Round Table: Firni Donuts, Times Square Curry, Nepalese Instant Noodles, Pancakes in NJ, and more

7 bites for the week from the People & Food Universe

Hey - and welcome to week 1 of Round Table. 🎉

I’ve asked a group of trusted friends to contribute restaurant recommendations from New York, New Jersey, and Philly, for a column that will go live every Thursday on People & Food.

The first rec will always be free. Subscribe to see the rest, and to get a Google Map of all of our recommendations.

On today’s Round Table, we have contributions from Mehr Singh, Peter Candia, Raunaq “Naq” Zamal, Johnny Novo, Lindsay Paulen, and Jacob Does Philly. For my first rec at the Round Table, we’ll head to an excellent Afghan-American cafe in Astoria:

It was not the plan to eat the entire menu at Little Flower Cafe. But when I pulled up to the Zohran Mamdani-endorsed eatery in Astoria, the owners didn’t give me a choice.

Ali Zaman and Mohamed Ghiasi are the owners of Little Flower, as well as Blue Hour in Bushwick, and a soon-to-be-opened [redacted] shop in Brooklyn Heights. Ali’s father’s restaurant, Sami’s Kabab House, and Mohamed’s father’s restaurant, Dunya Kabab House, are 2 of the best Afghan eateries in town.

But there are no mantu or kebab on Ali and Mohamed’s menus. Instead, they set a “Lumberjack Platter” in front of me: Guava pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and avocado fill every inch of the plate. The hashbrowns are homemade and perfectly crisp, while the pancakes are thin and topped with a not-too-sweet guava sauce, then a big flower-shaped pat of butter. The bacon and sausage are beef, made by a halal butcher nearby. “That butcher must have eaten real bacon in his life,” I tell them. The texture is just too accurate.

Next comes a breakfast burrito, then a short-rib sandwich on sourdough. Ali hands me a box with a “gochujang hot chicken sammy”. “That’s for later,” he tells me. Sure. I’ve barely had time to enjoy the famous firni donut, which is filled with a custard inspired by the Afghan dessert. I wash the delicious treat down with cold brew.

I’ve covered Blue Hour before on my channel, and Little Flower has been on my list for a while. It’s excellent. I should be clear that Ali and Mo did not invite me over, but when they saw me there, they wouldn’t let me pay. I left a large tip for the staff after they left, as is my current workaround for comp’d and discounted meals (a good problem to have, I know). - Rob Martinez

📍 Little Flower Cafe
25-35 36th Ave, Astoria, NY 11106

Beyond the paywall: Prawn curry and roasted calamari in Times Square, Nepalese Instant Noodles in Jackson Heights, a loud Philly tomato pie, iconic rotisserie chicken in Washington Heights, a prix-fixe menu that always changes in Brooklyn, and thin, lacy pancakes in New Jersey.