Who's Hungry?
The best new places to eat in New York City now.
For our latest update on the best of New York City restaurants, we’re turning the newsletter over to our friends at FOUND NY, who reliably uncover the hottest and the freshest restaurants, real estate, and shopping the city has to offer. (They find it in LA, SF, and Miami, too.) Want to stay up on it all? Sign up for their newsletter. (Bonus! Way to Go readers will get 25% off a Found subscription.)
A Handful of New Restaurants
Cafe Kestrel, Red Hook
With one of the city’s tiniest bars and a dining room that seats only about 20, Brooklyn’s newest date-night restaurant is exactly as small as a place can be while still meeting conventional dining expectations. And yet, it does so more elegantly than most. Like the space, the menu — bread, olives, cheese, a handful of appetizers and mains — accomplishes a lot, in not a lot of room. A side, listed simply as “macaroni & cheese,” is an understatement if ever there were one, a wonderfully rich version, served in a small bowl, more aptly described as the finest shells and cheese in creation, a kind of pasta fondue, velvet and decadent. Cafe Kestrel is a breath of fresh air and a throwback, a reminder of times when Van Brunt Street was as fine a restaurant row as any, when Red Hook was too far afield for tourists, and when great new restaurants were opening at a cadence we once took for granted. – Amber Sutherland-Namako
Sushi by Scratch, Flatiron
The Los Angeles import debuted last month under a nail salon with an unorthodox, 17-course nigiri menu running $245 per. Guests enter into a slim front lounge with compact parlor tables, where they’re greeted by a welcome cocktail, followed by small starters like whipped bluefin tuna tail served with crispy nori and fried baby sardines. Half an hour later, the action moves to a 10-seat rear sushi counter so intimate there’s barely enough room to squeeze by to use the restroom. The cramped feel imparts a Tokyo vibe to the otherwise Westernized sushi concept. The energy is chatty and casual, with chef Phillip Frankland Lee describing each bite between courses. Wholly unorthodox in execution and taste, Sushi by Scratch is a breath of fresh air in a still mostly rigid counter culture. – Kat Odell
Cha Cha Tang, Greenwich Village
The lower Sixth Avenue newcomer is modeled on co-founder Wilson Tang’s idea of a Hong Kong diner, but it’s more like an American take on a Hong Kong diner. Either way, it’s a lot of fun, the kind of place I want to be dining at as NYC kicks back into high gear for the fall. There are a lot of ways to run with the menu here, including a gala Cantonese roast duck ($110 per), or forays into noodles, rice, and offbeat diner fare, like a scrambled-egg burger club. We went more straight-ahead, opting for the XO fried rice and steamed branzino, along with a side of garlic eggplant, and enjoyed every bite. One absolute must, however, comes at dessert: a thick slab of Cantonese French toast, which, when cut into, oozes a river of taro cream. Having thought we were full, we greedily sopped it all up. – Lockhart Steele
Brass, NoMad
There aren’t many new restaurants below 42nd Street that look like Brass. Set deep in the back of the Evelyn Hotel, the restaurant captures old New York: dark mahogany bar, booths lining the dining room, a giant skylight welcoming twilight’s fading wisps, and, in the middle of it all, a grand piano. But there’s much more going on than meets the eye. A circle of gougères. “Moules frites” as marinated mussels set atop a chickpea fritter. Golden Amish chicken roulade for two, served deboned and stuffed with a mousseline of herbs and black truffle, with potato-celeriac pureé. Friends, we’re not at Bemelmans anymore. Brass is the latest from the duo behind two celebrated Lower East Side spots, Wildair and (Bar) Contra, chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra. Their food is never ordinary. All I want on a Saturday night in Manhattan is to be sitting in this room, soaking up this food and this vibe. – Lockhart Steele
Daphne’s, Bed-Stuy
On a corner previously occupied by a bodega is a new restaurant with a rotating menu of Italian-inspired dishes and natural wines. Leading the kitchen is chef Jamie Tao, whose resume includes at least two of New York’s most prominent progressive-casual cool kid kitchens (Wildair and Roberta’s). The result, of course, is not your grandmother’s Italian cooking. There might be arancini with Calabrian chili, but there are also grilled octopus skewers with gai lan (Chinese broccoli) and garlic scapes. Tao’s food is complex and comforting, familiar and progressive, in a date night-worthy setting — the kind of new neighborhood classic it’s easy to imagine sticking around for a long time. – Phoebe Fry
Massara, Flatiron
Chef Stefano Stecchi’s Southern Italian follow-up to his smash hit pasta sanctum, Rezdôra, is about as serious as any new restaurant can get (while still feeling rustic). For those who suffered years without breaching the nearly impassable door at Rezdôra, glad tidings: Massara, just a few blocks away, spans two floors and is much bigger. Sitting at the downstairs bar, we enjoyed the smallest, most perfect margherita pizza I’ve ever had. Watching these tiny pies emerge on large paddles from the pizza oven is one of the room’s many pleasures. But Stecchi is, at his core, a pasta master. We tried three of the six on the menu, all fabulous: candele with ragu Genovese (a classic Sunday sauce prep), “cheesemakers” raviolini, and long spaghettoni wrapped high with tomato sauce, uni, and prawns, a dish that comes with an incredible plot twist. Massara is nothing if not the definitive blockbuster of summer 2024 — and like any great blockbuster, you won’t want its best moments spoiled. – Lockhart Steele
A Couple of New Bars
Bar Contra, Lower East Side
The recent revamp of minimalist tasting menu restaurant Contra into Bar Contra included replacing the set menu with snacky yet sophisticated à la carte bites from chefs Fabián von Hauske and Jeremiah Stone, and adding cocktails by OG science-forward mixologist Dave Arnold (of the late, great Booker and Dax). Arnold’s lengthy drinks list includes rare ingredients like medicinal Mexican melipona honey, and a riff on a rum and Coke that sidesteps both ingredients but produces similar flavors with pisco, Averna, and lime. While the food menu changes often, one constant: a very delicious crumpet made from celeriac, served with an umami-packed wakame seaweed butter. – Kat Odell
Midnight Blue, Gramercy
Takuma Watanabe of Martiny’s fame (number four on North America’s 50 Best Bars list) is at the helm of this new jazz and cocktail lounge. The space is actually two in one, with Bar Neat, a cramped library-like whiskey den, up front. The main event is discreetly tucked away behind a wooden door. Inside, at the end of the surprisingly large room, there’s a jazz stage bathed in light, a scattering of bistro tables, and a long bar from where one can order a wide array of excellent Japanese-accented tipple, from a matcha piña colada to an old-fashioned infused with shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce maple syrup, and lapsang souchong tea. – Kat Odell
Fall Newcomers We’re Keeping an Eye On
Borgo, NoMad-adjacent
First Manhattan restaurant from esteemed Williamsburg restaurateur Andrew Tarlow.
Santi, Midtown
Former Marea chef Michael White’s gala return to NYC; Italian, of course.
The Otter/Sloane’s, SoHo
Empellón chef Alex Stupak’s seafood spot and cocktail bar at The Manner, Standard International’s new hotel.
Sal Tang’s, Cobble Hill
Cafe Spaghetti/Swoony’s owner Sal Lamboglia teams with Nom Wah vet Wilson Tang on a new Cantonese American restaurant.
Cafe Zaffri, Gramercy
Wherein the Raf’s team debuts a Levantine restaurant within The Twenty Two, a hotel/membership club import from London.