Hottest Newcomers
We know it’s hard to keep up with the newest restaurants on New York’s dining scene and even harder to figure out which spots are worthwhile, 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 in NYC right now…
Inside Made Nice: The EMP Team’s Foray into Fast Casual Territory
While it wasn’t much of a stretch for shrewd chefs like David Chang to roll out fried chicken sandwiches, the EMP team letting loose is another matter entirely. Yet even Daniel Humm and Will Guidara have elected to ride the rising tide from fine dining and into the realm of fast casual, with...
Read MoreThe “Pescatarian” Gloria is a Catch for Hell’s Kitchen
Cuisine: SeafoodWe're easily wooed by seafood of any sort. But news that a “pescatarian” eatery recently opened, run by alums of Le Bernardin and Contra? That’s cause for an all-out crustacean celebration. Add in the fact that its situated in the aptly-named restaurant wasteland of Hell’s Kitchen,...
Read MoreKazuNori — The Original Hand Roll Bar — Comes to NYC
Cuisine: JapaneseSushiIf the lines have lessened at Sugarfish, that can only mean one thing — patrons have transferred allegiance to its little sibling, KazuNori. Also an L.A. import, the wildly popular eatery applies the low cost, high quality sushi theme specifically to hand rolls; cylinders of nori wrapped...
Read MoreInside AbcV: Jean-Georges Rhapsodic Ode to Vegetables
Cuisine: VeganVegetarianAfter multiple such inclusions, it seems Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s AbcV just missed mention on our recent Spring Restaurant Preview list; having finally debuted after three solid years of anticipation. Carving out still another corner of Flatiron’s ABC Carpet & Home, it’s the first...
Read MoreSpring Restaurant Preview 2017
As if glorious weather wasn’t reason enough to adore spring, it happens to be the prime season for high profile restaurant debuts, too. So turn the promise of longer days into an excuse to pack your schedule with a series of dining trips, at upcoming ventures from Enrique Olvera, April...
Read MoreIchimura Outdoes Itself at its Ultra-High End Iteration
Cuisine: JapaneseSushiThere isn’t much of a middle ground when it comes to sushi. Options tend towards the suspiciously low end (i.e., $20 all-you-can-eat buffets) and prohibitively high — think $100-500 a head omakases. And with its long-standing, two-star Michelin designation, it’s easy to guess where...
Read MoreRestaurant Spotting: Italienne
Cuisine: FrenchItalianA name like Italienne (French for Italian) doesn’t exactly portend a red sauce menu of spaghetti and parmigiana. And indeed, the hot Flatiron newcomer represents a culinary meeting of the minds, between Northern Italy and Southern France — melding the former’s heart and soul with the...
Read MoreInside Hao Noodle & Tea: The Biggest Sleeper Hit of 2016
Cuisine: ChineseA number of new prestige projects reliably made critics “best of” lists this past year, from Daniel Rose’s sumptuous, classically French Le Coucou, to Aska, Fredrik Berselius’ austere Scandinavian tasting room. Yet an (at the time) under-the-radar Chinese restaurant ended up garnering an...
Read MoreHow Sweet It Is: L.A.’s Sugarfish Has Landed in NYC
Cuisine: JapaneseSushiAs much New Yorkers would like to believe that we’re the epicenter of the food world (and let’s be honest, we largely are), we’ve admittedly borrowed a lot from Los Angeles; from tacos to quinoa bowls to the farm-to-table movement. And this year, we’ve even appropriated a number of...
Read MoreThe Best NYC Restaurants of 2016
From Keith McNally and Tom Colicchio, to April Bloomfield and Jose Andres, there’s no question that the New York City restaurant scene was dominated by heavy hitters this year (who else could be expected to afford such massively exorbitant rents?). And yet, a duo of perennially in-the-wings...
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