NYCGuide

NYC’s New Restaurant Openings

The new restaurant openings you should know about.
two soup dumplings

photo credit: Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

If you tried to keep track of every new restaurant and bar in New York, your head might spin. So just read this list instead. These are the openings that seem like they have the most potential. Although, keep in mind, we make no promises about the places we haven't visited yet. Go forth and be a pioneer—or just keep up with our Hit List to see which new restaurants we checked out and loved.

March

photo credit: Will Hartman

The exterior of San Sabino in the West Village

San Sabino

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As expected, reservations for the Don Angie team's Italian American seafood spot are harder to come by than 7pm IMAX tickets for Dune: Part Two. You can allegedly walk into this new West Village restaurant if you show up early. Here's to hoping that the octopus carpaccio, styled like capicola, tastes as good as it looks.

photo credit: Will Hartman

Pizza

West Village

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The West Village is apparently the number one neighborhood to open a second branch of New York’s great pizzerias. Mama’s Too now has an outpost on Bleecker Street where they sell square pies, slices, and sandwiches just 260 feet away from L’Industrie West Village. Do we smell a pizza turf war brewing?

Sukh

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At Sukh in Fort Greene, you can eat kang pu crab curry in a space that looks like a train car, complete with railroad benches out front and a menu styled like an old-timey newspaper welcoming you aboard. The restaurant celebrates the tradition of Thai railways, and promises to “take you on a journey of flavor and happiness.” Punch our ticket, we’re interested.

photo credit: Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

an assortment of dishes; soup dumplings, scallion pancakes, dumplings, noodles, from Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

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This XLB institution just landed in the East Village. Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao already has locations in Koreatown and Flushing, and now you can slurp soup dumplings and crunch scallion pancakes (along with other Shanghainese staples) on St. Marks.

photo credit: Sauced Wine Bar

a few dishes and a glass of wine at Sauced Wine Bar

Sauced Wine Bar

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Sauced, a sceney Williamsburg wine bar, took a trip over the bridge to open a new (probably equally sceney) East Village location. They have food like lobster bao or wagyu tartare available in their red neon lounge, or you could just come for a glass in their bar up front.

We loved the original Swell Dive in Bed-Stuy because we could get Spam or pork adobo tacos off of their Filipino/Tex-Mex menu, as well as some solid cocktails. After closing in 2023, they’re back open with a heavier focus on Filipino flavors, including cocktails that use calamansi and ube, and some bar food.

Siete is a vegan spot in Flatiron where you can get plant-based carne asada or pibil. The plating looks dramatic. Picture a copper cactus holding a few doughnut-shaped churro or a quesadilla lying on a spiral staircase. 

In case you've ever said, "Hmm there aren't enough places in North Brooklyn to get chilled reds and radishes with butter," here's another. With Others serves seasonal snacks and bottles from small producers, so it might be useful if you want to meet up with a friend for a glass of skin-contact something something and crab toast.

photo credit: De Graux Imaging

the interior of noboy told me dumbo, with a large mural of birds enjoying a cocktail

Nobody Told Me

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When Nobody Told Me first opened on the Upper West Side, we were excited to have a cocktail bar in a neighborhood not exactly known for cocktail bars. Now, they have a second location in Dumbo. If it's anything like the first, this should work for casual drinks and snacks. Or a cocktail after walking in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

If you like your bagel hot (who doesn't?), head to Apollo Bagels in the East Village. It’s from the sourdough heroes at Leo pizza in Williamsburg, and you can get  fresh-out-of-the-oven plain, sesame, or everything bagels, and a handful of bagel sandwiches. For now, they’re only open Friday to Sunday, and there was a line by 10am last weekend, but we loved them so much, we added them to our Hit List, and Best Bagels guide.

From Greenpoint favorite brunch spot Nura, Pan Pan Vino Vino is the latest addition to the bakery-by-day, wine-bar-by-night trend. Poppyseed croissants. Guava cream cheese bun. Small plates. Natural wine. Need we say more?

photo credit: Patrick Dolande

the dining room, with a few leather booths and floral wallpaper, at Chelsea Living Room

Chelsea Living Room

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For some performative dining, split between a few distinct spaces, head to Chelsea Living Room on 14th Street. A night here might begin next to a fireplace in the living room area, or in a plush leather booth in the dining room, with plates of things like smoked mozzarella sticks with caviar, dirty martini dip, and a gelato board "with all the fixings." There's also a lounge area, which is obviously behind a secret door. Expect jungle wallpaper and leopard-print carpet.

This isn't just your average hidden bar. From the folks behind the now-closed MangoSeed, MangoSeed ‘Easy is located behind a fully functioning bike shop in Flatbush. Step behind the curtain for Caribbean snacks and cocktails in a room with lime-green walls and red velvet seats. They have Happy Hours from Tuesday to Thursday, before 5:15 and between 8-9pm with $8 rum punch. You'll find things like braised oxtail and a double smashburger on the menu.

photo credit: Nicholas Lee Ruiz

a martini being poured tableside

The Alderman

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At The Alderman, a restaurant in the Motto Hotel in Times Square, you can select your cocktail garnishes off a tableside martini cart, then pair your drink with dishes with names like “Crispy Piggy”. They’ve got cocktails inspired by a recipe book from the 1900s and nods to New York’s Gilded Age with steakhouse-adjacent cuisine and lots of leather seating. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Near the 125th Street 2/3 stop in Harlem, Azara Kitchen serves Mediterranean and West African food, as well as cafe fare. In their previous location, a bit further east, they had things like jolly rice, faso omelet, and rotisserie chicken. They also serve coffee and it looks like a good place to spend a couple hours hanging out.

photo credit: The Lions Bar and Grill

an overhead shot of dishes at The Lions Bar and Grill, including a burger, mozzarella sticks, a salad, a baked potato, and a pasta

The Lions Bar and Grill

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The people behind Madeline’s Martini have another spot in the East Village. But rather than 14 riffs on a martini, The Lions is advertising their frosty beer and juicy burgers. You can also pair a classic cocktail with a late-night loaded jacket potato—the kitchen is open until 1am on the weekends.

From the team behind the Midtown subway station bar Nothing Really Matters, See No Evil, a pizza spot, is also located in the labyrinthian 50th street stop. Of course, we're immediately thinking about pizza rat and/or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. They have wine and cocktails, and snacks and antipasti, as well as pies with toppings like caciocavallo cheese and broccoli rabe.

The East Village storefront is the first location in New York of YGF Malatang, a hot pot chain with a whopping 6,000 locations across Asia, and a few on the West Coast. You’ll fill up your bowl with dippers, vegetables, and pay by weight, before returning to your seat and swishing away.

Just in time for NYC’s second false spring, the Loeb Boathouse—a Central Park landmark since 1954—has reopened after a two-year hiatus. They’re serving lunch and dinner by the lake, as well as a Sunday brunch, so you can eat some oysters Rockefeller and fish and chips, while staring at people in pedal-boats.

photo credit: Sonny Val

the interior of Wise Guy

Wise Guy

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Today in things we’d never thought we’d publish on the internet: there is a speakeasy in a coworking space in Greenpoint. Wise Guy is located inside the Class and Co. office space, and as silly as it sounds, they do offer $10 martinis on Thursdays, and will have DJs on the weekends.

February

Caravan Uyghur Cuisine

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There are just a handful of Uyghur restaurants in Manhattan, but one of our favorites (which closed in 2022) is back. At Caravan Uyghur Cuisine in FiDi, you can get Uyghur classics like chewy, stir-fried hand pulled noodles. Or, you could ball out and order a $600 lamb cooked in their tandoor oven. The choice is yours (but we'll be trying both).

When the people from Rolo’s open a new spot, we get excited. First, there was Radio Bakery, which has some of our favorite pastries and croissants in the city. Now, they’re back with a new spot in Ridgewood called Hellbender, which they’re calling a night-time cafe. You can eat bites like fried Oaxacan cheese with tomatillo salsa, or a fried tilefish sandwich.

photo credit: L'Americana

a cocktail in front of a liquor cabinet

L'Americana

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The team behind Martiny’s—a Japanese cocktail bar we love in Gramercy—now has an Italian bar and restaurant next door. It’s called L’Americana, and will be serving things like pickled mussels with ‘nduja and lemon, and what we can only assume will be a killer lineup of negronis.

Our colleagues in Los Angeles tell us that Ahgassi Gopchang is a rowdy, smoky spot with “the finest cuts of meat.” So even while we’re sad that Baekjeong closed last month in Koreatown, we’re excited about the new Ahgassi outpost in its place. (Baekjeong will be reopening in a bigger spot.) This spot is particularly known for their beef intestines, and it sounds like our kind of party—though if it’s anything like Baekjeong, expect long lines.

photo credit: Sen Saigon

a bowl of bun hue

Sen Saigon

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Plant-based people know the struggle of finding a good bánh mì. At Sen Saigon on the Lower East Side, you can get a mushroom tofu version of the sandwich, as well as more vegan Vietnamese options like veggie spring rolls and even a bún bò huế with a vegan version of chả ốc. This is a small, casual spot, and they’re in a soft opening right now, so check Instagram for hours.

For anyone who religiously tracks our “See and Be Seen” tag, keep an eye on (Sub)Mercer. This underground cocktail bar in the same Soho hotel as Sartiano's has closed and reopened a couple of times since the late 1990s, and at one point, you used to have to email to get on the guest list. This time around, you can (try to) reserve a spot online as well as send an email to be admitted.

photo credit: Francesco Sapienza

a restaurant dining room opening out into a patio

Savta

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In the West Village, Savta calls itself California-inspired “with a French twist.” The menu mashes together even more influences—you’ll find a full pizza section and some pastas, things like Japanese eggplant and chimichurri, as well as a $120 porterhouse for two with fries and béarnaise sauce. At brunch, you can also get a $55 mimosa carafe to go with your avocado toast.

Lots of new cafes claim to be open “all day.” But they pale in comparison to Greenpoint’s Red Rover, which is open from 8am-2am on the weekends, and until midnight during the week. Start with an espresso, take a call, send a couple emails from their comfy-looking red velvet couch, and before you know it, you’ll be ready for a glass of wine underneath a red door on their ceiling, which looks suspiciously like a British phone booth.

For Upper East Side residents who’ve been to The Penrose just one too many times, there’s a new drinking option for you a few blocks south on 2nd Ave. Lucille’s has cocktails for $14-16, and they say they’re trying to bring the feel of a downtown dive bar to the neighborhood.

photo credit: Debbie's

a drum set on stage at Debbie's

Debbie's

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In Long Island City, Debbie’s is located above Dutch Kills, which is one of our favorite cocktail bars. It’s a venue for live music, open from Thursday to Sunday, and their $10 cover goes straight to the band. They’ll have jazz on Sundays and a mix of other styles on other days—check out the calendar on their website for details.

At a time when new bars are consistently upping the ante on how much they choose to charge for drinks, The Less Dead in Williamsburg goes hard in the opposite direction. They have $4 beers, $5 beer-and-a-shot combos, free pool, and a large backyard with a bocce court for when it warms up. It’s from the same people as The Mallard Drake, another casual spot in Greenpoint.

photo credit: Pauline Shapiro

the red-neon lit interior of Silencio

Silencio

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It’s not everyday we see a swanky, cinematic nightclub opening in Manhattan—and Silencio in Hell’s Kitchen looks more cinematic than most. The original Paris location was inspired by director David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, and this one is replete with mysterious nooks, red neon lighting, and techno DJs. You can email them for a table reservation, or to put your name on the list.

Paloma Coffee & Bakery

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At this red and white Williamsburg bakery, you can get laminated pastries and some very juicy-looking chocolate babka muffins, as well as a bag of freshly roasted single-origin coffee. It’s the second location of Paloma Coffee, which has been roasting coffee in Greenpoint since 2020.

photo credit: Lolita

The inside of the bar at Lolita

Lolita

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If you’re an enjoyer of agave spirits, Lolita in Midtown should be on your radar. The two-level bar has a serious collection of tequilas and mezcals (as well as a pretty big rum list), so you can sip on your beverage of choice while eating a short rib sope or a baja fish taco before catching a show.

What is French rockabilly chic? We don’t quite have the answer yet, but the bartenders at Le Pistol in Prospect Heights should, because it’s how they describe Le Pistol on Instagram. This new cocktail bar has comfy-looking leather booths, and some bar bites to keep you sipping and jiving all night long.

photo credit: Crave Sushi Bar

Sushi bar with a few scattered tables

Crave Sushi Bar

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Located next door to the original Crave Fishbar in Midtown East, Crave Sushi Bar jumps aboard the sustainable sushi boat. Here, you can eat locally caught scallops next to a painting of a diver stabbing a giant squid. For those who don’t like any background noise, there’s a “naked sushi” option for nigiri served straight up, without garnishes.

From the people behind Bar Goyana and Mojo in East Harlem, Cafe d’Anvers is a fire engine red Belgian restaurant on 100th and Lexington. Pop in for an endive gratin dish with ham, or carbonnade flamande, which is a beef stew that’s braised in Belgian beer and comes with french fries (famously, a Belgian invention).

Taking over the old Lulu & Po space in Clinton Hill, Bittersweet Breakfast is the second location of Bittersweet Coffee, a beloved spot for caffeine in the neighborhood. The space looks a bit like an ad for a wallpaper store, with a bright green storefront, leafy wallpaper, and blue gingham tablecloths.

photo credit: Noah Fecks

the food and drink spread at the Bentwood. A burger, a chicken sandwich, several plates of fries, and a few colorful cocktails.

The Bentwood

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Chicago improv legend The Second City has a new venue in Williamsburg, and The Bentwood is the food operation within it. You can eat a fancy burger with fancy beef-fat cottage fries before shouting at improv players and suggesting they act out things like “one-legged aunt” or “crabs playing ice hockey while reading Dune.”

Javitri on the Upper East Side is a North Indian restaurant where you can start your meal with a chutney sampler and samosa cigars before moving on to dishes like ghost chili chicken tikki and green mango shrimp . It’s an eight-minute walk from the Central Park Zoo, so keep it in mind if you’ve just seen some pygmy goats, and are in the mood for biryani.

La Panineria, the Greenwich Village Italian Sandwich shop, has a younger sister on the Upper East Side. Check it out if you’re craving a $20 sandwich with burrata and prosciutto, and check here for our favorite sandwich shops in NYC.

photo credit: Bryan W. Ferry

Theodora interior with lit oven

Theodora

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From the Miss Ada team, Theodora is also a Fort Greene Mediterranean spot that hits a lot of recently-hot buzzwords like seasonal, open fire, natural wine, and dry-aged fish. The 76-seat restaurant has a menu of flatbreads, crudo and vegetable/seafood dishes that are mostly powered by a blazing Josper oven behind their counter seating area.

photo credit: Glowing Studios

Jade and Clover Front Bar interior

Jade and Clover

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Jade & Clover picked a very on-the-nose name for an Irish/Chinese speakeasy-style bar. You enter through what looks like a Chinese apothecary on the Lower East Side, and once you’ve made your way to the golden-lit space with a giant clover sculpture on the wall, you can wash down some dim sum with a chrysanthemum collins.

We would try to describe Frog Club, a West Village tavern from the people behind LA’s Horses (whatever you do, don’t look up this restaurant and its association with cats unless you have an afternoon to waste), in the old Chumley's space. But they cover your phone camera with stickers when you go in, and reservations (for Monday-Thursday nights) are currently only available via email. There's a 12-minute launch video hinting at a heavy pinch of bistro-ish nostalgia, but that’s about all we know until we get inside ourselves.

photo credit: Hassan Mokaddam

charred sweet potato nigiri

Omakaseed

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Omakaseed, from the Sushi by Bou team, was a small counter in Nomad that served a plant-based omakase menu. It closed last year, but now they’re back in a larger space in the Sanctuary Hotel in Times Square. You can get either 11 courses for $60, or 15 for $100, with things like charred sweet potatoes with vegan miso mayo, or king oyster mushroom nigiri.

Batik Malaysian Indonesian Cuisine and Bar

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There’s a new spot in Rego Park for Indonesian and Malaysian food. At Batik Restaurant, you can eat things like nasi lemak with curry chicken, Hainanese chicken, and beef rendang. It’s open all day for lunch and dinner, and has a bar.

photo credit: Sir Henry's

Sir Henry's exterior

Sir Henry's

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Once you run out of tokens at the Dave & Busters in Times Square and are in need of a nightcap, you can head to Sir Henry’s, a three-story bar on the corner of 48th Street and 8th Ave. With vinyl floors, frosted glass partitions and screens playing movies like Pretty In Pink, it’s leaning hard into ’80s nostalgia.

Tired of your r/GYM inspired double-steak double-rice bowl from Chipotle? Kernel is a new venture from the founder of the fast-casual Mexican chain, and this Gramercy location is the first of 15 more that are planned for New York. It’s an automat-style vegan spot with mostly robotic workers, where you can get a “kernel burger” with a side of marinated beets and cucumber salad.

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings

Two tacos from tacos el porky

Tacos el Porky

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What was once Tacos el Primo has now rebranded itself as Tacos el Porky in the East Village. It’s a taqueria from Miami that our colleagues down south called “basically a fast food taco spot—in the best possible way.” You can get al pastor, chicharron, and gringa tacos, as well as tortas and a few other snacks in the counter-service space.

If you’re the person in your friend group who looks out for rooftop bars before they get tapped, this one is for you. Aliya in Williamsburg’s Hotel Indigo has a menu with Caribbean and Asian flavors, and once the weather gets warmer, they’ll open up their pool terrace. You can say you’ve known about this place forever while sipping on your Enter the Dragon cocktail.

photo credit: Marconi Gonzalez

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Amarena

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At Amarena on the Upper East Side, you can eat truffled suppli and a $72 lobster dish with ‘nduja risotto. The two-floored, 60-seat Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side comes from the people behind Toloache and El Fish Marisqueria. It’s the group’s first Italian spot and could be a good post-museum dinner option.

photo credit: Sebastian Lucrecio

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Postcard

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Specializing in all things handheld, the Nami Nori team now has a Japanese teahouse and bakery right next door to their original West Village location. Pop into the bright, colorful space for some chiffon cake and fruit salad sandwiches, and specialty bubble teas.

Craving kimbap? At Lim’s Kitchen in Astoria, they offer 10 different versions of the dish, filled with everything from ham to spicy squid. They also have other Korean comfort foods, like tteokbokki, bibimbap, and kimchi stew.

Gowanus has a new space for adding fizzy pet-nats to your growing wine collection. Black Cat Wines, a queer- and black-owned wine shop, focuses on highlighting selections from minority and natural wine makers and producers.

This city truly is global. In Bushwick, Niteglow (a Chicago brewery) is opening inside of Dayglow (an LA coffee shop), where you can get beer, coffee, mocktails, and pastries from La Cabra (a Danish pastry shop).

There’s a new take-out lunch option in Greenpoint. Fans of Banhmigos Vietnamese staples, like cold vermicelli noodles or their braised short rib banh mi, can now get them at the restaurant’s second location.

Washington Heights has a new quick-service vegan restaurant. Vegan Quick Bites is a pivot from Next Stop Vegan, which opened in 2021. They’ll serve riffs on Dominican classics, with options like vegan sandwiches, empanadas, and mac and cheese.

Even though an extremely high-end clothing store from Angelina Jolie is about the last place we’d want to trust ourselves with an uncapped cup of coffee, there’s now a new cafe in the Noho store. They've got Turkish coffee and some small bites, and have partnered with Eat Offbeat, which hires refugees into food businesses.

The people behind August Gatherings now have a sprawling 168-seat Cantonese restaurant in FiDi. There are three private dining spaces, as well as a main dining area with bright orange banquettes and glitzy chandeliers, where you can eat Cantonese classics like chilled jellyfish, and choose from an entire section of abalone dishes. For a minimum of two people, there’s also a six-course tasting menu for $138 per person.

Nudibranch, one of our favorite places to eat creative food while pretending we live in a West Elm catalog, has now opened a small walk-in wine bar within its East Village space. Inside, there are a handful of stools, where you can sit and sip vermouth, and eat conservas (otherwise known as tinned fish), and other snacks from the Iberian peninsula. 

Class on 38th is the latest restaurant from the people behind Antidote and Nemesis. But while those restaurants focus on Chinese and Southeast Asian food respectively, this place near Bryant Park serves Japanese food. Like the group’s other spots, you can order a selection of small plates, as well as a few larger ones, and there’s an emphasis on seafood dishes, like Hokkaido scallop crudo with uni and shiso aguachile.

photo credit: Max Flatow

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Another Country

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Looking for another place to drink with someone who insists that vinyl just sounds better? Another Country, from the owner of Botanica Bar, is a Union Square spot that promises “cocktails, food, records, and joy.” You can sip a cocktail called The Plural of Vinyl is Vinyl in a floral wallpaper-lined room, while listening to a DJ spin records.

photo credit: Amy Elisabeth Spasoff

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Third Kingdom

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Once a temporary restaurant called &Beer, Third Kingdom is a permanent version of the vegan concept from the same people behind Avant Garden and Cadence. It's in a larger space, but mushrooms still take center stage in dishes like couscous with colorful yellow enoki and orange balsamic vinaigrette, and king royal trumpets with green sauce. You’ll even find mushrooms in the dessert.

There’s a new cafe in South Slope, where you can get polenta bread baked in-house or breakfast pastries from Balthazar, pizza al taglio, and two different smoked trout salads. Right now, Little Honey is only open during the day, but they’ll add dinner service in the next few weeks.

Sanuki is a “build-your-own” udon spot in the West Village, where you craft your bowl fast-casual style. Bowls start at $7, and you can eat your noodles made with Japanese wheat and boiled in special soft water underneath a mural depicting an udon bowl in the empty fountain in Washington Square Park.

photo credit: Cloudy Donut Co.

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Cloudy Donut Co.

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Cloudy Donut Co., known for their airy and colorful donuts, has a second NYC location in Nolita. At the donut shop, which started in Baltimore, they have 44 rotating flavors, like Strawberry Lemonade or Blackberry Mint Mojito, with around 10 available at any given time. If the long lines at their Brooklyn Heights location are any indication, head over early.

Listen up, East Villagers: if Motel No Tell is too crowded, you now have a back up to the fake Florida. In the old Keybar space, this is the latest bar in the area with some beachy branding (see also Paradise Lost), but it looks more like a dive that got a glow-up with some neon lighting and disco balls.

January

photo credit: Pratya Jankong

The red and pink lit interior of Sappe. There are arched accents on the walls, a velvet booth and a  marble table dressed with colorful dishware and glasses.

Sappe

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The team behind Soothr, one of our favorite Thai restaurants in Manhattan, has opened a new place in the West Village. Sappe looks like more of a party spot than Soothr, with neon pink and blue lighting, and bright cocktails to match. No less colorful are the menu descriptions of those cocktails, inspired by women from various Thai novels and films. There are plenty of fried drinking snacks and grilled skewers, as well as a full list of salads, noodles and meaty entrees.

Blanca, the chef’s counter located inside the Roberta’s compound, is back after a pandemic-related hiatus. But the Bushwick pizza maker's upwardly mobile younger sister has little to do with Neapolitan pie mastery. Instead, when it first opened in 2012, Blanca was known for its marathon, 27-course tasting menus. Though they’ve been coyly teasing hunks of meat and whole naked birds on Instagram, we expect mostly small, two-bite plates in the $275 per person experience. Book reservations in advance.

From the team behind Laut and Kebab aur Sharab, Kanyakumari celebrates the foods of Southern India with dishes like fried mussels, and butterflied branzino. It’s in Union Square, where the group’s Kebaya used to be, and is named for the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula. Expect seashell decor and dishes like curried crab sukka.

photo credit: Demo

Lobster au poivre on a white plate with a side of frites.

Demo

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From the former chef at Cool World, a short-lived American bistro in Greenpoint that closed last year, Demo is a West Village wine bar and cafe. In the former home of the iconic shop Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books, this place seems geared towards a completely different demographic, with Tony Soprano on their Instagram, and (eventually) lobster au poivre on their marble tables. The cafe is open until 3pm, with a full-service French and Mediterranean restaurant coming in February.

If you’ve been not-so-patiently waiting for Little Grenjai in Bed-Stuy, the Thai American spot from the couple behind Warung Roadside is finally open, after an initial false start in September. After doing pop-ups, including with their excellent krapow smashburgers, for the past few months, they finally have gas and open their doors January 26, for reservations and limited walk-ins. If you ever managed to snag one of their burgers, or their Thai tea cake, you’re probably just as excited as we are.

There's a new bar in Ridgewood. (There's always a new bar in Ridegwood.) This one, however, has $10 boozy hot cocoa and ginger hot toddies. There's a big wooden bar, a disco ball, and Happy Hour from 12pm-7pm. Plus, you can bring your dog.

photo credit: Daniel Silbert

The red and gold accented interior of Weill Cafe.

Weill Cafe

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Even though they probably should’ve timed up this opening with the release of Maestro, Carnegie Hall has a new food outlet. With deep red and gold accents, the Weill Cafe looks like it’s perfectly in tune with the Midtown performance space. You don’t need a ticket to pop into the cafe during the week, but before certain Saturday performances, you can do a three-course dinner for $139, with things like burrata, branzino, and chocolate lava cake.

Nem's is a new Japanese-Scandinavian spot in Williamsburg that began as a pop-up called Nem's Smoothie Bar. It's open from 8am-10pm, so come here for all-day brunch, dinner, tea and coffee, and cocktails and sake. Once you're done at Nem's, you can head upstairs to Koi Izakaya, their speakeasy—we're sorry if we've ruined the surprise.

photo credit: Alex Staniloff

Four tacos on a metal tray next to bowls of beans and rice.

Bar Mexicana

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Good news for all the Mermaid Inn fans out there: the group has a new spot called Bar Mexicana. It’s right next door to the Times Square location of the Mermaid Oyster Bar, and they’re serving all sorts of tacos (between $3-4) on Sobre Masa tortillas. As they get rolling, they’ll also add a pre-theater package that should get you in your seat, well fed, before curtain.

photo credit: Jovani Demetrie

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Corima

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At Corima, a Northern Mexican spot from a Contra alum on the Lower East Side, you can order a la carte, but they also have a $98 tasting menu, with things like a beef tartare tlayuda and a smoked swordfish tamal. Interesting cocktails include a gin sour with uni, and the elegant black-and-tan space looks like a good contender for a certain upcoming couple-y holiday, so make your reservations.

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-via-Japan collab between two mixologists, you can let your elegant evening devolve and do both. Drink something fancy downstairs at Sip (which is inspired by the late Edo period), and then head up to Guzzle (which nods to New York in the late 19th century). The name guzzle should pretty appropriately explain what goes on up there. The cocktails look interesting, and an experimental-sounding izakaya menu includes things like mochi fries and bikini sandwich.

The people behind Lower East Side favorite Ernesto’s now have a wine bar right next door. At Ernie’s, you can eat pintxos, olive toasts, and other Basque snacks alongside magnums of natural wine—and they’re also hosting various pop-ups and events. The bar is currently open on limited days: check their Instagram before going.

photo credit: Marconi Gonzalez

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Soledad

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At Soledad on the Upper East Side, you can eat chicken milanese breaded with grasshoppers, or duck carnitas with a sunny side up duck egg, all while drinking a pistachio-infused cocktail. This upscale restaurant from the  people behind El Fish Marisqueria, Coppelia, and La Chula, serves food inspired in part by the chef’s grandmother’s recipe book from the 1950s.

photo credit: Bad Hombre

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Bad Hombre

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This Mexican seafood spot in the East Village pairs natural wine and cocktails with food from the chef behind Nai. You’ll find delicate, seafood-focused dishes like oysters with fresno pepper mignonette, and scallop crudo with golden berries and habanero broth. And it’s a swanky looking space, with mood lighting, marble, and dark wood trim.

In this week's unsurprising news, Greenpoint has yet another natural wine bar. Heaven and Earth is from the same people behind Fort Greene’s Margot, and we’re betting they’ll be replicating the cool factor of that original spot. They’re planning on hosting pop-ups pretty regularly, so keep an eye on our guide to the city’s best pop-ups.

Greenberg's Bagels - West Village

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One of our favorite bagel shops in Bed-Stuy now has a second location in the West Village. Greenberg’s original location can be quite a scene, so be prepared to wear a 1940s Monica Vitti headscarf if all you want is to slip in incognito for a BEC.

Mary’s is a cocktail bar in the Lower East Side that looks like the inside of an exploration ship from the early 19th century, with stained wood everywhere (the people behind this place, who also run The Commissioner in Brooklyn are apparently big fans). In an area with a lot of good bars, Mary’s looks more wholesome and neighborhoody than most.

From the people behind Blue Willow and Ye’s Apothecary, Red Sorghum is a Hunan and  Sichuan restaurant in Long Island City. If you’re a baiju fan, this could be worth checking out: they have a full selection as well as baiju cocktails.

When Angkor closed during the pandemic, it felt like our favorite place in the entire East 60s was ripped away from us. Thankfully, the owners are back in the same location, this time, with Bayon, where they’ll also serve Cambodian staples.

Rotisserie chicken hunters, take note: María Mulata on the Upper East Side is a new Colombian restaurant (originally from Long Island) with a version that comes drenched in  garlic sauce. There’s a bar and a Sistine Chapel-inspired mural, not to mention some velvet blue banquettes.

photo credit: Michael Tulipan

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Mishik

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At Mishik in Hudson Square, a new sushi/omakase spot, you can order a la carte, or choose between 12 or 16-piece omakase (from $120) or a seven-course tasting menu for $135, that includes some raw fish, but also things like donburi and koji-marinated steak.

photo credit: Sushi Ōuji

Two pieces of nigiri on a green ceramic plate.

Sushi Ōuji

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There’s another new omakase spot that’ll cost you less than $100 before tax and tip in Soho. Sushi Ōuji asks for just $109 for 14 courses during a 90-minute seating. While the counter setting isn’t as intimate as a private table, it could be a good choice for a relatively budget-friendly omakase. There’s a counter, but also some tables.

photo credit: Haven

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Haven

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Another restaurant joins the “Love Letter to New York” bandwagon with matzoh ball miso soup and reuben flatbread. In a row of 79th Street townhouses, Haven on the Upper West Side is a “polished-casual” restaurant and we’re very curious about  their Sheep’s Meadow salad.

NoFlex includes copyright and registered trademark symbols in its name and logo, and we’re honestly not sure if they’re being ironic. This place in Koreatown bills itself as “The First Media Art Lounge” and it’s open until late on the weekends, in case you want to spend the wee hours in a trippy space with DJs, some elaborate looking cocktails, and videos playing on a 72-foot LED wall.

photo credit: Evan Sung

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Dot's

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From the people behind the casual wine bar Ardesia, Dot’s in Hell’s Kitchen is an all-day cafe at the bottom of an apartment building, with mid-century modern chairs and little tables. There’s vintage plateware, and a bunch of breakfast and lunch sandwiches, as well as grain bowls.

This spot used to be a sidewalk pop-up in Bed-Stuy, but now it’s a homestyle brick-and-mortar in Greenpoint. You can eat things like tabouli salad, and Armenian kebabs or charcuterie before taking a romantic stroll over the Pulaski Skyway.

photo credit: Omar Aly

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Kamasu

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Kamasu, a sushi spot that has open-faced handrolls, now has their third location in FiDi. If you’re inclined to wear vests named for a mountainous region in Chile, their $30 lunch set includes a soup, a roll, and four handrolls. It's a bland and corporate looking space, but the pretty crockery and big window counter seating might make up for that.

From the same group behind The Refinery Rooftop, this spot in Nomad  has leather booths and chandeliers, and a menu of sharable regional Mexican dishes—including a mole that incorporates animal crackers as one of the ingredients, and wood-fired items. An extensive agave program includes a customizable margarita menu.

photo credit: Il Pellicano

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Il Pellicano

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Fairfield County transplants, this one’s for you: Il Pellicano, a Connecticut Italian spot, has their first NYC location in Little Italy. You can eat pork chop scarpariello with an olive oil martini under the watchful eyes (and beaks) of several paintings of pelicans.

Miatzil is a new spot for tacos and other Mexican cantina staples in Park Slope. There’s a bar in front of a warm, exposed brick There’s a bar with $8 Tajín-rimmed drinks during Friday Happy Hours, a taco Tuesday deal, and a kid’s menu—all the ingredients for a solid neighborhood spot.

Cote has established itself as NYC’s destination for fancy Korean bbq, and there’s already a lot of buzz around Coqodaq, the group’s new fried chicken venture. The Flatiron restaurant is already booked up—though you can try walking in for a seat at the bar or a high-top. The long, rectangular dining room has futuristic archway lighting, and the menu dips from high to low, with both a raw bar section and fried chicken buckets, meeting in the middle with caviar-topped chicken nuggets.

photo credit: Gotham Burger Social Club

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Gotham Burger Social Club

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Yet another business has thrown their hat into the “best smashburger in NYC” ring. After years of residencies and pop-ups (recently at Threes Brewing in Greenpoint), Gotham Burger Social Club has a brick-and-mortar on the Lower East Side. There are wooden booths and leather barstools, and you can order the Gotham Smash as a single, double, or a “Beastie Boy,” which has a resounding three patties.

Quique Crudo is a new Mexican seafood spot from the Casa Enrique team. A small, black-and-white, bar-like space, this spot specializes in seafood and looks like a promising place to pretend to be in Tulum while eating shrimp and octopus tostadas, or caesar with boquerones.

Hakubai, a fine-dining kaiseki restaurant, is back in Murray Hill’s Prince Kitano hotel after a hiatus of several years. It’s an ultra-luxe, velvet-clad space, and the $195 menu has 11 courses, with things like uni chawanmushi and grilled A5 wagyu with miso.

If only there was a place where we could celebrate our passion for old dusty books and wine that costs more than an average rhinoplasty appointment. Oh wait, there is: Bibliotheque is a Soho wine bar, coffee shop, and bookstore that’s owned by a well-known plastic surgeon and his son. You can drink bottles of wines priced from $58 to $13,540 amongst stacks of books while contemplating lip fillers.

Another addition to the city’s growing roster of omakase spots that cost less than $100, Tsumo comes in at a budget-friendly $58. You’ll get 12 pieces of nigiri, plus a handroll, and this spot looks could be a good dinner-and-a-movie option as it’s right around the corner from the Kips Bay AMC.

photo credit: @halalnyc

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Ayat

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The Ayat team is on a roll. They opened an Ayat in the East Village in October, a second location of Al Badawi on the Upper East Side in December, and now, Ditmas Park residents can BYOB and enjoy steaming hot piles of fresh pita with Palestinian dishes in the team's fifth NYC location.

photo credit: Rosticerria Evelina

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Rosticceria Evelina

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Rosticceria Evelina is from the same people behind Evelina, a neighborhood Mediterranean spot in Fort Greene. The new location is in Clinton Hill, and if we lived nearby, we'd be pretty excited about the full rotisserie menu, with several pizzas and pastas, and dishes like roasted chicken with yukon gold potatoes and honey-roasted carrots.

Are chef's counter tasting menus inside Korean steakhouses the next big thing? According to the folks at Gori (located inside the Upper East Side’s Anto), the answer is yes. For $165, you’ll get 10 courses, like hamachi mulhwe, and aged, roasted duck served over pine cones.

Brooklyn French Bakers

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There’s a second location of Brooklyn French Bakers in Park Slope. Founded by three French transplants, it looks like a great place to pick up a croissant before work, provided you keep a lint roller on you: their croissants are a delicious, flaky mess.

photo credit: Ron Lai

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San Matteo Pizza & Espresso Bar

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One of our favorite spots on the Upper East Side for sandwich-like panuozzo made with pizza dough, San Matteo has moved down the block into a bigger space with festive red-and-white tiling and exposed brick. We expect the same casual, quality food that works for a quick weeknight bite, or a dinner with kids.

photo credit: Ricardo Escalante

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Bar Nena

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Hard kombucha is so last year. At Bar Nena, a Mexico City-inspired bar from the Jajaja people, you’ll find a section of low-ABV fermented beverages that includes tepache, tejuino and pulque. The West Village spot also has a full menu of interesting cocktails with ingredients like pickle hominy and jackfruit-infused tequila, as well as some (mostly vegetarian) bites.

Have you ever dreamed of eating karaage chicken with gumbo ramen? It’s time to wake up, because at Greenpoint’s Kinoko, a Cajun-Japanese restaurant, you can eat both, as well as crab rangoon, and various types of temaki. Opening on Jan 5, this sunny corner restaurant on Meserole Ave. is the culmination of a couple of years of pop-ups from the owner, including at Smorgasburg.


December

Instant Noodle Factory

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Instant Noodle Factory, the LIC storefront that serves over 150 types of packaged noodles from all over Asia, now has a second location in the East Village. You can zhuzh up your bowl with some preset toppings, or spend hours mashing up different combinations, like a kid at a soda machine.

Foodstruck, a beloved late-night take-out window in Astoria, which opened as a mini diner last summer, has now reinvented itself as Ramro. This time around, instead of serving dirty fries, cheesesteaks, and chicken thighs in a tamarind glaze, they’re leaning into their Nepali and Filipino roots. You’ll find things like grilled swordfish with coconut, shio koji, and pickled radish in the revamped restaurant.

photo credit: Eric Medsker

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The Tusk Bar

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Normally, a hotel oyster bar opening would be only kind of exciting. But the Tusk Bar in Nomad’s Evelyn Hotel has food developed by the chefs of Contra and Wildair, so we’re extra looking forward to stopping in for a king crab club sandwich and a cocktail before making meet-cute attempts in Madison Square Park.  

Where else would an Italian stunt-burger chain open its first location in America (and third in the world) than Nolita? They offer regional Italian-themed burgers, piled skyscraper-high with toppings like smoked burrata and roasted red peppers in an industrial-looking space. In a year of regional takes (see: Australian-style sushi), maybe 2024 will be the year of the Italian-style hamburger.

photo credit: Creative Cult

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MOD Dessert Bar

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Everything needs an acronym these days, including dessert. This new spot in Soho sells MOD, or Multilayered Original Desserts, which look basically like taller cookies with ganache or jelly cores. Behind this modified cookie is a French pastry chef who regularly posts wild dessert videos.

photo credit: Will Hartman

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Ramen by Ra

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Do some of NYC’s most sacred breakfast items (BEC’s, bagels with lox) need to be anything more than what they are? You can ask yourself this question at a counter seat at Ramen by Ra in Bowery Market, over a bowl of bacon, egg, and cheese ramen, or gravlax ramen.

We’re ready to call Talea the Napoleon of New York’s growing beer scene. This women-owned brewery started with Williamsburg and Cobble Hill taprooms, and since October have opened two more in Manhattan—the first in the West Village, and now, in Bryant Park. You can get beer (duh), coffee, and snacks in a watermelon-colored bar.

photo credit: Finback

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Finback LIC

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It’s a beery week here in New York City. Finback, a Queens-based brewery, has a new Long Island City taproom near Queens Plaza. The so-called “beverage studio” will also have a distillery, coffee roaster, and small dumpling shop inside.

We need to double check, but we think that there must be a statute in the NYC zoning code that every other omakase bar that opens between Houston and 14th Street has to keep its price tag under $100. Kazumi in the West Village falls under that category, and you’ll get 13 courses for $75. They also have beer, wine, and sake.

Re-opened after two years, just in time for all of your holiday charcuterie board needs, Barnyard Cheese is an East Village cheese and meats shop. They also make sandwiches, including one called the Figgy Piggy. It’s a sister business to Brix Wine Shop, making this little corner on Avenue B the perfect “I forgot to pick something up for that holiday party” destination.

Travelers Poets & Friends

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Sometimes, we pretend that our little park adventures in New York are like fantasy quests, and that we need to gather provisions before a fortnight of traveling the Kings Road (11th Ave.) to Castle Hudson (Riverside Park). What better-named place to start our next journey than Travelers Poets & Friends, a meat-free Italian market in the West Village, where you can currently get fresh pasta, produce, sandwiches, baked goods and other pantry staples. There's wine too, and a bar, as well as a dine-in restaurant that will be opening soon. 

Abracadabra Magic Diner

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At Abracadabra Magic Diner in Ridgewood, a sister location to Williamsburg and Bushwick’s Abracadabra Magic Deli, you can eat fresh produce from their farm in the Catskills. Order a wrap, and enjoy it under the watchful eye of a hand-painted frog mosaic.

photo credit: Alidoro

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Alidoro

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Dekalb Market Hall is steadily climbing our food hall power rankings, especially with the addition of Alidoro. Get an Italian sandwich with imported ingredients either before, during, or after shopping at the subterranean Trader Joe’s.

While you’re walking around Dekalb Market Hall deciding whether you want spam musubi, empanadas, or any of the other excellent offerings, pop over to tea makers and grab a bubble tea to help make your decision. They have milky and fruity teas, plus, if you recently lost a stuffed animal, Tea Makers has bear cups, so you can get yourself a quick replacement.

photo credit: David Malosh

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Cecily

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We know, we know, another opening in Greenpoint. But we’re actually pretty excited about this one, because Cecily is from a couple of NYC all-stars, including a former sommelier from Estela, and alums of Four Horsemen, LaLou, and Jupiter. Plus, it’s located in a former art gallery. Expect a concise menu of seasonal produce-driven plates, like chicory salad with pine nuts and honeynut squash with burrata.

photo credit: Matt Diaz

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Bar Birba

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Bar Birba, from the masa experts at For All Things Good, is a wine, aperitivi, and pizza bar in Bed-Stuy, across the street from the restaurant. You can drink Italian natural wines in the small, forest-green space alongside pizza that we’re hoping is as good as their tetelas.

photo credit: Bill Milne

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Cafe Boulud

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New York was forever changed when the pandemic hit. Metro cards went away, restaurants began giving out hand sanitizer, and it seemed like Café Boulud would never reopen. This beloved French fine dining restaurant with white tablecloth service and lush velvet booths is finally back on the Upper East Side, about 10 blocks south of the original location.

photo credit: Will Hartman

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Himalayas Newa Cafe

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There are thousands, if not millions, of places to drink coffee in Greenpoint. But how many of them also serve momos? At Himalayas Newa Cafe, you can get pastries, Nepalese dumplings, and coffee in one transaction. 

A Seasonal, Small Plates Restaurant Grows in Greenpoint might just become standard reading for the next generation of high-schoolers. Gator is the latest, and it's located in the old Le Fond space. Check this out as a potential early-in-the-game date spot, where you can eat cheeseburgers with fried mushrooms, and a pork chop in a cozy dining room. 

photo credit: Acadia

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Acadia

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If you’re on the hunt for a good pre-theater spot, Midtown’s Acadia is a new option for fortifying yourself with mezze before watching a very famous holiday kickline at Radio City. The two-floor restaurant is from the people behind Dagon and Barbounia, and watching the duck and merguez cassoulet being prepared in the open kitchen sounds like an appropriate warm-up for your actual show. 

After a series of popups within hand roll bar Domodomo, Konban, a Seoul-based katsu shop famous for their ultra-thick, rosy-pink pork cutlets, has its own restaurant in Chelsea. You can work through a few different katsu options, plus some grilled items and noodles, while looking out over a small rock garden in their alleyway. 

photo credit: Alice Plati

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Che

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Alums of a few popular spots in the Bed-Stuy (Sincerely, Tommy, Daughter, The Fly) have joined forces to opened Che, an all-day cafe and wine bar. You'll find a vegetarian menu, cocktails and natural wine. The space is full of calming slate and wood, and it looks like a nice place to unwind, or start the day with a breakfast sandwich with house-made pimiento cheese.

photo credit: Octo

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Octo

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From the owners of New Wanjo, Octo is a cavernous Chinese-Korean restaurant in Koreatown. We’ve got our eye on the Peking duck section of the menu, which looks perfect to share with a few friends in one of the sunken booths in the red-and-gold space. 

photo credit: Francesco Sapienza

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Berimbau

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To say that we have high expectations for Berimbau’s second location in Midtown would be an understatement. This Brazilian restaurant is equipped with a full caipirinha bar, and will also host a retail space for Brazilian brands. Plan to crush some feijoada before shopping for dende oil. 

photo credit: Sotto

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Sotto

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Once you’ve had dinner with your coworkers at Lupetto, and it turns out that you’re the one who drank too much wine, keep the party going in their new negroni bar. Sotto is located in their basement, so venture downstairs to the gilded bar to keep the “am I too tipsy around my colleagues” energy afloat.

A Cantonese barbecue spot from Chinatown has its second location in the East Village. At Hay Hay Roasted, you can get everything from pipa roasted duck to crispy skin pork belly to char siu, and this location has some seats, unlike the original.

photo credit: Brandyn Liu

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Mr. Melo

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At this new listening bar in Williamsburg, you can eat “drunk Greek fries” while drinking a feta brine martini and listening to vinyl records through vintage speakers. The loungey space has two bars with amber lighting, an emphasis on interesting cocktails, and a few snacky bites.

Fresh from the farmers market and cafe circuit, Sixteen Mill, a vegan and gluten-free bakery, has its first standalone location in Gowanus. You can get their famous cookies and cakes just in time for your holiday parties.

123Dough Fine Foods & Provisions

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In breaking news to absolutely nobody, we’re still riding high on a serious sourdough boom. But how far is too far? At 123Dough, a Westchester-based bakery with a new outpost in Greenpoint, you can fulfill all your bread-based needs, but also buy sourdough pasta. They have fancy groceries and rotating prepared foods, including sourdough ramen, so we’ll be slurping some naturally leavened noodles soon.

photo credit: Park Avenue Kitchen

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Park Avenue Kitchen

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Lots of celebrity chefs have “signature” dishes that appear on every menu, in each of their restaurants. For David Burke of David Burke Tavern fame, that dish is bacon on a clothesline. You'll find this dish, as well as other slightly gimmicky sounding takes on American bistro classics at Park Avenue Kitchen, underneath chandeliers that look like Christmas tree ornaments.

photo credit: Heytea

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Heytea

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If you’re looking for a new boba tea place to add to your rotation, this Chinese chain has a location in Midtown. And while they do have roasted boba, Heytea’s specialty is slushy tea made with cane sugar, and  topped with cheese foam. Find fruit flavors like mulberry and nectarine at this minimalist counter just south of Times Square.

What do you know, another bar in Greenpoint. Knowhere calls itself a speakeasy for artists, and could be a good first stop for a on your next Manhattan Ave. bar crawl for a fussier cocktail before you get in a divey mood. They also have a selection of teas.

photo credit: Paul McDonough

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Naks

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Naks…we’ve been waiting a long time for you. The first Filipino restaurant from the Unapologetic Foods group (the people behind Semma and Rowdy Rooster) is finally open in the East Village. For now, you can try and walk in for a la carte at the bar, or make a reservation for a $135, Kamayan-style tasting menu with around 18 items showcasing different elements of the country’s cuisines.

We recently checked out Naks. Read our first thoughts here.

photo credit: Max B

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Yingtao

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There’s a new Chinese fine dining restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen where you can find things like southern Chinese pipa duck, and a dish inspired by NYC-style hot and sour soup. Yingtao has a $165 eight-course tasting menu, which mixes different regional Chinese cuisines with French fine-dining techniques. It’s a dark, polished restaurant with light fixtures that look like the Eye of Sauron to guide you through your meal. 

photo credit: Rob Casimiro

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Maloya

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If you don’t have the time or funds to take a trip to an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean this winter, Maloya could get you close enough. The owners are from La Réunion, 400 miles off the coast of Madagascar, and serve things like shrimp poached in vanilla and créme fraîche in the restaurant’s minty green space with a dark wooden bar.

photo credit: Frenchette Bakery

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Frenchette Bakery at The Whitney

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One of New York’s truest pleasures is moseying around a museum when you have nothing better to do. Now, there’s another reason to mosey over to the Whitney, besides the American masterpieces. Frenchette Bakery (from the Frenchette and Le Rock team) now has a second location in the old “Untitled” space, and will be dishing out laminated pastries, bread, and sandwiches.

photo credit: Will Hartman

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Scarlet Lounge

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If you woke up this morning and got yourself a cocktail craving, then you could plan a nightcap at Scarlet Lounge, an Upper West Bar from Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli. Decked out in red and gold, this small Art Deco bar has fancy cocktails, including one inspired by The White Lotus. The bar is open until 2am on weekends.

We recently checked out Scarlet Lounge. Read our first thoughts here 

photo credit: Nigel Young

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Four Twenty Five

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Is Midtown back? Who knows. But a few big-time chefs are betting on it, and betting big. Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Jonathan Benno have teamed up for Four Twenty Five, which has the square footage of three basketball courts, spread over two floors on Park Avenue and 56th. There’s a dramatically high-ceilinged cocktail bar and lounge downstairs for walk-ins, with a more intimate dining room suspended above it, where you can make a reservation. An open kitchen sends out seasonal dishes like celeriac francese and steamed bass with winter mushrooms.

photo credit: Market 57

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Sahadi’s

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This Middle Eastern grocer has been in New York for over 100 years, starting out in Manhattan before moving to Atlantic Avenue in the 1940s. After opening an outpost in Industry City, the grocer is back on the island with a stall in Chelsea’s Market 57, where you can purchase all sorts of dips and prepared takeaway classics, like shawarma and moussaka.

photo credit: Noah Deveraux

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Los Tacos No. 1

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Our favorite taco mini-chain is doubling down on their commitment to feeding you tacos before you travel out to the suburbs. Los Tacos No. 1 has their sixth location just outside Penn Station, making the sun shine just a little bit brighter on all the scaffolding around here.

There’s a new pizza spot in Sunnyside, where you can can eat Neapolitan and Sicilian pizza on checkered vinyl tablecloths. At Saucey Pizza Bar, we’re looking forward to partying in some retro vibes just steps from the banks of the mighty Newtown Creek.

photo credit: Douglas Lyle Thompson

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Smith & Mills

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Just in time for the holidays, Smith and Mills, the Tribeca bar and restaurant, has a new location at rink level at Rockefeller Center. Here, you can warm up in a red-velvet banquette, crush oysters and other raw bar items alongside a short rib pastrami reuben while watching people reenact scenes from Elf and Home Alone Two.

photo credit: Romeo's

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Romeo’s

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Romeo’s is a new East Village bar where the drinks are served in frosty glasses, the lights are neon, and there’s more than a little ’90s inspo going on. But besides the obligatory Cosmo, you’ll also find things like a Pistachio Mai Tai and an Avocado Margarita that sounds very 2010.

photo credit: Hide Rooftop

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Hide Rooftop

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Here at The Infatuation, we have a saying: “Any season is rooftop season, if you’re brave enough.” Because we check out new rooftops like it's our job (it is our job), we’ll likely be sampling the horny-sounding cocktails (with names like Espresso Scarlett and Leather & Lace) at Hide Rooftop, located in Fidi’s Artezen Hotel.

photo credit: Willa Moore

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Formosa

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Formosa Dumplings, from one of the founders of Sanmiwago, is a Taiwanese dumpling shop in Bushwick, with neighborhood-friendly dishes like scallion noodles and lu rou fan, besides their yellow chive-filled pork dumplings. You can sit at the bar or lounge on a couch, and they’ll eventually have beer and wine—stop by on a night out on Jefferson Street. 

We Checked out Formosa Dumplings, and added it to the Brooklyn Hit List

photo credit: Emily Schindler

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Al Badawi

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The Upper East Side is now home to an outpost of Al Badawi, from the same restaurant group behind Ayat. This Palestinian spot looks similar to the original in Brooklyn Heights, with wicker chairs and hanging vines, and we're looking forward to eating their craveable cheesy flatbreads in the new location.

If you usually only go to H Mart to grab a box of bb.q’s Korean fried chicken, good news: the chain now has a standalone location in Astoria, and it has a full bar. We’re looking forward to getting saucy fingerprints on our beer glasses, and hearing audible crunches from every table.

We’re meticulous about keeping tabs on Japanese markets, because you never know when you'll suddenly need a tuna mayo onigiri. Hakata in Clinton Hill is the newest addition to our binder. Swing by for chicken karaage onigiri, sushi rolls and hard-to-find pocky sticks varieties. All prepared food is 50% off after 7pm.

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