NYC’s New Restaurant Openings

If you tried to keep track of every brand new restaurant in New York City, your head might spin. So just read this list instead. These are the new restaurant openings that seem like they have the most potential—although keep in mind, for the ones we haven’t tried, we make no promises. Go forth and be a pioneer.

September

If you’re in need of an evening that involves drinking a martini and eating pheasant under a large chandelier, Le B could be the place. The latest project from chef-owner Angie Mar, this West Village restaurant takes over her previous spot, Les Troix Chevaux, and the name is a reference to The Beatrice Inn. The continental menu includes things like dungeness crab wellington, and a tableside preparation or two.

Ever since we tried the tasting menu downstairs at Roscioli, we’ve waited patiently for the unveiling of the upstairs. The time has come. The alimentari is a la carte, and if you’re fully expecting to be transported straight to Italy with one bite of carbonara, so are we. There’s a bar where you can watch a chef make your amatriciana, and tables where you should just go ahead and try all five different types of burrata. Just like the Roscioli in Rome, you can follow your meal with a jarred tomato sauce purchase.

The Rosella team is behind this eight-seat chef's counter in the East Village. Bar Miller has a 15-course omakase for $250, and the meal puts the spotlight on North American seafood and local produce. You can expect nigiri, sashimi, and chawanmushi, as well as couples who had their first date at Rosella, and now like each other enough to drop around $500 on a night out.

If you’re a fan of Antidote, one of our favorite restaurants in Williamsburg, then you’ll understand that the news of the Antidote team opening another restaurant is kind of a big deal. Nemesis is a Southeast Asian restaurant in Flatiron, where you can eat tiger prawn lumpia and drink a BKTea, a Bangkok-inspired take on a Long Island Iced Tea.

We don’t have the exact data to prove it, but people started going to bed a whole lot earlier during the pandemic, and that meant that late-night dinners decreased in popularity. Slowly but surely, they’re making a comeback. Don Don is a new Korean BBQ spot in Midtown from the chef behind Kochi and Mari, and it’s open until 2am, Thursday through Saturday. Go eat meat way past your bedtime.

But wait, there’s more! In addition to Don Don, the same chef has also opened Mari Ne, a casual hand roll counter in Midtown. They’re open daily for lunch and dinner, and with $5 hand rolls, we can quickly see this becoming a great quick meal option near Bryant Park.

Below Bar Pasquale and next to Pasquale Jones in Nolita you’ll find Midnight Plus One (owned by the same team). Recently, we walked by it and felt too intimidated to go inside in our sneakers—and that should tell you everything you need to know about this new Italian cocktail lounge and live music venue.

There is a new $45 cocktail in New York, and you can find it at Rampoldi, a Monte Carlo-based import that has expanded to a second location opposite Lincoln Center. There are chandeliers, extremely lavish vibes, and a soufflé, and if this fine dining establishment is anything like Rampoldi Monte Carlo, it’s bound to quickly become one of the most fun dinners in NYC.

BondSt, the Japanese-inspired restaurant for people who might also frequent Tao, has expanded with a second location in Hudson Yards. According to their Instagram, you can eat something “adorned with exquisite garnishes, shimmering with elegance, and radiating with sophistication,” and drink something that’s “a symphony of flavors”. The only thing we’re certain of is that it sounds expensive.

Sometimes, when it starts getting cold and bitter, we dream of eating copious amounts of seafood on a beach somewhere. We can’t help you with the beach part, but we might be able to help with the fish part: Point Seven is a seafood-centric restaurant in Midtown East, where you can eat shrimp and grits, and something called “Sushi Unrolled.”

People really like eating pasta at Le Pecora Bianca. Now they can eat steak at Lupetto. At this Italian wood-fired steakhouse in Nomad from the La Pecora Bianca team, everything is wood-fired, including the pasta. We’ve already seen multiple vlogs about it, so it’s safe to say this is an emerging micro-influencer hot spot.

Have you ever yearned for a seven-course journey? You’re in luck. Wangbi is an upscale Korean chef’s counter inside Antoya where your journey might include prime ribeye, prime short rib, and oxtail. The tasting menu costs $125, in case you’re in the market for a special occasion meal.

Now that Veselka has a location in Grand Central, we can’t help but imagine crowded Metro North trains full of people eating pierogies. Can you picture it? A truly beautiful sight. Consider this a formal reminder to always leave room for a Veselka stop before your train ride. We will no longer run to make our trains. We will leave time for pierogies.

Conveyor belt sushi is having a moment in NYC. We recently reported on the opening of Kaiten Zushi, and also paid an underwhelming visit to Sushidelic (where the conveyor belt is purely decorative). The newest addition to the genre is Salute Revolving Sushi in Flushing, which serves nigiri, poke bowls, and ramen.

The couple behind this East Village cantina used to own Cafe Cortadito, a Cuban joint with solid food and a hard-partying brunch. Cafe Cortadito closed earlier this year,  but you’ll find similar food at Cantina Cubana. If you like to pair your cubanos with pitchers of margaritas, we think you’ll be happy here.

Fast casual pasta is all the rage in NYC these days, apparently. Forget a sandwich on the go, how about a cup…of pasta? We don’t fully understand, but the newest addition to the fast casual pasta sphere is Water and Wheat on the UES, where you can have a quick brisket bolognese for lunch, or just take it to-go and make everyone on the street really jealous.

We stumbled upon this place in Park Slope because of the large crowd gathered outside of it. Upon further inspection, we discovered that from September 5th to October 5th, this casual, high-energy sushi restaurant is doing a BOGO omakase. Buy one $68 14-course omakase, get one free. Plus free sake. We’re not sure how this exists. But we’re letting you know, before it’s too late. Missed the deal? Check out our guide to the city’s best under-$100 omakase experiences.

It’s about time to start thinking about what on earth you’ll do once you can’t hang out outside anymore. How about an afternoon tea? This Thai dessert bar in Midtown does a high tea that might include a blooming flower brew, steamed coconut layer cake, and mung bean cake. They offer afternoon tea for one ($29 for seven desserts) or two ($65, for nine desserts each).

There’s a new cafe in Crown Heights, where you can drink a latte and eat an apple turnover, yuca fries, avocado toast, or all three. They also have a community bookshelf, and if you bring a book you might get a surprise.

If you’ve always dreamt of eating sushi in a former pizza parlor, you’re in luck. The owner of Scarr’s has teamed up with the people behind Taikun Sushi to open Sushi Oku, an eight-seat sushi counter that’s doing a 17-course omakase for $165. We have a feeling that an evening here followed by a pepperoni and jalapeño slice at Scarr’s might become one of the more epic double-headers you can have on the Lower East Side. Reservations are filling up fast, but you can always do the $85 13-course omakase at Taikun while you wait for your chance to secure a table. 

After years of pop-ups all over the city, Oti has found a permanent home on the Lower East Side. Oti calls itself a New American spot with Romanian roots, as well as the home of the pickled grape, and you can eat Romanian burrata here. There are regular reservations, but you can also make a reservation for something called the Love Seat, so we’re thinking there might be a lot of date nights at this spot.

When a restaurant claims to serve a tasting menu “that makes Eleven Madison Park jelly”, you listen up, and you also wonder when the last time was that you heard the word jelly. This new East Village spot is a self-proclaimed fast-paced, chaotic fine dining experience, with purple lighting, an art gallery, and caviar. If you’re lucky, you might get to eat that caviar dish with a Miller High Life.

2023 has been the year of maximalist and unusual Italian restaurants (see: Bad Roman, Cafe Mars), but now there’s also unconventional Thai. Untable is a new spot in Carroll Gardens from a former chef at the Red Hook location of Somtum Der, and there’s something called What The Hell!! Fried Rice, which has 12 hot pepper symbols on the menu. You’ll also find less spicy things, like crab croquettes, and khao soi.

There’s a new Irish pub in Penn Station’s Moynihan train hall from the team behind The Dead Rabbit, where you can drink a Guinness before you hop on the Amtrak. They also have espresso martinis on tap, and they’ve teamed up with Jacob’s Pickles and Pastrami Queen for their food menu, so expect pickle combos, and corned beef.  In true Irish pub fashion, they open at 10am, so even if you have an earlier train you can still have a Bloody Mary before departure.

At this new Sichuan restaurant in Flatiron, you can share whole fish, dry pot chicken, and mapo tofu with a group. There’s also a section of the menu entitled Delightful Vegetables, which we’d like to explore. Head here soon for their grand opening deal: You can get your first order of soup dumplings for $1, and on Sundays, they have a buy-one-get-one-free dim sum deal.

From 2012 to 2020, Muchmore’s was an entertainment venue, but after a three-year break, they’re back as Muchmore’s Gastropub and Wine Bar. There won’t be live music anymore, but there will be wine and jambalaya, as well as a full menu of New Orleans and Greek-inspired food. Oh, and natural wine, because you really can’t open a wine bar these days without it.

We’ve spent many evenings eating dim sum platters at the original Chinatown location of Dim Sum Go Go, and now we can do the same in the East Village. Their second location is smaller than the original, but as long as we can eat steamed shrimp dumplings and pork buns, we’re not complaining. This newest location has been in the works since 2021, so we’re happy that it’s all finally happening.

They really like the number nine at Nine Cases, a new gastro tavern in the East Village that serves nine international appetizers, nine white wines, and nine red wines. We’re not exactly sure why but we appreciate the commitment to the bit. They never order a case of wine more than once, so if you become a regular here you’ll always try something different.

If you find yourself in the Williamsburg area in need of a seafood feast, try Steamers. There’s a massive menu of things from the sea, including a hot seafood sampler, a chilled seafood sampler, and a whole lobster stuffed with crab. It’s in the former Kitsby Dessert Bar  space, and run by the owner of Kitsby and her father. He also makes a slow-roasted prime rib, in case you’d like to go full surf and turf.

After a Portuguese tinned fish store, the biggest new Times Square opening is this bar from Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake. At T-Squared social, you can play darts, watch sports, eat hamachi crudo, and drink a $21 cocktail called Upstate Lumberjack. And when your darts game ends, there’s a golf simulator. This place might give the Times Square Margaritaville a real run for its money (if they had any left).

There’s something comforting about a place that serves both coffee and wine. If you can relate to this statement, you should know about Thermostat, a new European-style coffee shop and wine bar in Park Slope. Next time you find yourself on Flatbush Ave. in need of a cappuccino, a glass of orange wine, or maybe both, you’ll be right at home here.

Noodle Lane started in 2011 at Smorgasburg, and now it’s got a brick-and-mortar in Park Slope, where you can eat shrimp paste fried rice and cold cucumber salad. It looks like it’ll be a go-to spot for a casual weeknight dinner, but they’ve also got a weekday lunch special, and everything on it is under $20. 

There’s a new Thai spot in the West Village inspired by Bangkok’s late-night food scene, and it’s from the team behind Fish Cheeks, one of the top Thai restaurants in NYC. Appropriately, they have pork jowls and beef cheeks on the menu here, as well as a whole branzino. The bar is reserved for walk-ins, and there's an intriguing cocktail list involving fermented tropical fruit, rice wine and more.

Delmonico’s closed in 2020 after 184 years, partly due to the pandemic, and partly due to some sort of feud that we don’t really need to get into. Now that the steakhouse is back, in its original location in the Financial District, what we do need to get into is its namesake Delmonico steak. Also its caviar service, and iconic baked Alaska.

Fini Pizza, the popular Williamsburg spot from a co-owner of Lilia and Misi, is opening a second NYC location on Atlantic Ave. It is literally right next to the entrance to Barclays Center, so it might beat out Shake Shack and Chick-Fil-A as the quickest and closest pre-game meal. There’s a seating area outside, with lawn chairs where you can eat a slice and gaze upon the We belong here sign.

There’s a new cocktail lounge beneath the Beekman Hotel in the Financial District, where you can experience early evening martini service, and eat a wagyu burger. There are also late night DJ’s, and plenty of disco balls. If you’ve ever been in the Financial District after 7pm you might know how quiet it gets, but Laissez Faire might change this forever.

Sometimes you start your evening at a cocktail bar, and then move on to somewhere else that’s a little more raucous. At Sip & Guzzle, a West Village collab between two mixologists, you can do both, letting your elegant evening devolve under one roof. Drink something fancy downstairs at Sip, and then head up to Guzzle. The name guzzle should pretty appropriately explain what goes on up there.

Chinato is a new spot on the Lower East Side where you can drink cocktails made with lychee and bell peppers, and eat french fries with seaweed, wasabi, and soy. The co-owner has Double Chicken Please ties, so the cocktails ought to be good.

PJ Clarke’s used to have a members-only speakeasy and dining room on the second floor of their Midtown East location, until it closed during the pandemic. Now it’s back, and it’s not members-only, but it is still a speakeasy. Or maybe it’s not a speakeasy, because now we’re all talking about it. Either way, Sidecar is back, and you can drink a sidecar there.

When you hear someone who worked at Per Se is opening a New American restaurant, you might want to know more. We’ve got more. Neeloo, a new family-owned spot in Williamsburg, is serving seasonal food in a space with a beautiful backyard. Right now, you can eat melon with lardo on ice, and broiled oysters with camembert. Sounds like a date night in the making. 

La Boîte makes spice blends that you can use in your cooking. But if you truly cannot cook, or you just want to eat shawarma, the chef behind La Boîte has opened Spice Brothers, a Mediterranean spot in the East Village. Apparently you’ll be able to eat sabich and listen to old school hip hop, and we can’t really think of a better casual weeknight combo.

If you work in Midtown East, this is what’s going to happen. You’re going to read this, and then you’re going to close your phone, and then someone’s going to tell you that your work Happy Hour next week is going to be at The Boardroom, a new speakeasy-style lounge in The Hugh. And now, since you’ve read about it, you can tell them you’ve heard about it, and that you’re definitely going to order a Boardroom Gimlet (or three).

The West Village probably didn’t need another Italian restaurant, but it’s getting one anyway. At Ambra, you can eat burrata, follow it up with lobster pasta, and cap things off with lemon tiramisu. Ambra is from the chef behind Ainslie and Empire Dinner, and both those spots also have burrata on the menu, in case you were wondering. 

We have questions about opening a restaurant in a subway station. Is the newly increased $2.90 subway fare required for entry? Can you hear the D train as you eat your abalone? Either way, it’s already impossible to make a reservation at Noksu. The Korean fine dining spot down the stairs at the 32nd street entrance of Herald Square serves a 15 course menu for $225, which might include things like grits with squid, and American eel with foie gras.

Fort Greene is a restaurant neighborhood to watch this fall, and it all starts with Sailor, the new spot from chef April Bloomfield. She’s working alongside restaurateur Gabe Stulman (Jeffrey's Grocery, Joseph Leonard) to open this new bistro, which will have dishes like mussels, pâté en croùte, and herb-roasted chicken.

If you’ve been not-so-patiently waiting for the opening of Little Grenjai in Bed-Stuy, this one’s for you. The Thai American spot from the couple behind Warung Roadside will open their cafe this weekend while they wait for gas. Swing by for coffee, pastries, and congee, and prepare yourself for the krapow smash burger. 

Buckwheat is the star at this new soba restaurant in Greenpoint, where the grain-like seed will of course be present in the form of soba noodles, but also in tofu and ice cream. Reservations are already hard to come by for this educational, “omakase” experience.

If you weren’t aware, the people behind Dept. of Culture, one of our best new restaurants of 2022, have been quietly opening Radio Kwara, their new spot in Clinton Hill. Some restaurants like to open with a bang, but it seems Dept of Culture’s American cousin has kept it more low-key, slowly releasing more reservations for their tasting menu. As of early September they’re serving this six-course menu on Fridays and Saturdays, but more a la carte options should be coming soon.

If you don’t know the name Jamie Mulholland, you actually probably do. He opened the infamous Montauk restaurant Surf Lodge, and now he’s opening Ketchy Shuby, a “Hospitality Experience” in Soho. Apparently when you walk into Ketchy Shuby, you can’t explain it, you just feel it. So, maybe we’ll see you there, feeling it. If it’s anything like Surf Lodge, you’re bound to see an influencer.

The raviolo—one very large ravioli that feels like it’s over before it’s even started—is still finding its way onto restaurant menus. You’ll find the newest raviolo in town at Lulla, an Italian spot at the Motto by Hilton hotel in Chelsea. This one incorporates egg yolk and truffle butter, and you can pair it with fritto misto in the two-story dining room.

August

Everybody loves rapid-fire omakase. The more fish, the better, the quicker, the better. Kaki Omakase, a new spot on the Lower East Side, offers a 15 course menu for $75, and it’s also BYOB.

Not to sound repetitive here, but Fuku Omakase also does a sub-$100 omakase. As we said directly above, everybody loves a rapid-fire omakase. This one is also $75, but the menu is 13 courses, instead of 15. It comes from the same owners as Shinzo Omakase, which—you guessed it—also does a sub-$100 omakase. 

We should have an openings (and closings) guide just for omakase, where we compare prices, number of courses, and type of caviar used. While we get that up and running though, Shota Omakase is now open in Williamsburg. The chef/owner, who has worked at both Sushi Seki and Blue Ribbon, will serve 18 courses for $175, with things like blue fin fatty tuna and homemade citrus miso. And the caviar? Golden ossetra.

You can’t really open a bar or restaurant these days without having a disco ball somewhere, and the one hanging from the ceiling at Motel No Tell is case in point. This corner spot on Avenue A in the East Village has a sizable dance floor for your friend who lives to dance, and big booths for your friend who’d rather just drink. There’s also color TVs, air-conditioning, free wi-fi, cocktails, cold beer, wine, and Neapolitan pizza, so you basically never need to go to another bar ever again.

Celebrity-owned restaurants are not necessarily a new thing, but something about this “fine-casual” pasta shop owned by a French pop star caught our eye. First of all, what’s fine-casual? And second, is his music on constant repeat in each location? This pasta restaurant started in Los Angeles before expanding to Paris and Lille, France, and now the first NYC location has opened in Midtown. You can eat a bowl of cacio e pepe and then take some homemade pasta and sauce home with you, because the only thing better than one bowl of pasta in a day is two bowls.

There’s a new Southern Italian spot under the BQE in Red Hook, and it might be the coziest place to eat a pizza this fall. They’ve got your standard margherita, but there are also pies topped with mashed potatoes, pork belly, tuna in olive oil, and burrata, of course. We’ll try heading here the next time we want someone to fall deeply in love with us, and perhaps you should do the same.

If you know anything about anything, you know that the wait for your table at Via Carota will be a minimum of two hours, and you’ll need to find something fun to do, like drink negronis at Bar Pisellino, in the meantime. For the next time you make this commitment, consider Grove Street Social. It’s got cocktails, frozen tequila grapes, and small plates for when you inevitably get peckish, and it’s a two minute walk from Via Carota, for whenever your table is ready.

The team behind Verano, a new outdoor bar and restaurant at Hudson Yards, clearly understands that September is still summer. This outdoor only spot will open annually during the summer and fall months until November, which means we have ample time to eat ceviche and drink frozen palomas.

If you’ve always dreamt of going to Copenhagen and eating a pastry by the canal, we’re rooting for you. But in the meantime, this bakery with over 100 locations in Denmark and London (not to mention four in NYC) has arrived on the Upper East Side. Pick up a cinnamon swirl or some smørrebrød and then eat them by the Central Park reservoir and pretend it’s the canal.

If you’ve never been able to get a table at Lilia or Misi, you’re in luck. If you’ve gotten a table and dream of getting another one, you’re also in luck. Misipasta, from the same team, is part-Italian grocery, part-aperitivo bar—you can sit in the backyard with a Negroni and daily pasta (there’s only one), then buy some fresh noodles and sauce for the road. It might not taste as good without the thrill of scoring a res at Lilia, but we have a feeling that a pound of fresh pasta from here is going to become a classic third date activity in Williamsburg.

We checked out Misipasta and added it to the Hit List. 

It’s Friday morning, which means you’re probably scrambling to decide where to eat out this weekend instead of doing work. Enter Toriya, a new izakaya on the Lower East Side where you can eat yakitori with a group tonight. It’s from the team behind Izakaya Toribar, where we’ve spent evenings eating chicken thigh on skewers and appreciating the thick glass partition at the counter protecting us from smelling like grilled meats for the next two to three business days (not that we'd mind that either).

Harlem's Seasoned Vegan closed in April after 9 years, with the promise that it would be back in a new space soon. Now, the mother and son operation is in the East Village, where they’re doing takeout and delivery of their most popular dishes in sandwich form. We were partial to the grilled burdock root crawfish at their Harlem spot, and if you identify with this statement you’ll be happy to know they’re serving it in both a vegan po-boy and on a pretzel bun.

The minute we saw the lychee shrimp balls served on a metal flower sculpture at this new Chinese fusion restaurant on the Upper East Side, we were curious. It frankly kept us up at night. What do they taste like? Can you even reach the top one if you’re sitting in your chair? Tang by Mr. Sun is from the team behind Hunan House in Flushing, and they’ll be serving Chinese dishes with a twist, like scallion pancakes with truffle mushrooms, and beef ribs with pumpkin cream.

We’re always on the lookout for rooftops bars that don’t suck, and maybe this new spot at Royalton Park Avenue will fit the bill. This Italy-inspired rooftop in Nomad has a strong lemon theme, spritzes, and a signature fritto misto, so hopefully you’ll feel like you’re on the Amalfi Coast if you just sip your spritz and eat a piece of fried calamari with your eyes closed.

A sardine store in Times Square was not on our 2023 bingo card, but we stand extremely corrected. Portuguese Sardine is the first US location of a Portuguese company, but their other stores have serious M&M World energy, so this is all beginning to make more sense.

If you haven’t eaten pho yet this summer, it’s time. Whether you eat in the dining room at Cloud, a new Vietnamese restaurant on the Lower East Side, or take your order to go, we urge you to have a Hot Soup Summer moment. Get some pork bún while you’re at it too, because it looks really good.

During the pandemic, it was exciting to do things like make Roman-style pizza and then exchange it with your neighbors for dessert. That’s how Unregular Pizza began, eventually opening two locations with things like the Burrapizza, which has a whole ball of burrata on each slice. They now have a third location in Midtown East, and even though you’ll have to use real money there, you can sign up on their website for the next barter. We’re not exactly sure what that entails, but we just signed up so we’ll find out soon.

Very big news for all Lower East Siders. Shake Shake’s first LES outpost is opening on Friday, so you no longer have to go all the way to Noho for your burger. Rejoice. The new location is a five minute walk from the LES locations of both 7th Street Burger and Smashed, so it might be time for a LES smash burger taste test.

Before it closed, Short Stories was a sceney cocktail bar in Noho where you might run into someone famous. It’s open again under new management, and they now serve dishes like a porchetta for two—the makings of an epic date night. Dinner service ends at 10:30pm, but there’s a late-night menu to keep the party going.

The oxtail slice at Cuts & Slices is some of the best pizza in NYC, and the Bed-Stuy spot has the lines outside to prove it. We're not sure it'll help with the lines, but there's now a second location in St Albans, Queens. Once you get to the counter, you may as well order a lot of pizza: try the jerk shrimp or chopped cheese slice, too.

At Púsù, an elegant plant-based Chinese restaurant in Williamsburg, you can eat chili vegan offals. We’re don't know how they’ve accomplished this, but we appreciate the commitment to the bit. Beyond the Beyond meats on offer, there are also cocktails inspired by Chinese landscapes, and some very pretty looking dishes like spinach stacks and pumpkin mapo tofu, which we’ll be checking out soon.

During the pandemic, a lot of people started cooking things out of their one bedroom apartments, and some of the food was actually good. La Rose’s Detroit-style pizza falls into this category. Now they’re operating out of a storefront in Cobble Hill, where you can eat a pizza called the Moby Dick, which has both anchovies and boquerones.

There’s a new cafe and cocktail bar in Carroll Gardens that routinely changes the shape of its butter—we’re already enchanted by a tiny checkerboard and some wee koi. Stop by for a mugwort latte and a mortadella banh mi (plus butter) in the morning, or natural wine and tuna belly crudo (plus butter) in the evening. And try not to buy too much of their stunning glassware, which is also for sale.

Union Square has a new destination for fried chicken sandwiches, bubble tea, and arcade games that might result in you winning a plushie. Partea’s original location is in Flushing, but now you can find their neon night market vibes and Taiwanese snacks in Manhattan.

Priced at $1.50 and always piping hot, the pumpkin buns at Golden Steamer are a very good Chinatown snack. Now there’s a location around the corner on Grand Street, with a larger variety of buns and baked goods, just in case you’d like a mooncake with your pumpkin or sausage bun.

It sounds like an Irish pub, but it’s actually an art gallery, which had an opening night party so wild that it was shut down by the NYPD. Since then, this East Village spot has hosted performance art involving Vaseline-smearing and plaster of paris-entombing, and now they’ve opened a cafe, where you can order an Aperol spritz and chicken tenders. We really can’t make this stuff up.

There’s a new sushi lunch special in Midtown West: Wano is serving a $28 chirashi sushi and sashimi lunch set that could make your workday infinitely better. If you’re feeling particularly spendy, there’s also a $98 wagyu steak lunch set, or you can swing by at dinner for sushi and fried seafood.

The next time you have a visitor in town who really wants to take this iconic picture in Dumbo, you can follow up your photoshoot with a glass of wine at Bar56. Here, someone who used to work at Oxalis will pour you something bright and crisp to accompany your fried artichokes, and if you love what you drink, you can pick up a bottle at Taste56, their wine store next door.

There’s craft beer. And sourdough pizza. And some funky, skull-themed decor? This new spot in Washington Heights has a monster pizza oven unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. They also seem to make kimchi, and are basically begging us to pay them a visit to find out more. Okay Döden. Will do.

Good news for all fans of Super Taste in Chinatown: They’ve opened a second location on the Upper East Side, and it’s easier to sleep at night knowing that there are now two places in the city where we can eat their hand-pulled noodles. An order of those and some fried dumplings might be a new contender for the best post-Met lunch.

At Café Chrystie in the East Village you can order a coffee, peruse a coffee table book, and buy a new shirt. This seems like a pretty sublime Saturday morning activity, so plan accordingly.

If you’re looking for baba ghanoush in Flatiron, there’s a new restaurant opening for you. Nar is a modern Turkish spot with quail on a skewer, turquoise blue chairs, and a wine list with over 100 bottles. Sometimes you just want to have a meal where someone cares about you enough to use tweezers, and maybe this is that place. 

There’s a new wine bar in Tribeca where you can drink Greek wine and eat Greek salad. They also do natural wine flights on Mondays & Tuesday after 7pm, which makes us wonder why this isn’t more of a thing. There's an older location in the West Village.

Do Not Feed Alligators held the unofficial award for funkiest coffee shop name in NYC. Until now. Coffee for Sasquatch is an LA import in Nolita, and we’re looking forward to drinking an affogato there. Also, there’s merch. Don’t you need a hat that says Coffee for Sasquatch?

If you need a protein-themed lunch in Midtown West, check out this friendly looking, casual Greek spot. You can “experience the charm of butterflied chicken” through a “captivating photo gallery” on their website, before heading over to experience the charm of the chicken firsthand: get it simply butterflied, or in more elaborate preparations, like a pita souvlaki or burger. They also serve Greek wines.

If you need lunch in Crown Heights, Warude’s second location off Nostrand Ave. might be of interest. A Japanese bowl and taco spot from Bed-Stuy, Warude’s Crown Heights location will focus on Japanese food—think curry, salmon miso rice bowls, and ramen.

Talia’s Steakhouse, a kosher mainstay of the Upper West Side, has opened Shawarma Shabazi, a counter-service spot for shawarma, sabich, and falafel next-door. It’s open until 2am on Saturdays, so add it to your list of post-dive bar bites in the area.

This fast-casual Crown Heights spot, which serves soul food with a Korean twist, now has a second location in the East Village. If you ever find yourself in the area with a craving for bulgogi meatloaf, you’re in luck.

L’Abeille was one of our best new restaurants of 2022, and they’ve now opened L’Abeille à Côté, a "casual and playful" dining room next-door in Tribeca. L’Abeille’s younger sibling also serves French-Japanese food, but it’s very much not a tasting menu spot, and that’s something we can get behind.

It’s not just a wine bar, it’s a cocktail bar too, and it’s now open in Williamsburg. Layla has natural wine, martinis, and a crab toast with heirloom tomatoes for when you’ve had one too many martinis. There’s exposed brick, real candles, and also a large garden, where you can have grilled squid and a spritz. Go do so, before it’s overtaken by other people who live for a large garden in NYC.

If someone told us we could eat chicken karaage and ham croquetas at the very same time, we would ask them where, immediately. At The Baazar by José Andrés at The Ritz-Carlton NoMad, you can do exactly that. Each of José Andrés’ Bazaar restaurants (Chicago, Las Vegas, Washington DC) serves a different menu, but you’ll find Spanish and Japanese influences at his newest location. This means you can drink sake and sangria at the very same time as well.

In 2019, FoodStruck opened as a tiny, late-night takeout spot in Astoria. Then COVID happened. Now, they’ve reopened in a larger space in Astoria, which means a member of this chopped cheese army could be yours. The hours are a bit more standard now, but they’re open until 12am on weekends in case you find yourself in need of a fried chicken sandwich before bed.

We don’t know much about this new bar in Crown Heights, but it seems like it’ll be a place where you can drink a negroni and eat a pretzel at the bar. We believe said pretzel is served with mustard and some sort of cheesy substance. What more do you really need?

The Baar Baar team has opened this new spot in the Theater District, so if you’re looking for somewhere to eat garlic naan and tandoori kebabs before or after a Broadway show, this may in fact be the spot. There’s also a cocktail made with butter chicken-washed whiskey. We thought you should know.

We’re not too sure about the whole Rockefeller Center Is Cool Now thing, but there are definitely good places to eat (see Le Rock, Jupiter, Lodi). There’s also The Tipsy Baker, where we hear you’ll be able to eat a quiche during the day and drink wine at night. It’s from the team behind Café D'Avignon, an artisan bakery, so the crust on that quiche is bound to be flaky.

At Angelina Bakery in Times Square, you can eat a croissant stuffed with gelato, and drink a spritz too if you’re feeling spritzy. They now have a new location in Koreatown, serving classic Italian gelato along with Korean-inspired flavors like Jeju Mandarin and Black Sesame. We’re planning on a cone with a scoop of gianduia and a scoop of black sesame, in case you were wondering.

At Dudley’s, you’ll eat a little gem caesar salad and whipped ricotta and have yourself a real Lower East Side evening. But now, they’ve opened a walk-up window called Dudley’s Deli, where you can also have Australian-style soft serve for dessert. There’s an off-menu truffle fry sundae, which looks good on the socials and, who knows, might even taste good too.

There's a new speakeasy in the basement of 53 (one of our best restaurants of 2022), and it's called Ba53ment. See what they did there? The Marea team is behind both, and they'll be hosting weekly pop-ups at Ba53ment while they're closed for renovations this summer. Expect not one, but two small plates with caviar. If you’re in need of a sexy, hidden date-night spot where you can eat crudo and drink a $52 cocktail that has gold in it, this might be the place.

If you like pizza and you live in New York, you’ve heard of Di Fara. But if you like Italian sandwiches, you should also know about 1012 Kitchen, the new sandwich shop in Midwood from the Di Fara team. For now they’re doing lunch, and there’s no better lunch than an Italian hero with meatballs.

Nothing’s certain except death, taxes, and new wine bars opening in NYC that might serve She Wolf bread, and definitely serve orange wine. This week there’s Lovebirds, a sustainable wine bar and bistro in Greenpoint with a pink neon sign and a sister wine shop, in case you really like something you drink and want to buy your very own bottle. And yes, there will be She Wolf on the menu.

Sea and Soil started out selling sandwiches at the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket, but now this worker-owned bakery and sandwich shop has a brick-and-mortar in Carroll Gardens. We’ll take one of everything, but we’d like our first bite to be of The Helen, or maybe The Kiki.

Chama Mama, a Georgian restaurant with locations in Chelsea and the Upper West Side, is expanding to Brooklyn Heights. This is really good news for anyone who enjoys excessive amounts of cheese by way of khachapuri. If you’re not sure if you enjoy that, we advise you to go order some khachapuri immediately.

If you’re not familiar with Kuppi Coffee Company yet, you should know that their original location in Edgewater was named the most beautiful coffee shop in New Jersey by Architectural Digest in 2018. They’ve expanded to the East Village, where they’re currently just serving coffee drinks and tea—but if their future food plans look anything like this, we’re all in luck.

It’s summer, so you should be eating as much soft shell crab as you possibly can. Rynn Thai, a new spot in the East Village, has it on the menu for now, so go try it while you still can. They’re still working on getting a liquor license, but a free Thai iced tea should hit the spot in the meantime.

The Brett behind Brett’s Deli used to be the executive chef at Gallagher’s, so it’s safe to say that he probably knows a thing or two about meat. The Queens native has opened a sandwich shop in Urbanspace Vanderbilt—if you work in Midtown East we hope you’ve caught your attention. Right now they’re just serving lunch, and you can get any sandwich “Loaded Brett’s Way” with lettuce, tomato, pickles, pickled jalapeños, oil & vinegar, salt, pepper, oregano and mayonnaise. Brett, that’s our way too.

There’s a new bright, cheerful looking spot for ceviche in the East Village, just in time for sticky, end-of-summer evenings. At Dora’s Restaurant, you’ll find 10 different types of ceviche, Mediterranean food, and copious amounts of sangria.

July

Tuscan restaurant Etrusca closed after just a few months, sadly before we could experience its rustic charms for ourselves. In its place is Grievous Angel, a bar where you can drink natural wine, hang out in a backyard, and occasionally catch a Malaysian laksa pop-up. It’s named after a Gram Parsons album, and it’s open most days from 5pm “till as long as y’all keep drinkin.’” We like the sound of that.

Here’s what you have to do: Go to GongGan in Flushing around 6pm and have a slice of cake that will look different than any other cake you have ever eaten. Then, at 7pm, order a cucumber soju high ball and kimchi fried rice at their new bar. Have you ever had cake, rice, and soju in essentially an enchanted forest? We didn’t think so.

Ji Bei Chuan has locations in Flushing and Sunset Park, but they’ve recently expanded to Chinatown, which means if you find yourself in Lower Manhattan with a hankering for fish maw & chicken noodle soup, you can handle it swiftly. They have things like soup dumplings and braised tripe too, but you’re here for the dry and soup noodles, so act like it.

This Colombian and Peruvian spot in Flushing has opened a second location in Astoria, and we can all rejoice over another place to eat ceviche. They have Happy Hour from 1-6pm Monday-Friday, which means you can pair your ceviche mixto and pollo a la brasa while drinking something pink and very cold.

Remember when there was only one Shake Shack? Those were dark times. While Nowon, a Korean-American spot with one of the best burgers in the city, may not have plans for a massive expansion, you can get their burgers in Bushwick, at their second location. They also have a fried chicken sandwich, pizzas with Korean toppings, and set menus ($39-49) in a warehouse-like dining room.

No one goes to Kokomo just for the food, but this longtime Williamsburg party spot does have a pretty good selection of Caribbean-leaning fare. If you do want to eat your oxtail and jerk chicken without a DJ dropping a beat in the background, try Kokomo’s fast-casual concept OxKale, a takeout operation next door that serves bowls, salads, and wraps with Caribbean flavors.

With three locations in Manhattan, MáLà Project recently opened its first Brooklyn outpost in Greenpoint. You can get their signature Sichuan dry pot with customizable combinations of ingredients, as well as dishes like mapo tofu, and cocktails from a revamped drink menu. Big neon signs, checkered floors, and a vintage photo booth make this place look like a mix of an old school diner and a nightclub.

Untitled, a hotel hidden in the back of Freeman Alley on the Lower East Side, has a new rooftop called Unlisted. The 11th-floor bar has velvet furniture, 360-degree skyline views, and a short list of snacks that include a wagyu hot dog, which is very on-trend. It’s peak rooftop season, and this could be a good place to avoid the crowds, although you should know that all of the cocktails cost $24.

Just in case you were looking around Flushing and thinking “we need another dim sum spot here,” Fifty Bay opened last month with all the shrimp shumai and red rice cakes you could possibly want. The big banquet room looks busy already, with big carts carrying steamed layer cakes, abalone dumplings, and black bean sauce clams around the room.

In case you didn’t know, fish used for kosher sushi must have both scales and fins, so that probably has something to do with the name of this Japanese restaurant near Bryant Park. They offer two kosher omakase options ($40 and $75), as well as a few à la carte starters and rolls in a relaxing space with pebble tiles, chandeliers, and greenery on the walls. A second location in Soho is coming soon.

Koro Koro is a cafe that specializes in onigiri, which come in uncommon varieties like truffle tuna, vegan teriyaki, miso beef, and Korean BBQ. The original opened in Jersey City in 2014, but now the Japanese rice ball vendor has an outpost on Sullivan Street just below Houston. It looks like it’s geared toward quick, casual lunches, with hours that run until 6pm daily.

Thanks to its spiced lentil stews and vegetable medleys, Ethiopian cuisine has always been one of our favorite ways to eat vegan. Now Greenpointers can get in on the fun at Bersi, a new plant-based Ethiopian spot on Manhattan Ave., which has a ceremonial coffee station and serves misir wot and shimbra asa in a white-brick space decorated with woven baskets.

LA-based music collective In Sheep’s Clothing recently opened a listening bar in the back of new Hudson Square restaurant Port Sa’id. It has an impressive sound system and an interesting vinyl collection, and the whole place could fit inside of a shipping container.

We checked out In Sheep’s Clothing and added it to the Bar Hit List.

Carlota’s long, narrow room with warm lighting and exposed brick seems like the perfect place to linger over 10 kinds of vermouth from Italy and France on the Lower East Side. They also have different types of croquetas, patatas bravas, and other tapas, as well as a burnt Basque cheesecake with amarena cherries that looks pretty darn good.

Hudson Yards is pleasant now. Or at least it’s on its way. Russ & Daughters has a new location at the corner of 10th and 34th, and, like the original, it has a smoked fish counter and a take-a-number ordering system. The enormous space also has a big, seat-yourself dining area with wraparound banquettes, as well as a caviar bar where you can pair some sturgeon roe with a glass of champagne.

The folks behind Grimm Artisanal Ales in East Williamsburg have added a New Haven-inspired pizzeria and bar on the roof of their brewery. There’s an indoor section with long, beer hall-style tables and a huge terrace. The sourdough crust pizzas are made with house-milled flour, and have toppings like hot pepperoni, clams, and summer squash. Your days of taking trains to Sally’s and Modern Apizza might be over.

This self-proclaimed “largest izakaya in NY” has opened in Flushing, and it looks like a promising venue for your next birthday party. Izakaya Nana is all very Disneyland Japan: you enter through a Tokyo-style alleyway into a bar surrounded by fake ginkgo trees and manga-themed private rooms. Yakitori, sashimi, and stone-grilled items are available, with liberal use of uni, foie gras, and blowtorches.

The team behind Rhodora and June Wine Bar have opened yet another place to drink orange wine, with a view of Boerum Hill’s beautiful brownstones outside. Named after the feminist erotica writer, Anaïs doubles as a library where used copies of Delta of Venus are stacked alongside vintage bottles of wine. They’re only open at night, with small snacks like anchovies or pâté, but they plan to open a daytime cafe in August.

Conveyor belt sushi has been around since the 1950s, and it’s kind of weird how there aren’t more options for it in NYC. If you want to have your food ferried to your face via modern engineering, you can now visit Kaiten Zushi in Nomad. Dishes start around $5, and, in addition to sushi, there are a few other options like ramen, udon, and tempura.

The cocktails at Blue Bird, a bar in the East Village, have a very clear theme: seasonal produce. One drink is made with heirloom tomato juice, while another has sherry-mushroom dashi. Classic bistro dishes like steak tartare, escargot, and salade Lyonnaise are also available, and match the French country wallpaper in this two-story spot. They have $10 martini and $1 oyster deals on Mondays, which—let’s be honest—is the day you need Happy Hour the most.

A new cocktail bar in Nomad, Momento33 seems more like a jazz club, with live music every night and no cover. It looks the part too, with tiny tables, red leather booths, a glowing blue bar and, for some reason, a phone booth. Latin-leaning tapas are available, as well as some bigger plates like filet mignon.

This Florence import draws lines, and for good reason—their sandwiches are great. Expect the same large slices of thin and crispy schiacciata bread stuffed with Italian meats and creamy spreads as are available at their Midtown and Greenwich Village locations. But this new Upper East Side outpost of All’Antico Vinaio will also offer coffee and cream-filled croissants, starting at 8am every day.

It just got a little easier to eat at Sushi Kai, which does under-$100 omakase on East 9th Street. This second location is in the West Village, and it has a 15-seat square counter where you can watch chefs prepare sushi in front of you. There’s an à la carte menu, but we recommend trying the one-hour, $85 omakase, which includes an appetizer, 10 pieces of nigiri, uni and ikura, and a handroll.

Yemeni coffee shop Qahwah House—which has a few locations in Michigan, Illinois, and New Jersey—just opened in the West Village. They’re serving drinks like Adeni chai and qishr spiced with ginger and cinnamon, as well croissants, cakes, and a few Yemeni breads and pastries. There’s also an outpost in Williamsburg, and it’s a popular late-night spot.

New York restaurants can’t seem to stop cosplaying French bistros, which is good news for people who need more places to eat steak frites and fantasize about smoking inside. The latest, Cafe Chelsea, opens in the Chelsea Hotel on Bastille Day, serving all the classics in what looks like a brasserie on steroids with bright marquee lights, checkered floors, and Art Deco details.

I Sodi is back. It was only closed for a few weeks, but still, what a relief. The new space just around the corner from the original on Christopher Street is considerably larger, with an additional small dining room in the rear and a little backyard, and the menu is as Tuscan as ever. Yes, the lasagna is still available.

We checked out I Sodi and added it to the Hit List. 

If you’re tired of mere bars and lounges, maybe this “rock club” covered in zebra carpeting is what you need for a change of pace. It’s in Bushwick, and from some industry vets behind places like Attaboy and Temple bar. Expect loud new wave tracks, cheap beers and shots, and dancing. There’s also a stage for live performances, as well as pinball machines if you need to do more than listen to music.

We checked out Danger Danger and added it to the Bar Hit List.

The chef behind Miznon and Shmoné has a new spot on Hudson Street with a big vinyl collection and speakers the size of walk-in closets. A collaboration with Israeli radio station Teder.fm, this is actually the second location of Port Sa’id, the original of which is in Tel Aviv. The room has a casual, loft-like feel, and the menu has hummus, kebabs, sandwiches, and more.

We checked out Port Sa'id and added it to the Hit List. 

If you’re going to debut a restaurant in the summer, opening up the back patio is a good way to get our attention. So is serving Southern small plates, like charred okra and prawns over grits. Enjoy yours outside (or inside the polished dining room) at Cafe Camellia in East Williamsburg.

Tokugawa is owned by the people who run Serafina, but you won’t find any pasta or signature canary yellow umbrellas here (although there is a glittery gold wall). This sleek Upper East Side spot serves à la carte sushi and a few small plates, with an $85 omakase option and a couple of sets that start at $45. Keep in mind, there are only around six tables and about as many bar seats.

Good Creole food is hard to come by in New York, let alone three full floors of it. Alligator Pear is a new NOLA-inspired restaurant in the Garment District, complete with two bars, a cocktail lounge, and several different elaborately decorated dining rooms with themes like “NOLA in the Autumn” and “French Quarter Lookout.” Expect things like fried catfish, stewed shrimp, and of course, beignets.

This beloved street cart specializing in fish balls and noodles now has a brick-and-mortar spot on Bayard Street in Chinatown. You’ll find the same curry fish ball noodles that made this place so popular, as well as congee, dumplings, and Hong Kong-style drinks.

A chef who learned to cook from his grandmother has opened this Thai spot in Cobble Hill. The space looks like a casual neighborhood restaurant, with vintage chandeliers, clear plastic seating, and photos of floating markets in Thailand. There’s quite a bit of seafood on the menu, like grilled river prawns and fish curry custard, but they also have ubiquitous dishes like pad thai and massaman curry.

Yes, you can make jazzed-up instant noodles at home, but do you have an entire wall of beautifully displayed instant noodles to choose from? Toppings like birria and marinated soft-boiled eggs at the ready? This LIC spot aims to make instant noodles a going-out dinner, and we’re definitely curious.

The list of under-$100, one-hour omakases in the city just grew by one. This Astoria spot is the latest concept from the Sushi by Boū and Trust Bae team, and you can choose between two options: 12 pieces for $60, or 17 for $100. Unlike its sister restaurants, Disco Sushi doesn’t just have an omakase counter—the red and purple room has table seating where you can order maki and handrolls.

Oh Boy has only been open a few weeks, but the Williamsburg cafe’s breakfast sandwich already has an online following. The McGriddy is a much taller, tastier-looking version of the golden arches classic, with two thick pancakes for buns. Try one this weekend. Just know that they have more outdoor seating than indoor, and there might be a DJ.

Funzi’s is supposed to look like a grandmother’s house. Specifically, the owner’s grandmother’s house. The East Village pizzeria’s brown stucco walls are decorated with old framed photos and kitschy paintings, and there are even a few lawn chairs out front. In addition to plain and pepperoni, Funzi’s has a few fancier slice options like one with bacon and chicory cream, as well as a crispy-looking rectangle of deep-fried lasagna.

We checked out Funzi's and added it to the Hit List. 

If you’re looking for a new, intimate West Village date spot, you might want to snag a booth at West10West. The city is awash in new natural wine spots, and this place features them too. They also collaborate with Onyx Coffee Lab to make specialty coffee drinks. The menu changes every few days and is influenced by different cuisines, so expect things like Spanish olives and serrano ham, a kofta burger, and bucatini al limone.

Adrienne’s, a new spot in Broad Channel, has frozen cocktails, an outdoor deck, and burrata garlic bread with pepperoni butter that you can pair with some lobster arancini. The “Italian-ish” restaurant, named for late chef Adrienne Guttieri, is also just a five-minute drive from Rockaway Beach, in case you want to build a sandcastle after dinner.

K-Town has a new gelateria, complete with hot pink decor and a few outdoor tables where you can sit and take in the neighborhood bustle. Open until 10pm, Sundaes Best specializes in Korean-inspired flavors and we're rearranging our calendars for a date with a triple scoop of miso caramel, banana milk, and makgeolli. Like many other dessert spots in the area, you may have to wait in a bit of a line.

Fans of Kanoyama in the East Village might remember that the sushi restaurant hosted an ongoing ramen pop-up before 2020. Now, you can find their shimmery shio and shoyu broth at Vert Fais, a new ramen and cocktail bar in LIC. This spot looks like a botanical-themed teahouse, with hanging vines, banana leaf wallpaper, and cocktails served in teacups.

This halal chain from California seems to draw inspiration from Taco Bell with its variety of crunch wraps, and a burger that’s stuffed with mac and cheese and dusted with crushed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. But they also serve Mediterranean food, like chicken shawarma and falafel. The vibe at the Ditmas Park location looks as playful as the food, with bright green, yellow, and red walls covered in sports paraphernalia, neon signs, and a big portrait of Biggie.

Unsurprisingly, this Italian all-day cafe is located in Nomad, and the Milanese menu is filled with equally unsurprising dishes like wagyu carpaccio, tomato-and-mozzarella-stuffed gnocchi, and grilled salmon. High ceilings and exposed ducts, a steel bar, and concrete floors give the dining room a chic industrial feel, and there are pieces on display from the owner’s art gallery as well.

Nothing gets New Yorkers excited quite like the arrival of a previously unavailable regional fast food chain, but we were still surprised to find security guards working the line the day Raising Cane’s opened in Times Square. This wildly popular Midwestern chain specializes in ultra crispy chicken tenders served with crinkle-cut fries, fluffy Texas toast, cole slaw, and a side of tangy sauce.

June

If you work in Midtown West and you’d like to end your day with some biryani, Hyderabadi Zaiqa might be your answer. It looks like a pretty casual Indian spot, and nothing on the menu is over $20.

Shiso is a French-Japanese fusion restaurant in the East Village from the team behind Moko that’s doing tasting menus starting at $100. You’ll find your classic nigiri pieces topped with caviar, but also things like chimichurri, and apple jelly. There are skateboards hung on the wall, neon purple lights, and we don’t know much more than that so you’ll have to go and find out.

Harlem Shake has a new LIC outpost where you can order your food from a lobby kiosk and then pick it up from a locker. We’re not exactly sure why, but we’re happy to report that if you’re hangry in LIC, you can now secure a smashburger and curly fries without talking to a single person.

Michael Cecchi-Azzolina used to be a maître d' at some of the city’s hottest restaurants. He even wrote a book about it. Now, he has a place of his own, and it’s channeling the glamor of old-school spots where you’d wear something nice and drink a martini. Expect updated bistro classics, and plenty of fries to go with your martini.

We recently checked out Cecchi's. Read our first thoughts here. 

An all-day cafe from the folks who brought you Casino, Mr. Fongs, and the vastly underappreciated Primo’s, Casetta is serving coffee, wine, beer, and small plates in a European-style space on the Lower East Side. There are bistro chairs aplenty, including a bunch on Hester Street, where you’ll already see crowds eating panini, scallop crudo, and platters of oysters.

This family-run Persian restaurant is on the second floor of a gently crumbling but atmospheric 1890s mansion, just around the corner from The Plaza hotel in Midtown. Expect homestyle dishes, like fesenjan and ghormeh sabzi with big plates of long grain rice, lots of dried rose petals, and an air of faded glamor.

Formerly a pop-up that bounced around town to places like Frenchette and Vinegar Hill House, Salty Lunch Lady’s Little Luncheonette now has a permanent home in Ridgewood. The old-timey space is filled with vintage knickknacks, and it’s open Thursday through Monday from 12-4pm. In addition to a few sandwiches, they’re also selling cookies, pie, and slices of cake.

A second location of this fast-casual Chinese spot has opened in Williamsburg. Unlike at the other location in Gramercy, this one offers bottled cocktails, an outdoor patio with a retractable roof, and a new brunch menu coming soon. The main menu remains the same, with Yunnan brisket bowls, plump wontons, and family-style set meals that start at $50. They also sell condiments made in-house, like a jar of chili crisp, that you can take to go.

It might be too late to book a last-minute trip to Japan, but you can still get a reservation at Sushidelic, a kawaii omakase restaurant in Soho from the same people behind the now shuttered Kawaii Monster Cafe in Tokyo. The $85, six-course experience involves conveyor belt sushi, savory plates disguised as sweets, and lots of Harajuku-inspired outfits and decorative elements.

If you’re not drinking natural wine in Brooklyn this summer, are you even living in New York City? Lise & Vito is Greenpoint’s newest place to engage in this time-honored pastime, and since they have several options for magnums under $200, it’s probably going to be a solid pick for a group hang. They’ll also be serving fancy Jello shots.

Despite all the restaurants you see with “Hunan” in the name, real deal Hunan cuisine can be hard to find. Hunan Slurp brought the region’s spicy broth and slippery noodles to the East Village in 2018, and now the same team is opening a noodle spot in Long Island City called Sofun Kitchen. Expect a solid selection of rice noodles, dim sum, and cocktails.

Puff’s sells Jamaican-style patties and fried empanadas in Crown Heights, and they’ve cleverly announced their debut with an enticing photo of the Puff’s Over Load: an oxtail and mac and cheese patty, stuffed inside coco bread. There are 10 patty varieties, and most cost $4. This place only has one small counter with two stools, so plan to take your food to go.

It’s nice that the relatively new Tin Building is next to the water, but you can’t really see the East River because you’re inside. Now this food hall has an outdoor bar where you can breathe in all the smoke-filled air from Canada that you want while ordering wine, beer, specialty cocktails, and a handful of dishes, such as green chickpea hummus and a mortadella and provolone sandwich. This bar is seasonal, so it will close up shop sometime in the fall.

Ruthie’s opened late last year and gained a following with Carroll Gardens parents looking for a kids menu that might peel their children away from the iPad for 30 minutes. Now, they’ve retooled the restaurant into a wine bar, replacing chicken fingers and sundaes with baked oysters and fermented chili mac. Let your kids get some screen time tonight and have an adult’s night out here instead.

For anyone keeping count, there’s another omakase counter opening this week, this time in Tribeca from the team behind Astoria’s Koyo. Like Koyo, Tsubame does a seasonal kaiseki meal with courses like wagyu shabu shabu and chawanmushi with sweet potato. If you’re having trouble choosing between all the sushi in the area, just go by price. At $225, this is actually on the lower end for omakases in the neighborhood.

From the team behind Gertie and one of the brothers who runs highly underrated shawarma destination Samesa, Gertrude’s is a restaurant in Prospect Heights inspired by European brasseries and classic NYC Jewish cuisine. They’re serving warm challah rolls, crispy beef tongue, and a burger with melted swiss, and all of the entrées come with your choice of fries or latkes.

Chrissy’s Pizza has been the most hard-to-get pie in New York City for the past few months, and it’s about to get at least a little easier to score one. This former pop-up has a new home in the old Superiority Burger space, and we have a feeling it’s going to be a scene. For now, it’s pre-order for pickup only, and there’s a limit of one pie per person, but the options will be expanding in weeks to come.

Tadao “Tony” Yoshida opened Angel’s Share in 1993. The East Village bar provided the blueprint for a million other quality-obsessed cocktail spots that opened over the next few decades, but it eventually shut down in early 2022. Now it’s back, run by Tony’s daughter, Erina Yoshida, in a 65-seat space on Grove Street in the West Village. They’re still serving some old classics, and the bar is still walk-in-only.

We checked out Angel's Share and added it to the Bar Hit List.

Even if you can’t make it to Rome, you can still go to Roscioli, a salumeria and restaurant from that city, because now there’s a location in Soho. You’ve probably heard about this place from that one friend who still hasn’t stopped talking about the trip they took to Italy four years ago, and yes, it’s as good as they said it was. Their NYC outpost will serve a $95 per person tasting menu downstairs, and an à la carte menu upstairs. 

We checked out Roscioli and added it to the Hit List. 

Eiji Ichimura, the former Uchu and Ichimura at Brushstroke chef, is collaborating with L’Abeille (one of the Best New Restaurants Of 2022) to open this Edomae-style omakase spot in Tribeca. There are only 10 seats at a counter, where you’ll get about 20 courses that include seasonal appetizers like a mochi rice cracker filled with caviar and uni, aged nigiri, and temaki. If this piques your interest, start saving: the whole experience costs $425.

Williamsburg has a lot of fussy, overpriced food, so a casual Moroccan spot that doesn’t require reservations weeks in advance is good news for the neighborhood. Expect tagines and grilled meat platters served on Moroccan dishware so pretty that you probably won’t be able to stop taking pictures.

Inspired by 1920s Berlin, Fritz is a cocktail bar in Fort Greene with red curtains, gold accents, and a partially covered patio with leather seating. The house cocktail involves black truffle and a slice of parm, so they're definitely leaning into the decadence of the era. There's a seafood-centric menu of bar bites, including oysters that are half-off during a daily 5-6pm Happy Hour.

This Gowanus spot looks like a promising option for after-work drinks in the area, with Japanese snacks that include things like “addictive cabbage," larger sharing plates, and lots of drink options, including cocktails, sake, shochu, and Japanese whiskeys. The cozy restaurant has exposed brick and warm lighting, as well as a patio.

This popular pizza joint on the LES has relocated to a bigger space across the street on Orchard, and we can only hope that this move will help with the long lines for Scarr’s terrific slices in different styles, baked with dough made from grains milled in-house. They also serve vegan caesar salad and garlic knots, as well as a small selection of natural wines.

Sartiano’s, a modern Italian restaurant, has taken over the space that was home to The Mercer Kitchen for 25 years. The restaurant looks like a fancy wine cellar with exposed brick walls and lots of arches. Alfred Portale, known for his time at Gotham Bar and Grill, is in charge of the menu, which has dishes like caviar cannolis and wild mushroom lasagna.

If you’ve ever wanted to take a break from clothes shopping for a quick omakase, now you can. Saks Fifth Avenue has a new sushi counter called Hoseki, and it’s helmed by a chef who knows a thing or two about quick omakases, since he used to work for Sushi by Bou. There are 6 seats at the counter and the omakase is $95, which is probably cheaper than whatever else you’re buying at Saks.

According to their Instagram, The Francis Kite Club is a "collectively built space created for sociality, leisure, collaboration, conversation and play." Is that just a fancy way of saying "bar with events?" Maybe. But this East Village spot does seem like it’s going to be doing its own thing. The roughly 40-seat space will feature artist lectures, film screenings, performances, and live music, with small bites, beer, wine, and cocktails available.

Outposts of popular spots like Jacob’s Pickles and H&H Bagels have been slowly opening in Moynihan Train Hall during the past year and change. The latest vendor is the third location of Pastrami Queen (and the first one below Central Park). This kosher Jewish deli first opened in 1956 on the Upper East Side, and you can order things like knishes, chopped liver, and potato pancakes here in addition to their famous pastrami.

The East Village is getting a new Roman-inspired all-day cafe just in time for summer, aka “Italian vacation FOMO season." At Caffe Corretto, you can stand at a bar and dunk biscotti in your espresso without booking a transatlantic flight. The space transitions from a casual coffee bar and lunch spot during the day to a cozy restaurant with a pasta-centric menu in the evenings.

A second location of Mama Lee, originally from Bayside, has opened a few blocks from the water in Williamsburg. The loft-like space has a plant-filled mezzanine and teapots displayed on shelves, and the menu includes traditional Taiwanese favorites like lu rou fan, beef noodle soup, and lion’s head meatball, which is braised longer than the combined runtime for all 11 Fast & Furious movies.

The little takeout-only space in Gowanus that used to house My Cuban Spot has a fresh coat of blue paint and a brand new tenant. Kiosko 787 is serving Puerto Rican items like alcapurrias, arroz mamposteao, and a few different sandwiches, including a steak, ham, and roast pork-stuffed tripleta. Wednesday through Sunday, you can stop at their window on Carroll Street and grab some food to go.

The folks at Hand Hospitality seem to open restaurants as often as some people do laundry. They’re behind spots like LittleMad, Ariari, and most recently Moono (see below)—and now Samwoojung. A Seoul-based establishment dating back to 1963, Samwoojung specializes in bulgogi cooked in copper vessels with simmering broth. This Chelsea spot also serves traditional Korean appetizers, noodles, and rice dishes, which you can enjoy in a minimalist space filled with concrete and dark wood.

We checked out Samwoojung 1963 and added it to the Hit List. 

Elly’s Pastry in K-Town specializes in the art of the Japanese fruit sando. They’re currently in a soft-opening phase, so expect a limited menu consisting of whipped cream and fruit between slices of bread, and strawberry shortcake by the slice. In the coming weeks, they’ll be adding more coffee and pastry options.

Do you consider 15 pieces of nigiri a mere appetizer? If so, you might want to check out Raosu, an AYCE restaurant in Midtown where you can eat unlimited rainbow rolls and sashimi, as well as fill your table’s hot pot with tiger prawns, organic pork belly, and so much more. The dramatic dining room has 50-foot ceilings, chandeliers, and wrap-around brown leather banquettes, and the deal costs $70 per person, but you can also order à la carte before 4pm.

Longstanding Chinatown staple Wonton Noodle Garden was reportedly unable to sign a new lease, but, thanks to Mei Lai Wah, their food isn’t going anywhere. Mei Lai Wah Wonton Noodle is a new spot on Pell Street that will essentially be a mashup of the two restaurants. Staffed by chefs from Wonton Noodle Garden, the place has a diner-like feel with booths, bar seating, and a few outdoor tables.

If you don’t eat gluten and you’re tired of always having to enjoy your ice cream out of a paper cup, check out Glace by Noglu. From Sasha Zabar (of Zabar’s), this tiny, pink Upper East Side shop is selling custardy, French-style ice cream and soft serve, and everything here is gluten-free, including the cones and baked goods from affiliated bakery Noglu down the street.

We have mixed feelings about the fact that a backyard bagel shop from Connecticut has won the Brooklyn BagelFest two years in a row, but it’s hard to deny the gravitational pull of the perfectly chewy bagels with a thin, blistered crust from Popup Bagels. They’ve left their popup era behind and moved into a permanent location on Thompson Street. For now, you’ll need to pre-order at least a dozen bagels and schmear—we tried their Mike’s Hot Honey Butter variety at this year’s BagelFest and loved it.

We’ve already told you how much we like Greywind, a new restaurant in Hudson Yards that serves house-made "Cheese-Its." You can keep the night going after dinner with drinks at Spygold, a moody, chic cocktail lounge underneath the restaurant. The drinks menu is organized by flavor profile, and the vibe is “finance executive’s living room.” If you work in the area, this could become your go-to for after-work drinks.

This tiny Korean snack shop in the West Village specializes in bungeoppang with the Statue of Liberty stamped on the outside. The menu is currently pretty small: you can get what they call a “goddess bun” filled with salty cheese, chocolate and nuts, or red bean. If you want something a little more substantial, they also sell tteokbokki.

Some of the folks behind Ayat and Albadawi have opened this Mediterranean spot at the Coney Island Amphitheater on the boardwalk. The gigantic space looks more like a banquet hall than a restaurant, complete with wedding after-party dance vibes. There’s a rooftop with panoramic views of the beach where you can do hookah and order stuffed cabbage, grilled octopus, and kebabs from the halal menu.

This West Village spot can be summed up in three words: biscuits, butter, and coffee. Southern Charm is from the team behind Bird Dog (a couple doors down), and makes things like BEC and BLT sandwiches with freshly baked biscuits. You can also get biscuits topped with gravy, jam, and a bunch of custom flavors of butter like orange curry and Bloody Mary. Southern Charm is open until 2pm every day.

At the rate New York’s sushi scene is going, we could probably add 12 new sushi spots to this guide every week. Sushi Goda on the UES caught our eye because they have a 10-piece, $75 omakase with attractive looking fish. It’s in the old Two Door Tavern spot, so it looks like you’re eating sushi in a cabin but with sleek new appliances and furniture.

You can get smoked whitefish salad on a bagel or a cauliflower schnitzel from Edith’s first Manhattan outpost, a counter in Tribeca. The Williamsburg sandwich specialist has a takeout window at Tiny’s that’s open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays. There are a few outdoor tables, but no indoor seating. If you come for Tiny’s weekend brunch, you can order a couple of Edith’s specials, including coconut macaroon french toast.

Late-late night food isn’t as widely available as it once was in the city, and we thought we’d lost another option when Ichibantei closed earlier this year. But the East Village Japanese restaurant is back, reopening in a huge space down the street that once belonged to clubstaurant VNYL. The new space does look very shiny and club-like, and it’s open until 3am. They still have albums on display like the original spot and comfort food like ramen, fried chicken, and donburi rice bowls.

Soho’s Lan Larb Chiangmai isn’t especially new or buzzy, but it’s one of your best options for a casual Thai meal downtown. Now, the owners have a second spot in Bushwick called Chiangmai Diner, and it serves a similarly expansive menu of Northern Thai food, alongside classics like crab fried rice and pad khee mao. The dining room has plenty of space, with a long bar and a bunch of picnic tables, so this place could be a good candidate for your next group meal.

Two grandsons of Carmen Ramirez Degollado (of the El Bajío restaurant empire) opened Casa Carmen in Tribeca last spring, and now they have a second location in Flatiron with wooden beams and volcanic stone sculptures. We expect the same great tacos and shredded duck tostadas, along with pleasantly bittersweet mole made with 37 ingredients. They’re only serving dinner at the moment, but lunch and brunch are coming soon.

Hand Hospitality is at it again. From the chef behind Jua and the restaurant group that runs Atoboy and Ariari, Moono is a new spot in Nomad serving a wide range of Korean food. The menu is split into nine sections, with various ssam options like scallop and blood sausage, a few hot pots, and a couple of noodle dishes, such as their summer-appropriate naengmyeon. You can eat that cold buckwheat noodle soup in a grand, cathedral-like space that features blonde wood, terracotta tiling, and a mural painted on the ceiling.

Add Frog to the growing list of new Brooklyn wine bars with charming outdoor spaces (see Bar Vinazo). The leafy backyard at this Bed-Stuy spot is the main draw, with little round tables scattered around a gravel lawn. Inside, there’s a pool table, candlelight, and church pew-like benches. Expect a usual suspects lineup of snacks and small plates, including bread and butter, olives, and boquerones on toast.

Before closing last year, Foxface served sandwiches from a window on St. Marks. But these weren’t just any sandwiches. They often involved things like braised goat, beef heart, and shrimp with fava beans. So really, Foxface’s transition to serving inventive seasonal dishes isn’t that odd. Stop by the new East Village space for natural wine, roasted quail, and white asparagus gelato with peppercorn meringue.

Pricey omakases are nothing new for NYC, but this 18-course one ($250) in Greenpoint doesn’t consist of nigiri flown in from Tokyo. Instead, you’ll get French dishes with “Japanese undertones” like a pork belly tartlet with cabbage anchovy purée, and mushroom flan with surf clam. There are two seatings per night (6pm and 8:30pm) at an 18-top, black marble chef’s counter. After your last savory course and a couple of desserts, you’ll be escorted to a lounge area for more sweets and optional digestifs.

Audiophiles have a new place to hang out in Long Island City. Record Room is a cocktail bar with a huge vinyl collection and a DJ booth. The space is built with acoustics in mind, and feels like a cozy living room, or private club in the '70s, decked out in brown suede and velvet. There’s also a cafe in front that serves coffee and soft serve.

You can now get Spicy Moon’s mapo tofu and super thin, crispy scallion pancakes at their third location, which is on the Bowery. Like the other locations of this vegan Sichuan restaurant, this one is big, pastel-colored, and may come in handy when you’re looking for a last-minute group dinner spot with people who don’t eat animal products.

We love a good tortilla espanola, but it’s really all about the wine list at Casa Lola, a new tapas restaurant in LIC. With an expansive list of Spanish wines, beers, and other liquors by the glass, in addition to a carefully curated coffee menu, this place has the potential to be one of LIC’s best summer day-drinking spots. It’s all indoors, but has huge windows and is colorfully decorated, as if the owner went to the wallpaper store with a Black Card and never looked back.

A collaboration between the place that makes some of our favorite ice cream and the place we go to when we want an extremely fancy plate of potato chips is bound to be a hit. Morgenstern’s pop-up cart at Ernesto’s will feature Basque-inspired frozen desserts, and we’re pretty sure it’ll be the place to be seen eating a slab of french toast stuffed with chocolate ice cream this summer. The cart will be stationed outside the restaurant through August.