Your guide to a great day of eating in Astoria’s Little Egypt

I’m half Iranian and love Middle Eastern food, but didn’t know much about Egyptian cuisine until this summer. It incorporates legumes and rice, and specialties include lamb kofta (skewers) and kebabs, vegetables and seafood.

In Queens, the area along Steinway Street between Astoria Boulevard and 28th Avenue is home to many Egyptians, as well as Morroccans, Algerians, Tunisians and other people from the Middle East – and is known as Little Egypt.

I biked over on a recent Tuesday and couldn’t wait to get into it.

For a hearty lunch

When you arrive in the neighborhood, you’re immediately hit with the smells of kebabs grilling and hookah being smoked. Depending upon the time of day, you’re also likely to hear the call to prayer from the mosque.

One place at the top of my list was AbuQir Seafood , a small Egyptian restaurant specializing in seafood. It opened in 2015 and has already gained a cult following. The concept is similar to Astoria Seafood Market, where you pick your seafood and they grill it for you, but AbuQir is smaller and less crowded.

The owner, Ahmed Ibrahim, moved to the United States from Alexandria, Egypt in 1993 and to Queens in 1996. He originally owned a grocery store, then a steakhouse next door to AbuQir, and even a bakery, but then got a fish market and decided to turn it into a restaurant.

I found a seat and a server quickly laid brown paper on my table and brought plates and cutlery. There is no menu, so I walked to the back where there were shrimp, calamari, octopus, scallops and whole fish on ice.

Ibrahim was standing over the case and asked me what I wanted and how I’d like it prepared.

I went with grilled shrimp, which arrived standing in a cluster on a plate filled with oil, herbs, lemon and spices; octopus, which was grilled and also came on a plate with seasoned oil and thin slices of garlic; and branzino, which was blackened, Egyptian-style, according to Ibrahim.

I also got a house salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and vinaigrette), eggplant with garlic and vinegar, Egyptian rice, and aish baladi (Egyptian flatbread, which is similar to pita but made with whole wheat flour).

The bread was puffy and light and steam came pouring out of it as I tore it open; it was the perfect vehicle for eating everything in front of me. I used it to scoop up some eggplant and to soak up the juices from the fish. Heck, I even used it to eat my salad and rice.

You really can’t go wrong with any of the seafood that you order, but the Egyptian rice, sides and bread are a must to complete your meal.

For a vegetable-forward lunch

Another great option for lunch or dinner is Kabab Cafe , just a short walk down Steinway Street.

It opened in 1989 and was the first Egyptian restaurant in the area, which owner Ali El-Sayed proudly reminded me of when we spoke, and which was one of the reasons I’d been excited to visit.

El-Sayed moved to the United States from Alexandria after traveling through Europe nearly 40 years ago. He is the chef, the dishwasher, the server — a one-man show who shops for ingredients from the market daily, changing the menu depending on what he finds.

He was sitting outside at a little table wearing his white chef coat, blue apron and black beret, playing backgammon with a friend when I approached.

I got a platter of hummus, fava beans, falafel, fried lettuce and cucumbers as well as a stewed cauliflower salad with pomegranate molasses. A pile of pita bread arrived and there were spices, sumac and sesame seeds sprinkled on my side plate, ready to be immediately added to anything that touched it.

The cauliflower was melt-in-your-mouth tender and perfectly sweet from the pomegranate molasses. Fresh basil leaves torn and sprinkled over the top added a nice freshness to the dish.

A lamb shank arrived shortly after and El-Sayed carved it from the bone for me tableside. There were chunks of carrot and peppers and onions on the platter and the meat fell off the bone, making his carving unnecessary, but I appreciated the showmanship.

Because El-Sayed changes the menu daily, you’re sure to have a different experience each time you go. Next time, I would love to try some of his seafood dishes.

A couple of doors down was Nile Deli from owner Hersham Makhlof, who moved to Queens from Alexandria almost 35 years ago. He was there with his son Mohammed Makhlof, who translated for us.

The menu was on the window outside and the shelves in the window were full of hookahs. I wandered inside and ordered mashed fava beans in pita, or ful medames.

The sandwich came loaded with spices and herbs and chunks of stewed tomatoes with pickled vegetables on the side. It was surprisingly light and, thankfully, not too filling. I only ate half, saving the rest for another day. I still had more places to try and needed to save room.

For flaky pastry (feteer)

I walked down Steinway Street and headed inside Mum Feteer , known for its flaky pastry (feteer).

Feteer is stuffed with savory fillings, such as cheese, meats and vegetables; or sweet fillings, with nutella, nuts, cheese or custard. I’ve often heard it compared to pizza, but I feel like that’s doing the dish a disservice, especially since it is believed that Egyptians once used this dish as an offering to the gods.

I grabbed a table in the back and was excited to try feteer — happy I still had space in my ever-expanding stomach.

I ordered the pastrami (basterma) feteer, which came loaded with cheese, onions, peppers and olives. The pastry dough was thin and almost shattered as I lifted a slice, the cheese and filling oozing out of it.

There were pizza boxes piled high in the back along the wall and my server brought me one for my leftovers — which was helpful because there was no way I’d finish it.

Sweets to finish

I finished the day at Al-Sham Sweets and Pastry on Steinway Street between 25th Avenue and Astoria Boulevard, a local favorite for its baklava and kunafa (shredded phyllo filled with sweet cheese and soaked in simple syrup). Owner Talal Alnabelsi was in the back, preparing more pastries after the busy weekend.

The cases were full of many varieties of baklava, ma’amoul (crescent-shaped cookies stuffed with date paste or pistachio paste), basboosa (a sugar-syrup soaked semolina cake) and kunafa, as well as numerous other beautiful Middle Eastern desserts.

The ma’amoul weren’t too sweet, which isn’t as common among desserts and cookies in the Middle East, which are commonly soaked in sugar syrups. The baklava was nutty and sweet and chewy and would only have been improved with a cup of hot tea to wash it down. The kunafa was cheesy and surprisingly light compared to ones I’ve had in the past. I loved all of the sweets that I tried and made my way out, shoving a ma’amoul into my mouth.

Chips and cheese to take home

Next door to Al-Sham Sweets and Pastry is Al Zahraa Middle Eastern Groceries and Halal Meat . Inside, they’ve got a huge selection of Tiger chips, a crinkle-cut chip brand that launched in Egypt in 2004 and comes in a variety of flavors. Chips flavored with tomato, sweet chili, and seasoned cheese lined the shelves in the front, while the refrigerated section boasted a variety of feta cheeses.

I spied puck cheese, a spreadable cream cheese that is originally from Germany but launched in the Middle East in the early 1980s. Usually found in the refrigerated section, they had a shelf stable variety in a can that I’d never seen before and bought, excited to try it on some pita with scrambled egg for breakfast one morning later in the week.

I grabbed a bike to head home, happily full of seafood, fava beans, and lamb, and planned my next trip to Steinway Street to continue exploring the food of Egypt in Queens.

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Explore Little Egypt in Astoria

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All of the restaurants mentioned in this article are in this Google Map , which you can save to your phone.