Shawarma Near Me on Astoria's Broadway, From a 2002 Cart: King of Falafel

If you type shawarma near me anywhere in western Astoria, the name that comes up with a story attached is King of Falafel & Shawarma, at 30-15 Broadway between 30th and 31st Streets. Freddy Zeideia started it as a falafel cart on the corner of Broadway and 30th Street in April 2002, won the Vendy Award for Best Street Food in 2010, and moved the operation indoors in January 2016. The dining room keeps the official hours of 11 am to 10 pm every day of the week.

Zeideia, a Palestinian immigrant, opened his first cart in 2002 with Esam Muhammad, who Epicenter NYC reported in 2024 was still his business partner. The restaurant's own history says the truck launched in the aftermath of 9/11 and that the business expanded to Midtown Manhattan in 2010. That same year the cart beat the city's best street vendors at the Vendy Awards, a win that turned a neighborhood lunch line into a destination for people coming in on the N and W trains.

The brick-and-mortar room opened in January 2016, a few steps from the corner where the cart first parked. Time Out counted 38 seats when it reviewed the place. In July 2022 Zeideia announced plans to sell the restaurant and its trucks, then changed course after customers rallied behind him. A second branch now operates on 42nd Avenue in Bayside, but the Broadway room is the original and the one most regulars mean when they say they are going to Freddy's.

The shawarma comes in three versions on the current menu: chicken, beef and a mixed option that stacks both. The beef is listed as a roasted layer of beef sirloin, shaved thin off the vertical spit and folded into a sandwich or laid over rice for a platter. First-timers usually split the difference with the mixed shawarma, which gives you the garlicky chicken and the richer beef in one order and makes a fair test of why the cart won its award.

Do not skip the falafel, because the menu itself calls the falafel platter what made us famous. The patties are fried to order, dark and crunchy outside, green with herbs inside. There is also a Chicken Shawafel that combines shawarma and falafel in one wrap, and an Original Chicken Platter that dates to the cart years. Groups of three or four tend to order the Teaser, a large sampler that lets the table try most of the kitchen in one go.

The most famous ritual here costs nothing. In January 2026 the Queens Ledger described Zeideia, then 60, bouncing around his dining room on a Friday evening and handing a crispy knob of fresh falafel wrapped in a napkin to everyone who walked in, free of charge. Regulars treat it as a greeting, and newcomers often decide what to order after that first bite. If he is behind the counter, expect a conversation along with it.

The room is loud and personal. The same 2026 report described political decor that includes a so-called Walk of Shame, with stickers of world leaders' faces on the floor running all the way to the restroom. Some diners love the defiance and some find it a lot during a quick lunch, so know what you are walking into. The Google star rating is not a useful guide either: the Ledger reported that a review-bombing campaign left the page with some 40,000 one-star reviews within hours.

Ordering happens at the counter, and the line moves quickly once you know whether you want a sandwich or a platter. Weekday lunch brings workers from the Broadway corridor, and Friday evening is the busiest stretch, which is exactly when the Ledger found Zeideia working the room. A mid-afternoon visit between 3 pm and 5 pm on a weekday usually means a free table and a calmer counter. Late arrivals should keep in mind that the kitchen closes at 10 pm.

If you would rather eat at home, the restaurant takes delivery and pickup orders through the link on kofnyc.com, which runs on Toast. Pickup is the smart move on weekend evenings when the 38 seats fill up. If the room is full and you are walking, carry your platter a few blocks up to 31st Street, where the elevated subway runs overhead, and you will find benches and stoops along the side streets that make an easy picnic spot.

The Broadway station on the N and W lines is right at the corner of 31st Street, so the restaurant works as a first stop for an afternoon in Astoria. From the door, walk east along Broadway, past Greek bakeries and cafes that have lined the street for decades, then cut south toward 35th Avenue. The neighborhood changes block by block, from older Greek storefronts to newer Brazilian, Egyptian and Colombian spots.

The best payoff is the Museum of the Moving Image at 35th Avenue and 36th Street, roughly a fifteen-minute walk south through residential blocks. Its permanent exhibition on film and television production pairs well with a heavy shawarma lunch, since most of the visit is slow walking past cameras, costumes and old arcade machines. The Kaufman Astoria Studios lot sits right next door, which explains why the museum is here at all.

Come here if you want a shawarma with a real origin story, a fast counter, and a dining room that feels like the owner's living room. It suits solo lunchers, families who want platters to share, and visitors who want to eat at a place that grew out of New York's street cart culture rather than a chain. Vegetarians do well too, since the falafel, which built the business, is arguably the strongest thing on the menu.

Skip it if you want a quiet, apolitical meal or table service with a wine list. The decor and the owner's views are part of the experience, not background. For a calmer Middle Eastern alternative in the same neighborhood, Steinway Street's Little Egypt stretch is about a twenty-minute walk east, with several counter-service shawarma spots between 25th Avenue and 28th Avenue.

Address: King of Falafel & Shawarma, 30-15 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106, between 30th and 31st Streets. Hours from the official site: Monday to Sunday, 11 am to 10 pm. Subway: N or W train to Broadway. Ordering: counter service in the dining room, plus delivery and pickup through the Toast link on kofnyc.com. Founded: 2002 as a street cart; restaurant opened January 2016.