NYC’s corner markets are cornering the market — on haute cuisine.
As the cost of dining out in the Big Apple spirals higher, eating well without breaking the bank could be as simple as visiting your nearest bodega.
The city’s humble bazaars are increasingly perceived as epicurean pioneers — with gourmands and social media influencers clamoring for a bite.
The craze comes as the price of eating out in the five boroughs has been said to soar by nearly 30%, according to a 2024 City Comptroller’s Office report — with even a sad Midtown desk lunch of salad or fast food often costing a minimum of $15 nowadays.
By contrast, determined diners willing to look past the toilet paper rolls and bricks of Cafe Bustelo can fill their belly at a wave of unlikely grocery gastro-hubs for a fraction of the price — without degrading their palate.
“I go to my bodega every day, and the halal food is better than the food truck next door and cheaper — and they can do it all,” Karissa Dumbacher, an NYC foodfluencer with over 5 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, told The Post. “I mean, it’s not just mozzarella sticks anymore.”
Here’s the dish on six tasty, cutting-edge supping spots.
There’s no menu at IndoJava, a bite-sized bodega in Elmhurst, Queens — but behind the selection of sambals and other Indonesian staples, intrepid diners will find one of the toughest tables in town.
Javanese chef Anastasia Dewi Tjahjadi, one of two haute-hash slingers (Thursdays, a chef from Jakarta takes over the stove), recently served just one dish: lontong mie ($15), a fragrant specialty from her hometown of Surabaya.
The piquant combo of noodles, bean curd, bean cake wedges, compressed rice cakes, garlic crackers, prawns and clam skewers packed a punch — in a brawny broth infused with pungent shrimp paste and served with weapons-grade chili peppers.
And don’t bother asking the chef to turn the heat down.
“I don’t want the people to come here and be, like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t like spicy’ — because my food … is spicy,” the griddle gourmet proudly told The Post. “I can’t make it not spicy.”
Opened back in 2008, IndoJava has become a bona fide sensation. In a viral video, influencer Dumbacher labeled the offerings the closest thing to “actual authentic Indonesian food in New York City.”
IndoJava’s food pop-ups are available on Tuesdays from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. while supplies last; daily specials are announced on Instagram.
“We do very traditional, very authentic,” owner Elvi Goliat told The Post. “We need to make something interesting so they will come every week.”
IndoJava, 8512 Queens Blvd., Elmhurst
In Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the tiny Karen Deli has an ace up its sleeve — a speakeasy-like Guatemalan canteen located incongruously at the back, near a Central American mural.
The crown jewel drawing in-the-know types is the Pepian De Pollo ($13), a rich, spice-inflected stew studded with pumpkin seeds, best paired with a chuchito ($3), a miniature Guatemalan tamale, and washed down with a regional soda from the cooler.
This hearty combo costs a fraction of what you’d pay for one entrée at a sit-down spot in nearby trendy neighborhoods.
According to legendary NYC restaurant critic Robert Sietsema, unexpected finds like these show how bodegas are evolving.
“For decades, [the bodega] was a province of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans and African-Americans, hence the term bodega, which is just Spanish for store,” the Village Voice alum told The Post.
“This is indicative of other groups taking over the bodegas, having a much broader selection,” he said.
Karen Deli, 6116 5th Ave., Brooklyn
Jackson Heights, Queens, has always been the Big Apple’s multicultural bouillabaisse.
Head to Roosevelt Avenue — where diners will find an Indian mini mart in the front and a Mexican seafood restaurant in the back.
Dubbed La Esquina Del Camaron Mexicano, the tiny, cash-only sit-down serves shrimp and octopus cocktails with cilantro, avocado and a “secret” cocktail sauce ($15 for a small portion).
It’s perhaps one of the few places in town you’d want to tuck into a plate of shellfish while pondering a wall of e-cigarettes and playing your scratch-off tickets.
La Esquina Del Camaron Mexicano, 8002 Roosevelt Ave.
Sunny & Annie’s Deli in Manhattan’s East Village is much more than a bacon-egg-and-cheese broker, offering a 24-hour smorgasbord of inventive, submarine-sized, Asian-inflected heroes, which the Korean owners list on handscrawled notecards.
Wacky fare includes the Obama (grilled chicken and eggplant), the Bernie Sanders (teriyaki chicken and shiitake mushrooms), and other sandwiches whose ingredients appear to be charmingly unrelated to their celeb namesake.
Check out the Pho #1 ($10.99 cash, $11.97 using a card), which, like its eponymous soup, features beef, bean sprouts, basil, cilantro, sriracha and a slathering of hoisin.
The dining depot is a standby for food critic Sietsema, who described the noshes as “just plain weird in a good sort of way.”
“There’s no place that makes sandwiches that uses the odd combination of semi-healthy ingredients with good bread,” the pro told The Post. “And people that go in there for the first time, they’re dumbstruck by the menu.”
Sunny & Annie’s Deli, 94 Avenue B
Bodegas haven’t historically been bastions of vegetarian-friendly fare, Plantega is changing that — offering a “100% plant-based menu” that “reimagines New York’s iconic deli sandwiches,” ranging from the steak, egg and cheese burrito to the chopped cheese (both $12).
“In a way, bodegas are the city’s original test kitchens,” Plantega Founder and CEO Nil Zacharias told The Post.
The concept, launched in 2022, is available at 50 bodegas. It reflects the corner store’s legacy for innovation, where a “Dominican-owned grill meets halal ingredients, or a classic bacon, egg, and cheese gets a twist that reflects the neighborhood,” he said.
“Too often, ‘better food’ is framed as something exclusive,” he told The Post of grub which is often “packaged for a certain demographic.”
“Instead of asking people to change their habits, we chose to meet them where they already eat,” he added. “That meant starting with the bodega, one of the most trusted, culturally rooted spaces in New York City.”
Plantega features a Chopped Cheese with Beyond Meat, Stockheld cultured cheddar and Fabalish vegan mayo — a combo that’s tasty and healthier than oft-dubious deli protein.
“The food is hot, satisfying and made to order, just without the meat sweats or the 3 p.m. crash that makes you question your life choices,” Zacharias quipped.
Plantega, various locations
Probably the only bodega in remote Red Hook, Brooklyn, to have lured celebs like Ed Sheeran and Giants quarterback Eli Manning, Rahim Mohamed’s Red Hook Food Corp has become a viral sensation.
Better known online as General Ock — derived from Americanized Arabic slang for “akhi,” meaning “brother” — the savvy seller has created a cutting-edge meal mecca, amassing over 5.5 million TikTok followers by sharing videos of him whipping up some of NYC’s wildest vittles.
And no ingredient is too outlandish.
Here, chopped cheese sandwiches are piled high with Pop-Tarts, mozzarella sticks, cotton candy, Rice Krispies Treats and more — in a method dubbed the Ocky Way.
“For years, I [saw] people get the same sandwiches and order all of these things on the side. I thought, ‘Why can’t I mix it all together?’” he told The Post in 2021.
Red Hook Food Corp, 603 Clinton St., Brooklyn