Leli’s Bakery and Pastry Shop is the only Maltese restaurant in New York City. Appropriately, they serve what might be the most popular Maltese dish: pastizzi. Pastizzi are savory pastries made with a variant of filo dough, laminated into many layers and stuffed (at least at Leli’s) with either ricotta, spinach, or curried peas. All are great, but the curried peas are our favorite filling. The peas are cooked down into a thick, flavorful mush which is a perfect accompaniment to the crispy, crunchy, laminated exterior.
Leli’s also serves a variety of other, more traditional pastries and sweets, including croissants of various sorts which are also excellent. I love savory pastries, so one of my favorites is the mushroom and gruyère croissant (above), but they also make wonderfully round chocolate croissants (below).
In addition to pastizzi, Leli’s sometimes has other Maltese pastries, including qagħaq tal-għasel, honey rings, which I’ve tried, and qassatat, which I haven’t. Sometimes the qagħaq tal-għasel are available fresh, but more often they’re frozen. I’ve never seen a fresh qassatat there, but they evidently have them frozen, filled either with ricotta or with tuna and anchovies. Definitely something to get next time I’m there!
Leli’s Bakery and Pastry Shop
3514 30th Ave
Queens, NY 11103