Restaurant Offering ‘New-Age’ Style Pizza to Open in Astoria Next Month

Kravit It is moving into 30th Avenue where Queens Comfort was located (Queens Post)

March 22, 2021 By Christina Santucci

A new comfort food eatery – called Krave It – is coming to Astoria next month.

The restaurant is slated to open in mid-April at 36-18 30th Ave. – in the former home of Queens Comfort.

The Astoria location will be the borough’s second Krave It. Founder Vishee Mandahar opened the first one with his wife Jenna in Bayside in April 2015.

The restaurant offers outrageous and unexpected sandwich and pizza concoctions – as well as salads and side dishes. Krave It’s wild creations often pair multiple foods together, resulting in menu items that can’t be found anywhere else.

“Pretty much everything on the menu is the specialty,” Mandahar said.

For instance, Krave It has a cheeseburger pizza with 16 cheeseburgers, fried egg, fries, bacon, and chipotle mayo all on the pie.

Vishee and Jenna Mandahar, pictured, are opening Krave It in Astoria in April. This will be their second location, with a restaurant in Bayside (Photo: Courtesy of Krave it)

“Some people might be scared to put honey sriracha and black sesame seeds with chicken on a pizza,” he said. “That’s actually one of our best sellers.”

He explained that both he and his wife loved to eat sandwiches and pizza because they were often on the go. So, Krave It’s menu has a large variety of sandwiches and pizzas – but with twists.

“I feel like food brings people together, and I also wanted everything to be different,” Mandahar said of the inspiration behind the eatery.

Some of the Bayside menu items pay homage to local eastern Queens locations, like Francis Lewis Boulevard. For instance, there is the Franny Lew pizza with sweet sausage, garlic broccoli rabe and vodka sauce.

Mandahar said that the eatery would also have dishes honoring its new western Queens neighborhood like the 30th Ave Bully – a pizza with prosciutto di parma and homemade burrata – and the Astoria Mac Daddy sandwich with steak, vodka sauce, baby spinach, tomato and homemade burrata.

The Astoria Mac Daddy pays tribute to Krave It’s new western Queens home. (Photo: Courtesy of Krave It)

Other Krave It items include the “Lord of the Fries” cheese fries with chopped onions and bacon; the fried Oreo pizza; and the birria pizza with beef brisket, cheese cilantro, red onion and house made consommé.

Mandahar said Krave It prizes itself on making everything – including mozzarella cheese and 20 plus dipping sauces – in house and with fresh ingredients.

“The most important thing about our business is that everything is homemade,” he said.

Mandahar’s first foray into the business world came when his family opened a liquor store in Atlantic City, NJ shortly after he graduated from Holy Cross High School in Whitestone in 2004.

“That’s where I learned everything about business,” he said.

Later, he and Jenna sought to open their restaurants closer to home. Mandahar grew up in Glen Oaks and his wife in Flushing, and they now live in Bayside.

“My wife and I were both born and raised in Queens,” he said. “We felt that Astoria was a must for us.”

Although Queens Comfort closed in October – its owners still run a “sister spot,” called Comfortland, at 40-09 30th Ave.

Krave It’s Bayside location (Photo: QueensPost)