The Best Takeout and Delivery Lunch Spots in Bushwick

There are plenty of things we all miss about life before quarantine, but squeezing onto a packed L train during rush hour is not one of them. Ditching your commute into Manhattan and working from home in Bushwick has more than a few perks, and it means there’s a whole new set of lunchtime restaurants to explore. 

There isn’t a salad chain in sight here in Bushwick, but there are numerous pizza joints and traditional taquerias that fill the void in a much tastier way. So as you sit hunched over your laptop in your bed-turned-desk, check out this list of the best Bushwick restaurants currently open for takeout and delivery, and you’ll have a top-notch lunch with just the click of a button.

Order via website
With arepas, empanadas, and classic Venezuelan main dishes, Arepera Guacuco has a stacked menu that’s perfect for lunch. Arepas come with fillings like pernil, slow-roasted pork shoulder pulled and topped with cheese, or pabellón, shredded beef with sweet plantains and black beans. The restaurant doesn’t hesitate to stuff the arepas to the brim, so you’ll be full until dinner.

Order via Doordash, Caviar
Ethiopian food is meant to be shared. It typically consists of rolls of spongy injera for dipping into main dishes like lentils in spicy sauces or curried veggies. This vegan Ethiopian spot has a lunch portion where you choose four entrees and get two injera on the side -- but now that we’re all stuck home alone, you can order the feast portion all for yourself without feeling any guilt (or having to share the last bit of bread).

Call 718-709-8888 or order via Seamless
Whether the close proximity to your kitchen is making you hungry 24/7 or you’ve just looked at the clock and suddenly realize it’s noon and you haven’t eaten, sometimes work-from-home lunch turns into brunch. For those times, there’s Knickerbocker Bagel. You can get your go-to bagel smeared with cream cheese or topped with bacon, egg, and cheese, or choose a deli sandwich if you’re ready for a more customary lunch.

Order via website, Caviar
La Lupe is known for the mural-covered walls and back patio (during pre-COVID times anyway) and while you’ll miss out on those details when ordering takeout or delivery, La Lupe’s incredible selection of tacos, flautas, tortas, and more Mexican fare make it worth a try. Choose your favorite main course, but don’t forget to grab an order of queso fundido with chorizo or an ear of elote to go along with it.

Order via website
Opened by chef Johnny Huynh, a Bushwick native, the concise menu at Lucy’s Vietnamese Kitchen is filled with prime choices. The pho options include 14-hour smoked brisket, lemongrass chicken, or vegan ginger chicken, and each protein is also available as a filling inside banh mi sandwiches, as well as with vermicelli noodle salads or summer rolls. Finish it off with classic Vietnamese coffee that’s sweetened with condensed milk and already premixed in a bottle.

Order via Caviar
Momo Sushi Shack is one of those wildly creative restaurants that could only exist in Bushwick. Options like the vegan eel bomb roll made with shiitake mushroom and vegan eel sauce or the guacamole tuna roll with tuna, guacamole, and cilantro are just some of the lunch choices to enjoy at your home office. Tag on a Japanese salad, curry, or meat dish like salmon with a miso glaze or karaage, fried chicken.

Call 718-456-1048 or order via Grubhub, Postmates, Seamless, UberEats
Pitanga is a coffee shop and vegetarian cafe with Brazilian flavors, known especially for its acai bowls. But if you want more traditional lunch fare, Pitanga also stocks a variety of sandwiches and grain bowls like the super quinoa bowl with mushrooms, spinach, avocado, black beans, and pico de gallo, or the big healthy bowl which tops quinoa with seasonal greens, veggies, an egg, and kelp.

Order via website
Remember when a pizza party was the ultimate reward? Ordering lunch from Roberta’s is like the grown-up version of that. Its signature pies like a white pizza dubbed the White Guy and the Bee String, a sopressata and chili pie drizzled with honey, are available for takeout and delivery. Plus, they’ve been opening up a sidewalk tiki bar a few days a week just in time for your virtual happy hour, so follow the pizza joint’s Instagram for details.

Order via Caviar
Thanks to the warm, relaxed atmosphere and tropical decor, grabbing a seat at Sally Roots makes you feel like you’re on vacation. While you can’t post up on the back patio or belly up to the bar at the moment, you can still order lunch from this Bushwick favorite and improve your workday ten-fold. The Caribbean BBQ joint’s menu features large concept dishes like expertly smoked jerk chicken and braised oxtail, so you can choose a main, tack on Puerto Rican tostones and another side like mac and cheese, and have a feast-worthy meal (and some delicious leftovers).

Order via Seamless
There’s no shortage of Pueblan taquerias in Bushwick, so don’t overlook them when noon rolls around. This unassuming corner store may look like a simple bodega (and that’s what owners had in mind when they first opened the doors), but venture to the back and you’ll see a giant menu that has tacos, quesadillas, picaditas, and huaraches. No matter what your go-to Mexican food order is, you’ll find a top-notch version of it at Santa Ana Deli.

Call 347-687-9471 for pickup or delivery via Caviar, Grubhub, Seamless, Uber Eats
Working from home means you can scarf down a giant burger at your desk without judgment, and that’s exactly what you’ll get when you order lunch from Strange Flavor. The burger shack sits on the front lawn of The Johnson's, a pseudo-dive where $2 cans of Lions Head are the default order, but the food is a step above typical bar fare. The pop’s burger, a Big Mac-like creation, is a solid choice, or you can spice things up with the chop burger which features sichuan ingredients like charred red cabbage slaw, ground peanuts, cilantro, and scallions atop patties coated in a spicy glaze. No matter what hearty sandwich you order, you can’t go wrong.

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