Long Island City is mostly read as a place people commute out of, which is why the strip of restaurants under the Pulaski Bridge end of it goes under-visited by anyone who does not live there. Casa Enrique is the reason to make the trip, and the reason is specific: it cooks Chiapas, not Mexico in general.
One state's cooking, not a country's. That distinction is the entire reason to cross the river.
Why Chiapas matters here
Chef Cosme Aguilar cooks the traditional recipes of his hometown in Chiapas, the state at Mexico's southern edge bordering Guatemala. That is a narrower proposition than 'Mexican food' and a more interesting one — Chiapas has its own repertoire, its own mole tradition and its own relationship to the ingredients of the highlands.
The practical consequence for a diner is that the menu will not map neatly onto what you order at a Mexican restaurant elsewhere in New York. That is the point. If you arrive wanting the dish you always order, you will have a fine meal and miss the argument.
The room sits at 5-48 49th Avenue in Long Island City. It held a Michelin star from 2014 and was, for years, one of the very few Mexican restaurants in the United States to hold one; reporting on the more recent guides is inconsistent about whether the star is still in place, so treat it as a room that earned one rather than a room defined by one.
The hours split the week in half
This is the single most useful thing to know. Monday through Friday the restaurant does not open until 5pm and runs to about 10.15pm. Saturday and Sunday it opens at 11am and runs to roughly 10.30pm.
So there is no weekday lunch, and no weekday afternoon. If your plan involves eating here before five on a Tuesday, there is no version of that plan that works. Conversely, the weekend 11am open makes this one of the more appealing late-morning destinations in Queens, and the eleven-to-two window is by some distance the calmest time to be in the room.
The weekend opening also solves the transport question. Getting to Long Island City is easy — it is one stop out of Manhattan on several lines and walkable from Greenpoint over the Pulaski — but doing it at 8pm on a Saturday to join a wait is less appealing than doing it at 11.30am to walk into a half-empty room.
How to order
Start with the mole. It is the dish the kitchen is known for and the clearest expression of the regional argument — a long-cooked sauce with a lot of components, which is exactly the kind of thing a restaurant either commits to or does not attempt.
The frozen watermelon margarita has become the room's signature drink, and the cocktails generally are made properly rather than blended into sweetness. If you are eating at 11.30am on a Sunday, one of these is the correct order and the whole reason the weekend opening exists.
Order across the table rather than individually. The menu has range and the portions are built to be shared; four people ordering four mains will eat less well than four people ordering six things and passing them around.
The neighbourhood around it
Long Island City rewards an hour on foot. Gantry Plaza State Park sits on the waterfront with the best free view of midtown Manhattan in the five boroughs, and the walk from the restaurant is short. The Pepsi-Cola sign and the gantries are the postcard, but the useful part is that the park is public, open and costs nothing.
MoMA PS1 is in the same neighbourhood if you want an anchor for the day beyond a meal, and Court Square gives you a fast route back into Manhattan on several lines when you are done.
The honest framing is that this is a destination restaurant in a neighbourhood that does not yet have destination-restaurant traffic. That is a good trade for the diner: the food is why you came, and the walk to the water afterwards is the part you will remember.
Getting to Long Island City without a car
The trip is shorter than the psychological distance suggests. The 7 to Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue puts you within a few minutes' walk, and Court Square is served by the E, M and G with the 7 as well, which makes this one of the better connected corners of Queens.
From Manhattan the ride is genuinely one stop from Grand Central on the 7, which is less time than crossing town on a bus. From north Brooklyn, walking over the Pulaski Bridge from Greenpoint takes about fifteen minutes and gives you a view of the skyline that most visitors never see.
That connectivity is the practical argument for the weekend eleven o'clock opening. A late-morning table here is a genuinely easy trip from most of Manhattan and north Brooklyn, and the waterfront park afterwards makes the return leg part of the plan rather than an afterthought.
Practical notes
Casa Enrique, 5-48 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens. Phone +1 347-448-6040. Monday–Friday 5pm–10.15pm; Saturday and Sunday 11am–10.30pm. No weekday lunch service. Chef Cosme Aguilar cooks the traditional cuisine of Chiapas; mole is the signature dish and the frozen watermelon margarita the signature drink. Michelin-starred from 2014, with inconsistent reporting on the current guide — verify if the star matters to you. Gantry Plaza State Park is a short walk for free waterfront views of Manhattan. Hours change — confirm before travelling, especially for a weekday plan.
Tags: #restaurantnearme #casaenrique #longislandcity #chiapas #mexicanfood #mole #queenseats #nycrestaurants #cosmeaguilar #gantryplaza #nycdining #lic #nycfood #margarita
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know whether tonight's five o'clock opening is already full, and what else on that Long Island City block is worth the trip? Ask Karpo for Casa Enrique's current hours, how busy it is right now, and a short walking route down to the Gantry Plaza waterfront afterwards.
