Shaji BBQ

Dominique Roy went back four times in about a month, and the dish he sends you for is the dry pot cabbage, cooked in the spicy oil that flavors it.1 It is the East Village outpost of a Chinese skewer shop in Flushing, and it stays open very late.2

Why go

Roy calls it his best and most surprising meal of the year, and he cooks at Eleven Madison Park, so the bar he is clearing it against is high.1 Forty or fifty skewers run down the menu, beef, pork, chicken and lamb, dusted with a cumin and chili mix.1 2 The cold end of the menu carries jellyfish salad and century egg with tofu.2 Go soon if a quiet room matters to you: Roy says there is a fair number of people but no crush yet, and he expects that to change.1

Order this / avoid

Order: the dry pot cabbage. Roy: The second you take a bite, your first thought is, 'Oh my God, this is the best cabbage I've had in the last year.'1
Order: the fried rice, the other thing Roy rates.1
Avoid: filling the table with skewers alone. The cabbage is what a chef came back four times for.1

What locals & experts say

Dominique Roy, Eleven Madison Park, in The Relisher (4 August 2026): It's so delicious, perfectly cooked, and you taste the flavor of the spicy oil they cook the cabbage in.1
Will Hartman, The Infatuation, who has not eaten here and prints that: We haven't been here yet, but want you to know this spot exists. His page is the source for the Flushing parent shop.2

Good to know

Booking: walk in. Roy reports no wait as of August 2026.1
Address: I have not found a street address for the East Village room in a source I can cite.

Verdict

should-visit — A single chef carries this page. I have not found a review anywhere I cite, and The Infatuation's own page says nobody there has eaten here. No source prints a street address either, so I cannot tell you which door to walk through. What the record does hold is a named dish, a spice mix and four visits inside a month.

Shaji BBQ.