Queens Argentinian Restaurant for Match Nights: Boca Juniors

For anyone in central Queens searching for an argentinian restaurant near me, Boca Juniors is the one you hear before you see on a match night. Boca Juniors, at 81-08 Queens Boulevard at the corner of 51st Avenue in Elmhurst, is a steakhouse painted in the blue and gold of the most famous club in Buenos Aires. It opened in 2003, and its dining room is wall-to-wall soccer memorabilia, with several televisions showing Argentina's games with the sound turned up.

The story behind the name is better than most. According to a 2025 profile in the Argentine football site Mundo Albiceleste, founder Walter Adrián Coni worked as a butcher in New York before opening the restaurant in 2003. Rather than borrow the name and hope nobody noticed, he asked Club Atlético Boca Juniors for permission to use it, and got it. The same article reports that the Boca team itself later came to eat in Elmhurst. A butcher's background shows in the menu, which is built around grilled beef, offal and sausages rather than fusion plates.

Club Atlético Boca Juniors was founded in 1905 by Italian immigrants in La Boca, the port neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, and its blue-and-gold colours were famously borrowed from the flag of a Swedish ship docked in the harbour. Its stadium, La Bombonera, is known for a steep, shaking stand that makes it one of the loudest grounds in the world. That culture of devotion is the whole point of the Queens restaurant: the biggest dates on the calendar are national-team games and the Superclásico against River Plate, and the walls tell the club's history in jerseys, scarves and team photographs.

The Infatuation, reviewing the restaurant in May 2026, described soccer memorabilia from floor to ceiling and big screens playing Argentina matches with full volume. Time Out's listing calls out the blue-and-yellow dining room, and Mundo Albiceleste writes that on match days supporter flags hang throughout the room while drums and trumpets keep time with the game. On a quiet weeknight the same space feels more like a family canteen, where a plate of milanesa and a soccer replay on the screens is the whole evening. Choose your night depending on which experience you want.

The Infatuation's picks are the Milanesa Boca Junior, a broad breaded beef cutlet that is the restaurant's signature, and the tripe soup, a rich mondongo stew that Argentine grandmothers make on cold days. Beyond those, the menu reads like a classic Buenos Aires parrilla. There is a mixed grill of several meats, skirt steak and short ribs cut across the bone, filet mignon for anyone who wants a leaner cut, and sweetbreads crisped on the grill. Starters include beef empanadas and provoleta, the round of provolone cheese grilled until it melts and browns at the edges.

If you are new to Argentine home cooking, order the milanesa a caballo, which literally means milanesa on horseback. It arrives topped with fried eggs, and breaking the yolks over the crisp crust is the whole idea. Paired with fries, it is the plate most Argentines associate with a Sunday family lunch or a late meal after a match. Split it and a skirt steak between two people and you will see both sides of the menu: the grill and the kitchen.

A match at Boca Juniors is a group activity, and the menu works best shared. Put the mixed grill in the middle, add a round of empanadas and a provoleta at kick-off, and order the Milanesa Boca Junior and a second milanesa a caballo for the table at half-time, when everyone finally has a moment to eat. Bowls of tripe soup are a good order on winter afternoons. Sweetbreads disappear quickly, so ask for them early. Because the kitchen grows busy during big matches, placing most of the order at once keeps the plates coming while the game is on.

Boca Juniors is at its most intense during Argentina national-team matches and big Boca fixtures, when the room is packed with supporters and the noise level is part of the meal. If you want to watch a game here, arrive well before kick-off and expect to share a table. For a calmer dinner, pick a weeknight with no football on the calendar. Call (718) 429-2077 to ask about space on big match days, especially for a group.

Elmhurst is one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in New York, and a short walk from the restaurant shows it. Nearby, Elmhurst Park was built on the site of the old gas storage tanks that once loomed over the Long Island Expressway, and it now has lawns, a playground and a walking loop. North along Broadway, the Old St. James Episcopal Church dates to 1735 and is one of the oldest church buildings in Queens, a wooden survivor among apartment blocks and Asian supermarkets. Either stop gives some quiet before or after a loud night in the blue-and-gold room.

The M and R trains stop at Grand Avenue–Newtown, the closest station, a short walk along Queens Boulevard. The restaurant sits on a busy commercial stretch of the boulevard, and the subway is the simplest way to arrive on a match night. Elmhurst Avenue on the same lines is the next stop if you want to walk a little further past the neighbourhood's Thai, Indonesian and Chinese restaurants before dinner.

Address: Boca Juniors, 81-08 Queens Boulevard, Elmhurst, NY 11373, at 51st Avenue in Queens. Phone: (718) 429-2077. Founded in 2003 by Walter Adrián Coni, with the name used by permission of Club Atlético Boca Juniors. Signature dishes: Milanesa Boca Junior, milanesa a caballo and tripe soup. Best for: watching Argentina or Boca matches with fellow fans, or a hearty family-style grill dinner on a quieter night. Bring friends who follow the game, because the room is built for shared tables, shared platters and shouting at the screens together.