Shawarma Near Me in Astoria's Little Egypt, Pita From $13.99: Duzan

Duzan, at 24-11 Steinway Street in Astoria, is a small Middle Eastern grill on the stretch locals call Little Egypt, and it is one of the better answers to shawarma near me in Queens. The chicken shawarma pita is $13.99 on the online menu linked from its website, filled with hummus, salad and your choice of sauce. The Infatuation wrote that the quality of the shawarma and kebabs set Duzan apart from the other counter-service spots in the area.

The story behind Duzan is a familiar one in Astoria. According to a 2015 profile in Give Me Astoria, the owner, Hasan, moved to the neighborhood in 2004 and struggled to find the home-cooked food he was used to, so he opened Duzan on Steinway Street in 2009. A few years later he closed it for several months for a full revamp and reopened with a new look that used recycled wood, brick and leather wherever possible.

That rebuild is still what you see. The room is compact and built around the counter where the spits turn, and The Infatuation filed it as essentially a takeout operation. The website offers delivery within one mile through its own ordering button and within five miles through a second online link. Steinway Street's Little Egypt has many shawarma options, and Duzan has held its own here for more than fifteen years.

The online menu offers shawarma three ways. The chicken shawarma pita, $13.99, is the default, served in fresh-baked pita with hummus and salad. The beef shawarma pita is $15.88, and the mixed shawarma pita, which combines both meats, is $15.89. If you prefer a wrap, the chicken version is $14.97 and the beef is $15.98. Bowls are the most filling option, at $18.98 for chicken and $19.99 for beef.

Plan your visit around the beef. The menu notes that the beef shawarma bowl is served only in the evening on weekdays and all day on weekends, and the big Have It All Meat platter, $29, flags beef and lamb shawarma as an evening item too. So if you are set on beef or lamb, come for dinner or on a Saturday or Sunday. At lunch on a weekday, chicken is the reliable choice, and it is the one regulars rate highest anyway.

Order something built on hummus. Hummus with chicken shawarma is $14.95 and hummus with beef shawarma is $16.95, both served as a plate with the meat piled on top of the dip. The hummus Jerusalem, $12.95, comes topped with hot fava beans, a heavier and more savory version that works well as a shared starter. A small classic hummus is $5.84 if you only want a side for your pita.

Two other items are worth adding. Arayes, at $13.99, is grilled pita filled with ground meat, crisp outside and juicy inside, and it is a good choice for a group. The falafel pita, $12.97, covers vegetarians. One review featured on Duzan's own homepage sums up the kitchen honestly: the best hummus and chicken in the neighborhood, while the beef and lamb are decent but not five-star. Lean on the chicken and hummus and you will eat well.

Duzan's website gives two different schedules, so the simplest approach is to look at the live ordering page before you set out, which shows whether the kitchen is taking orders. Lunch is the calmest time to eat in, since the dinner rush is dominated by delivery riders picking up bags at the counter. Weekend evenings are busiest, and that is also when the full beef and lamb menu is available.

For takeout, order ahead online and walk in to collect. If you want to eat on site, come with one or two people rather than a big group, because Duzan is mainly a takeout operation. If the room is full, carry your food a short distance down Steinway Street to one of the benches near the Astoria Boulevard intersection, or take it home on the N or W train.

The nearest subway stops are Astoria Boulevard and Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard on the N and W lines, each roughly a ten-minute walk from the restaurant. The walk from Astoria Boulevard takes you along the elevated line before you turn onto Steinway Street, where the storefront signs shift to Arabic and the smell of shisha drifts from cafe doorways.

After eating, walk the Little Egypt blocks of Steinway Street for dessert. Al-Sham Sweets and Pastries, a few doors away on the same street, sells trays of baklava, knafeh and other Levantine sweets. For coffee, the Italian espresso bar Caffe Borbone is a block further down. The strip is liveliest in the evening, when the cafes, sweet shops and groceries along this part of Steinway Street are at their busiest.

Duzan is a good pick for a casual, affordable shawarma in a neighborhood that takes Middle Eastern food seriously. It suits locals ordering delivery, visitors exploring Little Egypt, and anyone who prefers chicken shawarma and great hummus to an elaborate sit-down meal. Vegetarians have the falafel pita and the hummus plates.

It is less suited to large groups, to anyone in a hurry for beef shawarma at weekday lunch, or to diners who want table service. If you want a sit-down Lebanese dinner with reservations, Balade on First Avenue in Manhattan is a better fit. For an Astoria counter with a famous owner and a 2002 street cart history, King of Falafel and Shawarma on Broadway is about a twenty-minute walk away.

Address: Duzan, 24-11 Steinway Street, Astoria, NY 11103, in the Little Egypt stretch of Steinway Street. Phone: (718) 204-7488. Online menu prices: chicken shawarma pita $13.99, beef shawarma pita $15.88, mixed shawarma pita $15.89, chicken shawarma bowl $18.98, hummus Jerusalem $12.95, falafel pita $12.97. Beef and lamb shawarma: evenings on weekdays, all day on weekends. Delivery: up to five miles through the online link. Subway: N or W to Astoria Boulevard. Opened: 2009.