Queens Night Market held a preview event in Harlem Wednesday evening to showcase the new vendors joining the hugely popular event for its 10th anniversary season in 2025.
Around a dozen new vendors showed off the dishes that will be on sale throughout the 2025 season at the event at the e.terra Commercial Kitchen at 1580 Park Ave., including everything from Ecuadorian encebollados to Malaysian beef rendang and from Colombian aborrajado to Haitan Chiktay.
Queens Night Market founder John Wang also announced that the 10th annual night market will retain the popular $5/$6 price cap despite failing to raise enough donations and sponsorship to waive the necessary vendor fees. Wang paid tribute to participating vendors after 84% of vendors voted to retain the price cap for at least another year despite facing higher fees that Wang would have liked.
He also paid tribute to Citizens for sponsoring the event yet again and making the $6 price cap possible.
“Food vendors that are coming this year all sort of banded together and said, ‘will lose some profit just to make the night market affordable for everyone in New York City’,” Wang said at Wednesday’s event. “That’s a huge, monumental tear jerker for me.”
Wang, who founded Queens Night Market in 2015, said he never anticipated running the event for a decade but said it has integrated itself into New York City’s cultural scene over the past 10 years. The market was also recently named best night market in the USA by TimeOut Magazine, underlining the event’s cultural importance.
This year’s night market will kick off with ticketed sneak preview events on April 12 and April 19 at the New York Hall of Science at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park before the event officially kicks off at the same location on Saturday, April 26. Queens Night Market will run every Saturday from the end of April until the end of October, featuring around 75 vendors representing dozens of nations and cuisines from across the world.
Wang said vendors participate in the event for a multitude of reasons, including the opportunity to spend a Saturday night with their families selling food that represents their homeland and getting more exposure for their business.
“What makes the night market special is that it’s affordable enough and the barriers to entry are low enough that we have vendors that just do not care to be in the food industry. They just want to be there on Saturday nights, and they’re happy with their families,” Wang said.
Wang said he received hundreds of applications from vendors for the 10th anniversary season of Queens Market and said he aimed to select a maximum of two vendors per cuisine to ensure guests have a wide range of choice when they visit the market. He also only selects vendors who grew up eating what they sell to ensure that food sold at the market is an authentic representation of a nation’s cuisine.
“We had almost 600 applications, probably 30 are from Mexico,” Wang said. “You could easily fill up 80 stalls with, like, South American food, but it forces me to keep on looking.”
Wang again heaped praise on vendors for voting to keep the $6 price cap, stating that the small profit margins that vendors will make over the course of the 2025 season is evidence that they are not participating to make money but out of love for their national cuisines.
Adam Rutkowski, co-founder of Polish food company Matylda’s Food, has sold traditional pierogis at Queens Night Market for the past four years but has expanded his options to include zakiekankas, a popular Polish street food featuring a baguette topped with sauteed mushrooms, cheese and ketchup.
Rutkowski pointed to the “beauty” of Queens Night Market, stating that the low price point allows guests to try dozens of different cuisines and experience new flavors and recipes.
“Right away, I thought it was a good idea,” he said. “If you don’t like it, you can always go to the next stall and try something else.”
Rutkowski said he introduced zapiekanka to Matylda’s Food for the 2025 night market to reflect growing trends among younger generations in Poland, who increasingly opt for zapiekankas over pierogis.
He is one of more than a dozen vendors to introduce new concepts for the 2025 night market, although others will be taking part in the event for the first time ever.
Christian Cassagnol, for example, is bringing Haitian Chiktay to the night market for the first time ever, introducing the smoked herring salad commonly enjoyed by locals in Haiti.
Cassagnol said his father ran a restaurant offering the popular dish in Haiti before a devastating earthquake struck the nation in 2010 and said his participation in Queens Night Market pays tribute to his father’s culinary legacy.
“After the earthquake, we lost everything and he never got the chance to reopen,” Cassagnol said. “So I figured, ‘let me try here’.”
Other first-time vendors are bringing other delicious dishes from all over the world.
El Alborrajao, for instance, will introduce guests to Colombian Alborrajados, a delicious dish consisting of fried plantains stuffed with cheese beef and topped with a garlic-based sauce.
Ella Spice, on the other hand, will serve mouthwatering Grenadian BBQ salted pigtail and buttered cassavas, a root vegetable native to South America.
Meanwhile, Thom will serve Vietnamese Pho, while Indonesian joint Playground will serve traditional Tahu Isi & Batagor, a skewered dish consisting of tofu or chicken and covered in peanut sauce.
See below for a full list of vendors at the 2025 Queens Night Market (New vendors in bold)
El Aborrajao – Colombian Aborrajados
Alexis Caribbean Cuisine – Guyanese Metemgee & Pepper Pot
Los Almendros – Salvadoran Pupusas
Anda Café – Bubble Tea
Arepalicious – Colombian Arepas
Ay Cachapas – Venezuelan Cachapas
Babka Bailout – Babkas & Burekas
Banh Mi Thai Binh Duong – Vietnamese Banh Mi
Bolonito NYC – Ecuadorian Bolones
La Braza – Roasted Corn & Skewers
Bstro – Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken
Buffalo Jump – Native American Fry Bread
Burmese Bites – Burmese Palatas
C Bao – Asian Duck and Pork Buns
Cambodianow – Cambodian Fish Amok
Caribbean Street Eats – Trinidadian Shark Sandwiches
La Carnada – Mexican Huaraches
Cassa – Haitian Chiktay
Chickn Rotonda – Filipino Skewers, Sisig & Kwek-Kwek
Chomu Chacha – New Delhi Roomali Rolls
De’Rangoon – Burmese Tea Leaf Salad
DiLena’s Dolcini – Cannoli and Cookies
Don Ceviche – Peruvian Ceviche
Eema’s Cuisine – Hawaiian Musubi
El Pernil Ecuatoriano – Ecuadorian Pernil Sandwiches
Ella Spice – Grenadian BBQ Salted Pigtail & Buttered Cassava
Emeye Ethiopian Cuisine – Ethiopian Sega Wot & Messer
Wot Enfes NYC – Turkish Gözleme
EpisbySteve – Haitian Diri ak Djon Djon & Griot
Go Green Yaks! – Tibean Shogo Bhakleb & Tsel Bhakleb
Halal Cocoos Den – Pakistani Nihari & Biryani
Hollywood Plates – Puerto Rican Pernil
Hong Kong Street Food
Jiutoiniao – Chinese Roujiamo
Joey Bats Café – Portuguese Pastéis de Nata
Joon – Persian Crispy Rice
Kachamorich – Bangladeshi Dim Chop & Beguni
The Knish – Ukrainian Knishes
Lettuce Meat – Korean BBQ
Mama Food – Squid Skewers
Mama Malaysia – Malaysian Beef Rendang & Ota Ota
Matylda’s Food – Polish Pierogis & Zapiekanka
Mercys Kitchen – Ecuadorian Encebollado
Mister Bocadillos – Brazilian Esfiha & Churrasco
Moon Man – Indonesian Kue Pancong
MuahChee Alley – Fujianese Lychee Pork & Mochi
Nansense – Afghan Chapli Kebabs & Mantu
Nomad Dumplings – Tibetan Momos
Persian Eats – Iranian Dizi & Koofteh Tabrizi
Pizza Clandestina – Argentine Fugazzetta Pizza
Playground – Indonesian Tahu Isi & Batagor
Rostacy Jamaican Food – Curry Goat & Oxail
Saltfish Shack – Bajan Fish Cakes
Sam’s Fried Ice Cream
Sambuxa NYC – Sudanese Sambuxa & Aswad Salad
Super Chori NY – Argenti Choripan
Sweet & Salty – Colombian Empanadas
Szechuan – Sichuan Ice Jelly
Tacos El Guero – Mexican Tacos
Taypa – Peruvian Anticuchos
Thai Tai Eatery – Thai Noodles
Thom – Vietnamese Pho
Treat Yourself Jerk Chicken
Trini Treats Queens – Trinidadian Curry Crab and Dumplings & Doubles Twisted Potato – Fried Potato Twists
Twistercake Bakery – Romanian/Hungarian Chimney Cakes Vincent Farms Natural Foods – Sierra Leonean Fare
Wanna Chaat – Indian Chaats
