Signature Dish: Hibino LIC

Welcome to the Q’Stoner food feature, Signature Dish! Once a week we check in with Queens restaurants and ask the owners about the all-time favorite dishes they serve. If you know of a dish you’d like to see featured here, please email emily@brownstoner.com.

The Spot: Hibino LIC, 10-70 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City.

The Deal: This year the successful Cobble Hill restaurant Hibino opened its second location in Long Island City. The Japanese restaurant specializes in a rotating menu of daily specials as well as sushi.

After seven years in Brooklyn, Hibano searched for a new location, eventually settling on the 26-seat spot near the Vernon stop on the 7. Because the Queens location is still so new, the liquor license is still in the works, but the owners expect sake to be served by no later than the end of May.

The Dish: With a rotating menu of rotating daily specials, Obanzi, choosing a representative dish at Hibino LIC can be difficult. There is one consistent menu item though: the homemade tofu, served in a custom yogurt jar printed in Japan.

“Our fresh made tofu, served either cold or warm, is a really simple dish that demonstrates the delicate texture and subtle fresh soy flavors of the tofu,” says Hinata, the restaurant’s manager, who has worked at both locations.

This isn’t store-bought tofu — it’s enough to make a believer out of the most enthusiastic carnivore.