On our way to having an early New Year’s Eve dinner at Sweet Afton in Astoria (home to amazing burgers, plus their current seasonal winter salad is fantastic), we noticed that one space we had our eye on confirmed our suspicions – Taste of Bengal is moving into the back half of the old Pasha space at 28-27 31st Street. They had served tasty Balkan food and we were sorry they had closed.

taste-of-bengal-metal-sign-astoria-queens

A few weeks back we had walked past there and saw them doing work inside. It’s a small space, so perhaps there will be a substantial takeout component. In Astoria there aren’t too many Indian spots – Seva on 34th Street (GMAP) is really the area’s favorite, though there is the newish Namaste on 30th Ave (GMAP), old timer Ghandi on 30th Ave (GMAP), and out on 21st Street there is Roti Boti (GMAP). On 36th Ave there are a few places, but they are relatively undiscovered (it’s unclear if that’s because they are not very good or that they are seriously under the radar). Apart from that, there’s not much to crow about regarding Indian food.

Also on the Pasha subject, they had occupied the corner location (31st Street and Newtown), and then that space was taken over by Boston Pizza – why, we had no idea, since we had not heard one good thing about Boston Pizza in all the years in Queens. Now a new pizza joint is opening, Bella Pizza.

bella-pizza-coming-astoria-queens

Neither Taste of Bengal nor Bella Pizza has an online presence. We’ll just have to wait and see, and check it out ourselves.

Taste of Bengal, 28-27 31st Street, Astoria NY 11102 (GMAP)
Bella Pizza, 31-01 31st Street, Astoria NY 11102; 718-777-5533 (GMAP)


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