Hottest Newcomers
We know it’s hard to keep up with the newest restaurants on New York’s dining scene, so we scouted out the best of the bunch. We at Restaurant Girl volunteer our tastebuds so you dont have to waste a meal (or your money, for that matter!) on a mediocre restaurant that’s hot simply because it’s new. Here’s our favorite hottest newcomers right now…
Pok Pok Ny
Cuisine: ThaiAndy Ricker’s Portland, Oregon import made waves when it first landed on an unassuming block in Brooklyn’s out-of-the-way Columbia Waterfront District last summer. Locals, intrepid Manhattanites, food media and more all reported lines that stretched down the cobblestone streets, where...
Read MorePerla
Cuisine: ItalianChef Michael Toscano exercises his gift for nose-to-tail cooking at Gabe Stulman’s rustic Italian bistro, Perla. You can find seldom-seen cuts running through his selection of antipasti (Crispy Testa and Pigs Ear with grilled onions and cannellini beans, Veal Tongue with crispy capers,...
Read MoreAcme
Cuisine: NordicThe name on most restaurant scene-sters lips this year (or the ones that can ably pronounce it, anyway,) was undeniably Mads Refslund. Formerly of the world-famous Noma in Copenhagen, Refslund wove a world of culinary adventure into plates as inauspicious sounding as Radishes (listed on the menu...
Read MoreBattersby
Cuisine: AmericanYou can’t throw a locally-sourced egg without hitting a seasonally-minded restaurant in Brooklyn nowadays, but Battersby is hardly just riding the coattails of a passing fad. You’ll want to return time and again for well-conceived dishes like Veal Sweetbreads A La Meunière...
Read MoreAtera
Cuisine: AmericanNot since wd-50 has a NYC restaurant so aptly justified the use of molecular gastronomy in modern American cooking. Executive Matthew Lightner walks an intriguing tightrope at this ambitious Tribeca restaurant, taking foraged, decidedly back-to-the-land ingredients (sorrel, parsley root,...
Read MoreMission Chinese Food
Does “Americanized Chinese Food” conjure up visions of uninspired, overseasoned beef and broccoli in brown sauce, or gloppy, MSG-laden chicken chow mein? Danny Bowien blew those misconceptions out of the water when he opened the first East Coast outpost of his popular San Francisco...
Read MoreAcme
Cuisine: EuropeanNordic cooking is having its moment in New York right now and perhaps the most exciting spot to sample it right now is Acme, where Noma’s co-founder Mads Refslund fortuitously turned up in the kitchen this winter. Talk about a makeover: This Nolita eatery has been transformed from a no-frills...
Read MoreWong
Cuisine: Asian FusionIf you’re craving something original, we suggest a visit to Wong. What the chef, Simpson Wong, dubs “Asian locavore” cuisine takes cues from all over Asia, from India to Malaysia to China. The result is whimsical cooking with innovative flavor combinations. Take the rice noodles, for...
Read MorePerla
First, there was Joseph Leonard, then Jeffrey’s Grocery followed by Fedora. In just three years, Gabriel Stulman has built himself a tremendously popular restaurant empire in the West Village. But his latest venture, Perla, which debuted two months ago, just might be his finest effort to...
Read MoreParm
A marriage of Italian and American, we like to think the menu at Parm is the best of both worlds, especially where comfort food is concerned. Pizza knots anyone? This is a first for us, but we’re now believers. There’s a wonderful homemade mozzarella wrapped in prosciutto, an epic eggplant...
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