Queens Comfort is a popular local restaurant in Astoria, serving American comfort food. They have simple but yet innovative menu, with good selection of different type of dishes, sure to please every customers who walks in to the restaurant. With their excellent food, the popularity has become very strong, and they do get long lines, with regulars and new customers eager to try out their dishes. A staff who was taking names right at the door, he was SUPER funny and friendly, made the experience extra memorable. He doesn’t just take your “name” but ask you to come up withe a web address to be called when your table is ready. He asks “www. ‘blank’?” and you need to fill in the blank with your own creativity. As you can imagine, some were more creative than others…
In the inside, it has cozy, homely ambiance, with communal table, bar, and of course, very interesting decoration throughout the restaurant. They are cash-only, BYOB, and take no reservations. They do pack chairs alongside the long table, so it does get pretty loud, and you will not have any “extra” space around you.
They have several items on the menu that many people recommend as a must try for sure. We went on one weekend for a brunch, I will go ahead and tell you that we were a bit overzealous (and very hungry), and we ordered way too much… Nothing went to waste though, we took everything that we couldn’t finish home with us. One thing I’ve heard a lot about is their donuts. They come up with very interesting flavors, extremely innovative, and of course, amazingly delicious. I believe they offer their special donuts on weekends only, and they change donuts flavor each weekend. On this weekend, they had Dr. Pepper Cake Donut ($4.50), with cherry, white chocolate, and Dr. Pepper Glaze. I am NOT a Dr. Pepper fan, so I was kind of disappointed with the offering. However, this donut was AMAZING. I should’ve never doubted on their talent to make a super delicious donuts… First of all, it is large, so you can share with your loved one. It was sweet, moist, flavorful, and simply donut heaven. They only make so many per day, so make sure you get there early if you want a piece of their incredible donuts! For drinks, we ordered Blue Bottle Cold Brew ($4) and Harney & Sons Raspberry Tea ($4). The iced coffee was not as strong as we would’ve liked, it was ok. I am a big fan of Harney & Sons teas, but I felt like this tea was also a bit weak… As if both of the drinks got diluted with the ice (melting) way before it got to us somehow. (You can read my review of Harney & Sons at http://www.foodlovergirl.com/harney-sons/)
After having the dessert first, (I say it is the smarted way to go), we got some must-have appetizers: Disco Tots and Atomic Fire Balls. The Disco Tots ($8) comes with sawmill gravy and cheddar on tater tots. It was tasty, very comforting, and that melting cheese all over the tater tots… It is simple but yet so good! Atomic Fire Balls ($8) are deep fried mac & cheese with Sriracha, and ranch dipping sauce. If you are not a fan of spicy food, this is not for you. It was packed with spicy flavor, you can feel it with each bite! It is not a big size ball, but I think it was the perfect size for the spiciness and also, it is very filling with it being mac & cheese. Also, how cute is that message they put on the fire balls… You can’t help but to eat them!
Now to the main dishes (at this point, we were already kinda full…). We ordered Egg McRuffin and The Pig Mac. I like the names on their menus also, pretty funny. The Egg McRuffin ($14) comes with Bechamel, cheddar, smoked bacon, fried egg, all on English Muffin, and side of tater tots. The English muffin they use is really large size, it was a surprise… It is their version of Croque Madame, and I really love Croque Madame. But, the density of this English muffin made it not so easy for the bechamel sauce to seep deep into the muffin, and It didn’t have that fluffy, almost airy texture of the bread I like with the Croque Madame. It made the dish kind of heavy. The tater tots were great, crunchy on the outside, soft in the inside, and very potato-y. Now, The Pig Mac, I must say we did not have such high expectation for this dish, but it was really delicious! The Pig Mac ($12) comes with Fried Pork tenderloin, pickles, onions, and chipotle mayo, with a choice of salad or fries. Sounds simple but the flavor was not. It had really great seasoning, and the port was firm without being too hard, juicy and meaty. The taste was almost addicting, it was super delicious! We got the hand cut fries with the sandwich since we were taking most of them home with us. It was really good too, as most of everything they offer, it was simple but yet flavorful.
The service was ok, the busier it gets, less attention you get from your server, but that happens at a lot of places… The server was friendly and did ok job. Again, the noise level can get pretty high with lots of people packed in there, so it might not be a place to “relax” and chill out, but a great place to get amazing comforting food!
Queens Comfort – 4009 30th Ave, Astoria, NY 11103