Top Five Takeout Foods in Forest Hills

Hey, I, like many others, love to have a delicious home-cooked meal every so often. Nothing can really beat that (I just had one last night). But let's face it. We're New Yorkers, and many of us just don't have the time to sit down to such a quality home-cooked meal very often.

So, the fact is, takeout is an essential necessity to survival in the Big Apple. Unfortunately for us Forest Hills remains quite challenged when it comes to takeout options. It's like we've been left behind while the rest of the city has continued around us. While our sit-down dining options have vastly improved, not so much takeout. It's not that our takeout isn't good, it's simply virtually non-existent when it comes to high quality options.

 But there are some excellent options, if you know where to find them.

Thus here are my choices for the Top Five Takeout Foods in our 'hood that you can quickly grab and go. These are not desserts, mind you. Those I may do in another post given how many new dessert places have opened here in the past year.

These are ranked in order with one being the best:

1. Chicken tacos from the Mexican Cart in front of Citibank on 71st Continental Ave. - It's saying a lot, I think, that the best Mexican takeout food in Forest Hills can be found at a food cart. But that is the rather sad state of affairs when it comes to our options in FoHi. You'd think by now someone would have figured out that there's a huuuuge demand for a takeout Mexican food place somewhere around Austin St.
Geez, the amazing 5 Burro Cafe is packed past midnight on weeknights! (I should note here that I used to be a huge fan of Chipotle, but, sadly, I haven't been back since the chain's recent problems. Just seems to me if you're a restaurant chain, you have one purpose: to serve safe, quality food to your customers.)

Some of La Boulangerie's grab-and-go selections

2. Pastrami Sandwich from La Boulangerie - Everything comes together just right for this excellent sandwich at our lovely French eatery, just off of Austin Street. They'll make it for you either warmed up so the cheese melts a bit, but I prefer it cold. Either way, you'll love it.

3. Shake Shack Burger - Well, pretty much anything from Shake Shack is great. That's a given. Shake Shack is rapidly becoming a staple New York City eatery - they're opening all over the place - but since they just opened here they do deserve to be pointed out as filling that huge need Forest Hills has for excellent, higher quality food to go. And their options go beyond just the burgers. If you want a hot dog, they've got that too.

4. Chicken Salad Hero from Mr. Vino's Cucina - Well, they've got the chicken salad in their display case, always kept very nicely chilled. And I think it's excellent - not too overly flavored, just nice and mayonnaisey with a hint of some light spices. Grab one of their breads from the front counter and they'll make it up to your liking. Nice, fast and always good quality.

5. A falafel from Pahal Zan - They've been around the longest of any of these others places on my list. This is not the greatest falafel I've ever consumed (that'll be pretty much any place I've eaten in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem) but, hey, it's what we have here, and that's what matters. They will, of course, fix it up just the way you want it. I'd suggest having them add the egg plant and all the other fixin's.

So, there you have my choices. You'll note some seemingly no-brainer takeout cuisines are sorely missing from this list. Chinese food? Hello? There are some, but they're really not that great to merit being put up here. Pizza? There are some good ones, but they just don't make my list this year for those in the Central FoHi area around Austin.

If a great make-your-own salad joint moved into the 'hood that might be a no-brainer and probably shoot up to the top of the list pretty quickly, by the way.

Let's revisit this topic a year from now and see if much has changed. It will be a good barometer of how the neighborhood continues to evolve as younger and younger residents move in, appalled as they are by the millionaire lifestyles of the rich and famous that populate our more slender borough to the west.