I spend a lot of my time in Queens, so there were days when I found myself struggling to find something healthy to eat. At that time I wasn’t aware of any healthy food spots in the area, so unfortunately I would end up ordering Chinese food each time. After years of walking by Veggie Castle, me and my boyfriend finally decided to check it out one day. It was at that moment that I realized we have been missing out on great vegan food this entire time! For all these years we’ve been sitting on a health food oasis and we didn’t even know it.

Veggie Castle is the perfect destination for vegan/vegetarian food in an area that’s filled with limited options. This is a no-frills counter serve restaurant that offers a wide rage of vegan and vegetarian dishes, smoothies, juices and vegan desserts. They even have vegan Jamaican patties! Once you taste the food at Veggie Castle, you realize that this restaurant is in a category of its own. The food is well seasoned and you receive large portions, so you always get your money’s worth.

The few times that I’ve been to this restaurant I’ve only ordered the medium meal, which consist of two sides and two proteins. There is always a lot of food to choose from for your sides and protein, so you shouldn’t have to worry about not finding something that you like. My go-to for protein is the BBQ drumsticks. The drumsticks are coated in a delicious sweet and smoky BBQ sauce, and when they are nice and hot, the “meat” falls right off the “bone”.

Veggie Castle can get pretty crowded, even outside of peak hours. So you should visit this restaurant with the expectation of joining a line. The beautiful thing about this restaurant is that despite the fact that it gets crowded, it’s never a long wait to be served. The workers there are extremely attentive and they keep the line moving. Also, since they usually get a large crowd each day, the food is never not fresh. Each item goes pretty fast so they are constantly putting out fresh food to replenish them.

So if you’re ever in the area of Jamaica, NY or you’re going to or from JFK airport, Veggie Castle is the perfect spot to not only get vegan/vegetarian food, but also to simply get great tasting healthy dishes.