ditmars itself. We arrived here at 7 PM, and there was no line nor patrons inside. We were not sure what to make of this considering how much we enjoyed the last restaurant.

Near where we live, they semi-opened this restaurant on Jackson Blvd at the start of the pandemic only to shut it down pretty quickly. We’ve walked by here several dozen times, and it was never really opened until the last 6 months. Reading online, it seemed they had to change their menu several times for adjustments for some reason, and the menu itself initially seemed basic and not overly attractive. It felt they were trying really hard to attract a brunch crowd, so we have not been enthusiastic about trying.

Lately, we’ve been looking for budget type of restaurants outside of the main areas of Manhattan. This restaurant came at a suggestion from my partner’s friend. It’s located pretty close to us on Broadway in Astoria and fairly close to the N subway. It really is a no frills restaurant with a lot of local take out and dine-in traffic. We arrived here around 5 PM on a Sunday evening, and finding a seat for 2 people was pretty straight forward.

We were on our way to get some delicious Popeyes chicken on the 7 train, and little and behold, the 7 trains were running express from Queensboro towards Flushing and were running local heading towards Manhattan. Normally the 7 runs local both ways, but they were doing track work, and it wasn’t quite clear. The next stop after Queensboro was 61st Woodside, which basically skipped our desired stop by 3 stops.

In the city, there are not too many Afghan restaurants to choose from. I’ve only had Afghani food once in my life in NorCal, and it didn’t ever make me yearn for it. However, I thought the menu looked enticing since we were looking for hummus and kabobs around Long Island City. This restaurant is located on the busy Vernon Blvd, which is becoming a happening street for this area. This location of Sami’s Kabob is their second location, whereas their first location is in Astoria.