Buenos Aires in the East Village.
Photo: Jesse Ilan Kornbluth
The world’s biggest sporting event has landed in New York, and even though the Meadowlands will host a number of matches, including the final, the tournament’s Stateside arrival is, as far as we’re concerned, mostly a reason to stuff ourselves with Flemish ales and Belgian fries in midtown and bulgogi nachos in Flushing before making our way to Astoria for a tagine while watching Morocco face off against Scotland. We’re using the World Cup as an excuse to eat our way around town and watch the games with this city’s superfans. Where? We’ve made a list. These places aren’t sports bars (you can find those by heading here), and we haven’t included picks for every team (only the parties and places we’re most excited about). Instead, they’re the cafés, bakeries, restaurants, and neighborhood bars that will offer viewing experiences guaranteed to be fun (and filling) even when a group-stage match ends nil-nil.
40-06 25th Ave., Astoria; instagram.com/merguez_and_frites
Algeria’s fans have been waiting more than a decade to see their team qualify for the World Cup. Support the underdogs and order kofta or French Tacos, which are more like cheesy panini than the name might lead you to believe.
81-08 Queens Blvd., Elmhurst; boca-juniors.menu-world.com
The Buenos Aires–based fútbol club Boca Juniors is known for having the world’s rowdiest fans. This steakhouse of the same name is plastered with memorabilia — including a rendering of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona as saints — and serves assortments of short ribs, skirt steak, pork and blood sausages, sweetbreads, and chitterlings.
513 E. 6th St.; buenosairesnyc.com
How good is the food? In 2015, an apostolic nuncio was so impressed with his meal at Buenos Aires that he specially requested chef-owner Ismael Alba cook for Pope Francis during his first and only trip to the U.S. Get a grass-fed steak and order a bottle of Malbec before kickoff.
This East Village bar’s long-standing commitment to playing Australian rules football makes it an obvious home base for Socceroos fans as well. The menu isn’t Australia-specific, but there are nearly two dozen televisions and 30 different draft lines.
Cafe Katja’s Wiener schnitzel — a thin slice of pork encased in its ballooned breading — is a paragon of the form. Chef and owner Erwin Schrottner will be tucking it into rolls right alongside currywurst so fans can eat it more easily while watching the games.
The frites are perfect — thick and golden — and hard-to-find beers like Rodenbach, a sour red ale, are served next to Stella Artois that can be ordered by the pintje, a Flemish half-pint pour in a short tumbler that encourages swift consumption.
Beija Flor.
Photo: Courtesy of Beija Flor
38-02 29th St., Long Island City; beijaflor.nyc
This party doesn’t stop or start at game time: TVs and live music are running from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Specialties like dadinhos de tapioca (crispy tapioca cubes), fried polenta, torresmo (pork cracklings), and picanha na chapa, a grilled top sirloin served on a sizzling plate with farofa (roasted yuca flour), can fuel your moves. The caipirinhas help too.
83 Saratoga Ave., Bedford-Stuyvesant; septemberbk.com
This daytime café and wine bar was the site of the national team’s official uniform shoot, and owner Sara Lopes is planning to show all of the country’s games and serve local snacks. (Depending on game time, the showings may switch between the bakery and a gallery space across the street.)
202 Ninth Ave.; thecanucknyc.com
If the loud red awning didn’t make it clear, this Chelsea spot lays on its Canadian theme as thick as maple syrup. What’s not to like about a yassified version of the Great White North? Labatt Blue on draft flows, as does the shimmering gravy atop the Canuck’s excellent poutine. During afternoon games, get a Bloody Caesar, Canada’s clam-broth-based answer to the Bloody Mary.
32-17 Steinway St., Astoria; instagram.com/basurerorestaurantbar
In English, el basurero means “the dump.” Fittingly, this restaurant feels like a garage sale. Knickknacks hang from the walls, and like the décor, the traditional bandeja paisa offers a bit of everything: steak, sausage, rice, red beans, fried eggs, plantains, and avocado. Order a $40 bulldog margarita (so big it carries its own Coronita and an extra shot of tequila) and you’ll be drunk by halftime.
34-01 45th St., Astoria; rudar-club.res-discover.com
This is the home base for serious Croatia supporters, who opened the place in 1977. As you might expect, the menu leans very traditional: chicken cutletsin wine-and-mushroom sauce, cevapi sausages, and shrimp risotto are all Adriatic classics.
39-19 24th Ave., Astoria; bohemianhall.com
This outdoor biergarten — open since 1910 — has room for more than 1,000 fans. Even if it hits capacity, a massive center screen is visible across the room, while the perimeter is flanked with 17 other TVs, ensuring everyone can see.
92-12 37th Ave., Jackson Heights; barzola1987.com
For nearly 40 years, this restaurant’s menu has spanned the seafood of Ecuador’s coast to the starchy plates of the Andean highlands. Start with guatita (beef tripe in a potato-peanut sauce) and shrimp ceviche; finish with llapingacho, fried potato patties topped with creamy peanut sauce served alongside crispy pork and eggs. During games, a DJ will be on hand to hype up the crowd anytime Ecuador scores.
25-37 Steinway St., Astoria; instagram.com/easternnightshookahlounge
Even without liquor, this Queens lounge bustles like a club from noon until 5 a.m. with a list of juices and teas as long as any bar’s drink menu. It’s smack in the center of the Egyptian stretch of Steinway Street; expect the celebration to spill outside at some point.
568 Fifth Ave., Park Slope; instagram.com/blackhorsepub.sportsbar
You’ll be able to see the Three Lions pretty much anywhere, but this South Slope sports bar is committing fully to the World Cup with a promise to play every single match in the entire tournament. There are bangers and mash on the menu, and the only reason you might have to leave is to go home and sleep.
The famed corner brasserie’s French doors will be open to the Soho streets, and passersby will inevitably get caught up in the action while servers do their best to keep up with al fresco traffic. Try to make a reservation — especially when France is playing.
1184 Nostrand Ave., Prospect–Lefferts Gardens; instagram.com/hasenstuble
This spot — along with its Fort Greene sibling, DSK — is a German bar that doesn’t force the staff to wear lederhosen and that has a legit selection of German beer on draft plus the pretzels, sausages, and potato pancakes you want to eat with it.
5 W. 37th St.; reichenbachhall.com
With room for 300 fans and all of the major German beers on tap, this bar feels like Munich’s most famous fall festival even in June. Schweinshaxe, a roasted skin-on ham hock, is as giant as the fluffy soft pretzels.
63 E. 125th St.; accraexpressny.com
Mohammed Abdullah started cooking in the Bronx’s Little Ghana in the ’80s. His family carries on that tradition in Harlem, where the Ghanaian community congregates to watch the national team’s games while eating favorites from home, like a version of the turkey-tail specialty known as chofi.
1206 Nostrand Ave., Prospect–Lefferts Gardens; djondjonbk.com
These catty-corner storefronts have partnered with FIFA to turn their intersection into an official Haitian viewing location. Get some fried goat or pork griot sliders with pikliz and settle in, even if Haiti isn’t playing: Chef Wesly Jean Simon says any player from the national team who wants to stop in can eat for free.
81 Hoyt St., Boerum Hill; bijansbrooklyn.com
The 80-inch projector screen at this nook of a café is often dedicated to screening black-and-white films, but it will switch to soccer during games. The menu adds Iranian twists to American classics — a lamb burger, Persian-spiced chicken wings — but also offers traditional dishes like gheymeh, a lamb stew paired with saffron rice and French fries.
Multiple locations; instagram.com/almazaqrestaurant
Manager Hiba Oudah’s mother first opened her Paterson, New Jersey, restaurant in 2017 with authentic Iraqi cooking — ouzi lamb and masgouf are both available — and Oudah says the family’s second spot in Clifton (with room for 150) should be open in time for the tournament. No matter where you go, the games will be on.
Zutto has been a sushi-and-ramen staple in Tribeca since the ’80s, but the setup for games will be better at its newer Nolita outpost, where you can choose from a dozen different ramens or share customizable 32-inch-long or 47-inch-long “sushi boats” with a few friends.
104-58 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing; tortasnezany.com
96-15 Roosevelt Ave., Corona; instagram.com/juanbar.restaurant
Order a gigantic torta — stuffed with refried beans, lettuce, tomato, jalapeño, Oaxaca cheese, avocado, and mayo — from Tortas Neza’s unassuming truck, then take a 10-minute walk to watch Mexico’s matches at Juan Bar, where Neza previously ran a takeout window and where the neon wall art will be the only real source of light competing with the TV’s glow.
28-44 Steinway St., Astoria; instagram.com/moroccanbitesbysiham
A crowd outside will roar every time any Arab country scores, but Moroccan Bites, with its tall ceilings serenely adorned with filigree pendant lamps, is a calm departure: Televisions on either side of the dining room make it easy to watch the game while splitting a steamy tagine and a chicken pastilla, coated with crumbled roasted almonds and powdered sugar.
411 Third Ave.; bellaunionnyc.com
The NL Club — “Here to serve the Dutch born, Dutch rooted, and all friends of the Netherlands” — is hosting its official Dutch watch parties at this Kips Bay tavern. Club general manager Katherine Vos van Liempt says it’ll bring in Dutch snacks to complement the usual spread of bar food.
It’s the Aussie fans who tend to pack into this year-old, three-story Fidi spot to have a yarn and watch some footy, but they’ll be rooting just as hard for their neighbors across the Tasman Sea — “It’s going to be a ripper!” says co-founder Andy Stone — whose fans can order their “chicken parma” Victorian style (with ham) or Queenslander style (with pineapple).
This all-day café — with a solid cortado and pour-over featuring beans from the Brooklyn roaster Sey — will serve free shots of aquavit anytime either Scandinavian team scores and is offering a special menu in collaboration with the Norwegian Seafood Council featuring salmon with a yogurt-dill sauce it’s calling “Norwegian Fuel.”
2294 Bedford Ave., Flatbush; instagram.com/michelles_lounge
Michelle’s has been a Panamanian mainstay since the early ’70s. Anyone who gravitates toward rum drinks should try some Seco Herrerano, a triple-distilled spirit made from the country’s local sugarcane. During games, the next-door takeout spot will sell puerco frito (fried pork), carimañolas (yuca fritters), hojaldras (fried dough), and empanadas. Dip everything in picante chombo, a mustardy, peppery hot sauce.
43-16 Greenpoint Ave., Sunnyside; ilovepy.com
Tables at this family-owned restaurant will be pushed together for games, so expect an intimate viewing experience while you share assorted empanadas; vori vori de pollo soup with cornmeal dumplings in rich chicken broth; chipa guazú, a cheesy corn-soufflé-like cake; and buckets of Guaraní pilsner that’s brewed for the restaurant.
138-40 101st Ave., Jamaica; olavradorrestaurant.com
Open since 1981, back when Jamaica was a hub for Portuguese immigrants, this restaurant retains that era’s vintage charm (and the convenience of a private parking lot). Homemade chouriço links are smoked in the backyard and arrive on a sizzling plate, flambéed tableside with aguardiente.
139 Nassau Ave., Greenpoint; raizesgreenpoint.com
Matches will be shown on the ring of TVs wrapping around the bar and dining area while whole chickens, ribs, and steaks rotate over a grill in an open-air kitchen to the side. Garlicky littleneck clams make a fine companion to flaming chouriço and shrimp Mozambique, swimming in piri piri beer sauce.
180 Grand St., Williamsburg; ionabrooklyn.com
A backyard this big in a neighborhood as overrun with development as Williamsburg makes this bar’s square footage as sacred as the Gaelic island it’s named for. Belgian and German beers are available, but stick with draft selections from the U.K.; the savory pies are served with mustard and HP Sauce, after all.
2375 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.; pontybistroharlem.com
There’s only one TV (ownership may add another), but this is still the spot to watch Senegal’s team because chef Cisse Elhadji’s menu — featuring fataya (fish hand pies) and nem, the chicken spring rolls first imported to Senegal from Vietnam during the Indochina War — is a lovely blend of French and Mediterranean flavors.
1446 First Ave.; kaiawinebar.com
The refined cooking at this recently moved South African wine bar includes elk carpaccio, peri peri scallops with risotto, and chicken-tinga tacos. It’s a nice match for the idiosyncratic wine list and a rare Mzansi World Cup appearance.
158-14 Northern Blvd., Flushing; instagram.com/ny.beergarden
Compared with 32nd Street in Manhattan, Queens’s less-famous Koreatown has the advantage when it comes to space. This second-floor bar has indoor and outdoor seating, so you’ll be able to take in any street-level celebrations from the balcony without setting down your soju.
239 W. 14th St.; lanacional.org
The Spanish Benevolent Society’s five-story brownstone in Chelsea has been a second home for New York Spaniards for 100 years. Inside the ground-floor cantina, tapas — croquettes, patatas bravas, gambas al ajillo — abound. Reservations will be hard to get, but outdoor-patio seating will be first come, first served.
Chef Rafik Bouzgarrou says his home country’s flag will hang in the dining room at this East Village diner to make its World Cup allegiance clear to anyone who might not otherwise be able to tell from the French-inflected menu of sandwiches and salads. (A Tunisian burger will be available with goat cheese and harissa mayo.)
2255 Eamons Ave., Sheepshead Bay; operacafelounge.com
The room and the menu are both the size of a warehouse, but focus on the pides — boat-shaped flatbreads with fillings such as the Turkish sausage sucuk. Celebrate a big victory (or just work off a big meal) with a swim in the ocean at Brighton Beach, a mile or so away.
85-02 37th Ave., Jackson Heights; lagranuruguaya.com
Autographed jerseys adorn the room, and the meats — chorizo, blood sausage, short ribs, and more — are served sizzling on mini-grills. Or order the chivito al pan, a filet-mignon-and-ham sandwich stacked with melted mozzarella, bacon, lettuce, tomato, olives, and a fried egg. If the restaurant fills up during games, its next-door bakery (decorated with a replica World Cup trophy) will open for overflow.
Illustrations by Naomi Otsu
This story has been updated to correct the location of Tortas Neza.
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