Amber Sutherland-Namako

Dining out in New York City can be a labor of love. There are thousands of new and old restaurants to choose from, making reservations can seem like a sport or a game of chance and most of us want and need to spend our eating and drinking money wisely. That’s why Time Out New York spends days and nights haunting the city to highlight the very best in hospitality right now, and gently divert from the less-best. Peruse on through to choose your next favorite destination, and play along to see which newcomers become 2023’s top options.  RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best restaurants in NYC

New York City’s best restaurants include places with things to see (and to Instagram!), new spots where you can be seen and semi-obscured spaces with hush-hush themes. Like speakeasy-inspired bars, that last category's destinations have the appearance of exclusivity by way of hidden doorways, fake-out facades and staircases this way and that.  Some are a little less discrete than in years past with the recent addition of outdoor dining, brisk takeout business, or simply time, but the spirit of secrecy can still be a fun departure from the norm. So break out the magnifying glass and wind your way to NYC’s best hidden restaurants. RECOMMENDED: Find more of the best restaurants in NYC

When you simply live for frights, every season is spooky season, but it’s amplified right around this time every year for the rest of the scaredy cats. In the weeks before Halloween, when artificial cobwebs, skeletons, luminous jack-o’-lanterns and haunted houses start popping up all over NYC, a little liquid courage can help soothe those decorative frayed nerves. So don your vampire dentures, make a topical public figure “sexy,” or simply step out into the full moon and let it do its thing at NYC’s best Halloween bars. RECOMMENDED: All coverage of Halloween in NYC

New Yorkers are in more luck than usual lately, with Brooklyn’s own Fort Greene being named one the coolest neighborhoods in the world. It’s beloved for its wonderful cultural institutions like the Brooklyn Academy of Music, its titular park and rich history, lovely, leafy Fort Greene has its fair share of fantastic restaurants, too. Here is everywhere to eat and drink in the certified cool locale.  RECOMMENDED: Fort Greene, Brooklyn: The ultimate guide to Fort Greene

While we remain devoted to New York City’s best restaurants, excellent new dining destinations pop up all the time to further complicate our reservation schedules and meticulously orchestrated walk-in efforts. And, although we’re always delighted to revisit those erstwhile favorites, everyone knows that sometimes only something shiny and new will do.  How new? This perpetually updated list includes the best new restaurants that have opened over the past six months or so. That means that some of the dazzlers that ultimately made it to our list of the best restaurants of 2022, like Clover Hill, Dept of Culture, Le Gratin, Le Rock and Zaab Zaab no longer appear here. This edition includes "unusual" Italian and the third iteration of a local Georgian favorite. 

Some might assume that sky-high imbibing is a spring and summertime affair, but it’s always rooftop season in NYC. Even during rain, wind and lower temperatures, we simply swap the sunshine and frozen drinks for fireplaces and hot cocktails while still soaking up the skyline view. So grab a sweater and set your sights on the stars at the best cooler weather rooftops in NYC this winter.   RECOMMENDED: Find more things to do on NYC rooftops

Choosing a favorite restaurant in New York City is a joyful task with myriad possibilities depending on the occasion, mood and even the time of year. Your favorite dive, fine dining destination and 'any night' type of place might all occupy top spots on your personal best list in spite of their disparate qualities.  Our list of NYC’s 50 best restaurants is the same, spanning each of those categories and more to comprise a catalogue of all the places we wish we were at right now. They don’t have to be the newest or the most recently reviewed, just places that we want to return to again and again, and that we think that you will, too.  Note: Many of the city’s best chefs, restaurants and concepts have been welcomed into the Time Out Market. Because that is the highest honor we can award, establishments related to the market have not been ranked here, but you can see them below.  RECOMMENDED: NYC's best bars Stay in the Loop: Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to get the latest in New York City news, culture and dining. 

Bryant Park, that patch of green in the New York Public Library’s backyard, is a respite for office workers from the westernmost reaches of Times Square, clear to Grand Central Terminal and beyond. It’s one of midtown’s finest features, replete with ice skating, a holiday market and a darling carousel. It’s a nice place for tourists, sure, but, unlike some others, it's also a destination for everyday New Yorkers, and some terrific restaurants in the area live up to area expectations. These are the best places to eat and drink near Bryant Park.  RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best restaurants in NYC

Groups! Can’t live with ‘em, can’t try almost everything on the menu in one sitting without 'em! Ok, maybe some can, but many will, at one point, still need to find restaurants perfect for large parties celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, big promotions, belated or pre-lated holidays and general getting the band back together events.  Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island each have options for your next fête, and these are our favorites for those expanded occasions. Most allow you to book space for up to six via conventional platforms, save for noted exceptions that go up to about ten, and all have room for more when you connect via email or phone. RECOMMENDED: See all of the best restaurants in NYC

It has never been easier to find enticing plant-based dishes in NYC. Our vegan and vegetarian options go beyond veggie burgers, although NYC has plenty of those, too—and extends to special occasion destinations, exciting new spots and some of the best overall restaurants in the city. Sure, restaurants all over the ingredient spectrum have broadened their nutrient horizons over the years, but these are your best bets for a meat-free guarantee. RECOMMENDED: See more of the best restaurants in NYC

Many of the best views in NYC are free. The best Statue of Liberty lookout is from a grocery store parking lot in Red Hook, the vantage point from the Staten Island Ferry is breathtaking and Astoria Park’s outlooks are unprecedented. But looking at stuff can also work up an appetite, so having some food and drinks to accompany the landscape is a must. Luckily, NYC’s best viewstaurants don’t just dine out on their looks. They also carefully consider their cocktails, curate their wine lists and create plates to rival their spectacular backdrops. Whether they're sky-high, on the water or beachside, these excellent restaurants and bars give you plenty to peep besides your phone–but don't forget to snap a pic, too!

In a town where functioning intercoms are considered an apartment amenity, New Yorkers seek niceties like fireplaces outside of the home. And this time of year, when sweaters replace ceiling fans and we’re already eyeing our jackets, gathering around a contained flame sounds more idyllic than ever. Whether they’re in a dive, a cocktail spot or a cold weather rooftop, these are the best fireplace bars in NYC.   RECOMMENDED: Find more of the best bars in NYC

This past September, a group of friends from the Isan restaurant Somtum Der in Red Hook opened their own spot, serving what they call “unconventional Thai food” in neighboring Cobble Hill. Named Untable for chef Rachanon Kampimarn, also called Aun, the inviting locale is already attracting crowds ready to wait for outstanding plates that you might see simmering around social media.  First up in early renown: Untable’s “what the hell" fried rice. An item said to be so spicy the proprietors christened it with a curse word, the dish does pack an eye-misting heat via a multi-chili blend shipped from Thailand. Add fuel to the fire with even more finely-chopped hot ones, which join a perimeter of ingredients like sweet pork, rolled egg, onions, mango and cucumber. You’ll want to mix them all in for maximum flavor effect, but maybe reserve some of the ancillary chilis unless it’s a blaze kind of day. Now that we’ve slaked any burning curiosity, you’ll probably actually start with a drink. Untable’s novel cocktails are all best in class, including the fruity and sophisticated, tequila-based Sexy Fig, and the versatile, citrusy, vodka Ma-Krut (both ($17). Follow those with the satisfying crab croquettes ($19/3) with a zippy tom yum purée and crown of lemongrass and lime leaf. Get the tiger shrimp, too, ($19/2), for the fantastic crustaceans themselves, and the fresh herbal salad of cashews, ginger, shallots, chili and lime they’re joined by.  Now it’s around what the hell fried rice t

This cute and cozy—yet still stylish and roomy—new spot’s a great stop for a weeknight pick-me-up of a dinner or (for once!) an easily won Friday or Saturday evening reservation. Neeloo has space for 70 between tables and the long bar inside this brick-lined Grand Street locale, plus a patio that can accommodate a couple dozen in the back.  Stick to classic cocktails ($16+) if mixed drinks are a must (beer and wine are also available), and order the hearth-broiled Wellfleet oysters ($19/6) for bivalve believers and belitters alike. Their cloak of melty Camembert creates a real shellfish hit. The pommes dauphine appetizer ($10) is simpler but satisfying, as golden-fried potato poufs are wont to be.  Among the mains, lovely slices of American Wagyu sirloin ($39) are excellently prepared to a requested medium rare, if overly smothered in a foie gras and Sauternes jus that’s seemingly absent notes of the former ingredient.  A nice bit of halibut’s more of a sure thing: moist, fresh and swimming in a green tomato and coconut broth that gives the fish a bit of zip.  Finish with Neeloo’s baked Alaska ($12). Almost as sweet as it is bright, the dynamic dessert is set alight right at the table for a flashy end to any evening.  Neeloo is located at 284 Grand Street in Brooklyn. It is open Wednesday-Sunday from 5:30pm-close. See restaurant critic Amber Sutherland-Namako’s extended review here. 

Chama Mama is the finest new culinary addition to Brooklyn Heights’ Montague Street in its recently refreshed past. The Georgian restaurant with two other locations, one in Chelsea and one on the Upper West Side, took over the former Le Pain Quotidien space, not too far from the borough’s second Books are Magic, in July. Although the layout is largely the same as before, Chama Mama lends a light, lofty, fresh air to the address, now equally practical for solo diners, large groups, or cozy pairs. Its roomy polished bar up front merits “just drinks” visits for Georgian wine by the bottle, glass, or flight, and cocktails incorporating the clear Georgian brandy, chacha. Large and small tables are all around, stretching back toward the sparkling open kitchen, where they bake sensational bread to pair with tasty pkhali ($26 when five spreads are bundled into the “taste of Georgia”), and fill with wonderful, warmly melting cheese for khachapuri varieties. The adjaruli khachapuri’s ($18) a real stunner, topped with butter and raw egg and all swirled together at the table for a show stopping blend.  Those items alone are worth a trip to this locale, and mains like the chicken in tkemali and adjika ($30), vibrantly sauced with crisp, golden skin, are invite lingering, when available on the frequently updated menu. Chama Mama just added, for example, pumpkin to its soup ($14), and pkhali ($14 à la carte) options for the fall.  Chama Mama is located at 121 Montague Street. Reservations a

A visit to Café Chelsea in New York City is like being transported to a restaurant in that titular neighborhood in the year that is now: 2023. It would probably land the same even if you were traveling from the relatively recent past, or near future. It opened this past July, following last year’s related El Quijote revival. The Hotel Chelsea-adjacent space is as pretty as gaslight’s glow, in all its flattering, honeyed cast. Mirrors, Deco-style fixtures and potted plants adorn the pretty space, divided into bar, Petite and Grand Café sections. The former gets as crowded as can be, so try not to arrive too early for your reservation. Tables in the latter two are spaced inside-voice close, so curb any tattling.  Swap those tall tales, instead, with tipples like the Christo’s vesper ($18), made with vodka, botanical spirit Empirical Symphony, Lillet and herbes de Provence, nicely standard martinis ($22), wine and beer. The dinner menu starts with coarse duck and pork pâté ($17), shrimp cocktail ($24) served on its sides rather than curved over glass in what seems to be an encroaching trend, properly baconed frisée aux lardons ($19) and ravioles du dauphiné ($18) that will be ideal for picky kids should Café Chelsea’s hotspot environment eventually cool. Steak frites ($42), poulet rôti ($32), a grilled loup de mer ($32) and an omelet ($24) are among the mains ($24).  Cafe Chelsea is located at 218 West 23rd Street. 

If I had a buck for every time I’ve heard that “New York is back,” I’d have enough for a few bites at chef and humanitarian José Andrés’ new restaurant, The Bazaar. Literally.  A place where the plates range from $14 for eight olives to $65 for one ounce of Kobe ribeye, with $8 oysters in-between, certainly assumes that the moneyed are poised to spend again. This is not the first return to super-luxe dining since the pandemic, of course. Daniel Boulud’s Le Pavillon, which presently peaks at $205 per person for six courses at dinner, was among the earliest post-vaccine arrivals; James Kent’s Saga ($295 per person for nine-ish rounds), which came a little later, is one of the most expensive. But Spanish and Japanese-influenced The Bazaar at The Ritz-Carlton, Nomad, with its recommended four-to-six dishes a guest, and its caveat that many amount to just a few chews, assembled untethered from a guided tasting or the notion of abundance a multi-course experience can evoke, seems to have the boldest dollar signs of those après-2020 currency symbols.  Some of The Bazaar’s “little starters,” for example, are even less substantial, at twice the price, as the amuse-bouche-sized openers I knocked at one of 2022’s best newcomers, the also costly, also à la carte, Le Rock. And some of their flavors are as fleeting as the essence of a Pamplemousse LaCroix, for comical sums.  That includes the Japanese sea urchin cone. Described by The Bazaar’s patient, professional staff as one or two bite

The text messages started the day before, as they always do. I’d finally landed a reservation at Ariari, the new Korean restaurant from Hand Hospitality, the group behind top restaurants Little Mad, one of my picks for the best openings of 2021, and Atoboy, high on my list of NYC’s overall greats. Ariari debuted in the East Village at the end of last year, and it took me until this summer to land a convenient reservation, this one the infrequent fruit of a Resy notification.  This communiqué, however detailed several totally reasonable and not at all unprecedented house policies (don’t be too late, don’t double your party size, don’t cancel at the last minute unless you want to pay a comparatively reasonable $10 per person fee, don’t overstay your welcome) in addition to the more standard confirmation request. There were a few caps. Fair enough. I don’t see anything similar scrolling back through the last 24 months of reminders, but fair enough.  But then, about 45 minutes before my designated arrival, as I chatted on a rooftop farther uptown, another message, “Your table is available now if you would be interested in dining with us sooner. Please text us back to confirm!” Then, relocated to a hot subway platform but with plenty of time to spare, the standard 30-minute warning, before, “Hello, this is ARIARI Restaurant. We are holding your table up to 15 mins after your reservation time. Please text us back if you are running late!,” which I wasn’t, but now felt like I was, t

In the months before the pandemic, a little East Village sandwich window was getting big attention for its locally infrequent ingredients like camel and bison heart, alongside more standard fare like shrimp, lamb and roast pork. It closed three years and many fans later due to that old Manhattan classic, a lease dilemma. Foxface expanded its concept, menu, space and name not too far away this past spring with the opening of Foxface Natural on Avenue A.  Though several times its predecessor’s size, Foxface Natural’s long, narrow dining room is still petite, swiped mostly in white with a few lines of sandy wood and a bit more color from potted plants. Like before, the menu is frequently updated; quail, live scallops, goat, outsized prawn heads and other underwater noggins having graced tables throughout Foxface Natural’s two seasons in operation. It’s still, in this new iteration, spotlighting some infrequently commercially seen items, a few available on a blink-and-you’ll-miss-them basis. A shipment of percebes, for example, was recently lost at JFK, conjuring all sorts of hypotheticals about the unintended party eventually on the Portuguese goose barnacles’ receiving end. Studied sourcing and its beautiful conclusion aside, there has still been little else quite as attention-catching as that camel here at 2.0, though the kangaroo tartare ($25) comes close.  Next to nothing is unheard of in New York City, including kangaroo, which I’ve previously enjoyed in carpaccio form at s

It takes a lot of work to make things easy. A good maître d' will do it, and Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, who manned Minetta Tavern, Raoul’s and Le Coucou before publishing his tell-all, Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D' in 2022, is among the industry’s best known. The famed steward opened Cecchi’s as “a modern take on the classic New York bar & grill” in the West Village this summer. And it's already righting some recent hospitality wrongs.  My top three restaurant complaints of the past two years have been that everywhere’s too bright, all the "new" cocktails are needlessly complicated and I can’t get a reservation anywhere. Hyperbole aside, they’re all vexing trends, each eschewed by cleverly coordinated Cecchi’s. Here, the lighting’s nice, the cocktails skew simpler and, although it’s obviously popular, Cecchi’s is also accessible for its intended purpose of selling food and drinks.  The appletini ($20) among the latter’s a hoot, the slight pomegranate zag in the cosmopolitan ($20) is pleasant rather than puzzling and the Manhattans and martinis ($17+) are masterclass. There have even recently been seats to sip them at the handsome bar, where an old cash register from cult favorite Café Loup, which operated in the neighborhood for 42 years, is once more in use. The adjacent Art Deco-style dining room is flush with a honeyed glow and splashed with murals depicting convivial party scenes. A warm, less decorative but somewhat more private, annex is a little

Approach The Golden Swan’s 11th Street address (the same one previously occupied by The Spotted Pig; a restaurant that cycled through hospitality’s highest highs and its most disturbing lows before closing in disgrace in January of 2020), and a host stands guard outside. It’s dated, alienating and impractical, creating a truly goofy pseudo exclusively reminiscent of comical red velvet ropes rather than what I imagine is a stab at the gatekeeping of proprietor Matt Abramcyk’s early-aughts Beatrice Inn. “We’re trying to create a clubhouse without being a membership club,” Abramcyk told The Wall Street Journal; a conceit that, if landed, would only evoke the worst of both worlds.  What might have seemed impressive in 2006 is a naked affectation today, but this introduction is more than just an eye-roller. What’s inside is rather nice, and the pre-entry pomp does it a disservice. The once cluttered, grandma-tavern aesthetic that enraptured fans of celebrities and burgers for sixteen years is gone; with it, the once-ubiquitous pigs. The first floor space they’ve dubbed the Wallace Room is now awash in pretty shades of gleaming emerald and chartreuse. Essentially the bar component, the food down here is a bit different than the fancier affair upstairs, and, though still expensive, a bit less-so. The second-story dining room (“Dining Room”) is vaguely mid-century pretty, done in hues of warm beige with comfortable seats fit for grown-ups.   The cocktail menu is twice as long and hal

Although I have yet to test this theory, I believe it would be easy to spend about one million dollars in under an hour across a short stretch of 57th Street. A luxury sports car from the Aston Martin at Park Avenue would do a lot of the heavy lifting as the vehicular equivalent of a cart full of turkeys on Supermarket Sweep, and then, provided I could find parking, I’d pad out the rest at Dior, Bulgari and Bergdorf. There’s a Tiffany over there, too. Now, perhaps the billionaires for whom the area is named (their “Row,” if you will), will say it can’t be done, but I reply, try me, you beautiful titans of industry, of whom everyone is very fond. My time, your money. Winner buys dinner at Nasrin’s Kitchen nearby.  Chef Nasrin Rejali learned to cook family recipes growing up in Tehran and went on to operate a cafe there before emigrating to Turkey and then to the United States with her three young kids. Here, Rejali connected with the refugee and minority immigrant-staffed hospitality business Eat Offbeat. This eponymous Persian restaurant that opened in June follows a series of pop-ups she also hosted around town.  Halfway up the staircase to Nasrin’s Kitchen’s second-story space, the air seems to lift, too, in a mood-elevating shift. The 50-some-odd-seat dining room just has good energy, a welcoming ambiance that can’t be faked. Tree trunks of datedly distinguished marble columns, petite vases of dainty carnations and casual white tablecloths are reflected in a wall of otherw

When a neighborhood restaurant closes, the best thing that can replace it is another one. Inevitable grousing about the way things were aside, those pleasant, easy spots are preferred over the alternative million dollar condos, bank branches, or even overpriced, underperforming food and drink businesses seemingly sprung fully formed from social media. So Cotra, a new self-billed izakaya that opened last month in the space long occupied by red sauce spot Monte’s is a welcome new steward of the address. It arrives on the block from the operators of Trad Room in Bed-Stuy.  Inside, the brick walls are still exposed, and the wood-burning oven is still in the back; visible as before, but now framed by sleek windows. Up front, the white marble-topped bar remains on the right, and the whole rouge banquette to the left has been swapped with similar but untethered, segmented seats a bit better for smaller parties, if a little wobbly. The rest of the formerly blush color scheme around the actual banquette and booths have been redone in swipes of light gray, charcoal and blue for, once more, a modern-Gowanus aesthetic, as the place’s previous owners aimed to achieve when they redid the room in 2011 style. Sushi varieties like the nori-forward tamago roll ($7.25), its bright interior egg overly firm, and the spicy salmon ($9) with too-chewy crispy rice, are quick to arrive for speedy drink pairing, but might be more welcome after you’ve had a few. Opt instead to linger a little longer for

New to Williamsburg’s Hoxton Hotel, Jaffa opened this past May. It makes three operations by chef Michael Solomonov at this address, joining fantastic K’Far adjacent to the hotel’s lobby, and popular Laser Wolf on the 10th floor. Jaffa serves seafood, fun cocktails, buckets of beer and wine by the glass or box on the Hoxton’s mezzanine level. 

Last month, four coworkers from Red Hook’s Somtum Der opened their own restaurant in Carroll Gardens, not too far away.  “More like friends and family,” Meen Srisopa, one of the new owners, describes the quartet; a fondness that permeates the operation. Here, she’s joined by Wannapa Jaisaen, Ben Sangdee and chef Rachanon Kampimarn, for whom Untable is named. “We usually call him Aun,” Srisopa says. Their aim is to serve preparations unlike anywhere else, informed by both Kampimarn’s professional background and personal experience cooking with his mother and uncle, presented with what the team agrees is modern appeal.  A little more than 30 days after a quiet debut, groups gather outside and hope for tables at the walk-in-only address. Even on weeknights, and even with other good and great places to eat nearby. Those crowds will only grow, as Untable is New York City’s best new restaurant of the year, so far.  A recently quoted 20-minute wait ended up slightly shorter; barely enough time to finish a rosé at Bar Bruno across the street. Untable has room for 26 at two- and four-tops in the warm, inviting space, where mostly Motown fills the air. Ten more bar seats are also allocated for dining, so you’ll just have to pair fantastic drinks with splendid menu items.  Photograph: Courtesy of Amber Sutherland-Namako Untable’s tipples are among the very few in current creation that challenge my general assertion that all the good cocktails already exist. The smoothly citrusy, vodka

In the original Ghostbusters (the sexy demon one), trapped apparitions, spirits and daemons are stored in a containment unit below the busters' repurposed firehouse HQ. This very ghost holder is, in fact, the film’s entire raison d'etre. Were the spectre-catchers to, say, shake and stir these souls into cocktails instead, well that would have been too ghoulish even for members of the profession. But Korean-influenced gastropub Barn Joo in Union Square dares to go there for the final week of this year’s spooky season.  From now until October 31, Barn Joo is serving a collection of Ghostbusters-inspired drinks alongside a few costumed characters like Slimer, the Marshmallow Man and a ghostbuster of general identity. And that’s where things take an even more frightful turn.  Photograph: Courtesy of Barn Joo Would it be macabre to sip a drink not only named for, but also aglow, with the same green as Slimer’s own ectoplasm, suggesting, perhaps, that rather than tipple’s purported midori, they’ve tapped the innards of that old foe himself? It better be! What about the mix of makgeolli and soju in the Marshmallow Man; seems innocuous enough, no? Only until you see the toasted bit of squish on top that might be torn from the not-so-jolly giant’s own appendages!!! There is also a bourbon or tequila-based Dr. Egon variety, should you, identifying more with the villains, wish to imbibe the good guys, and a fruity gin or vodka Zuul Blood, served in one of those IV-type bags you see al

Teeny-tiny sushi counters are growing in New York City, where space is so scarce we’re also stacking restaurants and bars in subway stations, and the latest lil’ spot premieres on Park Avenue next week.  Chef Robby Cook, who spent 15 years working at Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s eponymous Manhattan destination, will open Coral on Tuesday, October 24. The 10-seat space is inside another restaurant called Point Seven, which itself is in the MetLife building, though Coral’s press materials have mercifully refrained from throwing around any eye-rolling speakeasy references.  Photograph: Courtesy of Ohad Kab Coral will serve a 21-course omakase for $350 per person with items sourced from Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market. Expect introductory otsumami like shiro ebi with uni, truffles and shio kombu and a rotating sushi selection that could include baby amberjack, horse mackerel and otoro.  Ambitious sweets are on the menu, too, including collaborations between Cook and Sam Mason, previously on pastry at WD-50, presently the proprietor of Oddfellows Ice Cream Co. An in-house chocolatier will also make red miso caramel, yuzu mandarin and ume, plum and ginger bonbon varieties.  Beverage pairings are grouped into Champagne and wine, sake, all three plus beer and cocktails and alcohol-free sections. À la carte drinks are also available. 

A new spot is bubbling up in Brooklyn this week: The Rogue Boba, from the same team behind Chinese-influenced, plant-based The Rogue Panda on Time Out Market’s fifth-floor rooftop.  The Rogue Boba, down on the market’s ground level, expounds on its predecessor’s beverages with a new, dedicated, bubble tea menu.  “Shortly after opening TRP we noticed that boba was something that really excited our customers,” says proprietor Michael Laverty via email. “We would observe customers from the other side of the counter and as they scanned the menu there was a noticeable shift when they realized that we had boba—they seem genuinely happy and excited to try it,” he says.  “When people started coming back on a regular basis requesting the boba (and sending friends) we knew that we were onto something special,” Laverty continues. “Given the space and operational constraints of TRP, we were only able to offer a few drinks so we started drawing up plans for a stand-alone concept that would enable us to build out a full menu and do the drink justice. Hence, the birth of TRB.” The Rogue Boba sources its loose-leaf tea and boba from Taiwan, and gets its fresh fruit and seasonal ingredients from local purveyors to create flavors like taro coconut, strawberry and cream, peach oolong and mango passionfruit. Bubble waffles are also made à la minute, and available with fun toppings. 

The “World’s 50 Best Bars,” always at the center of the world’s boldest scare quotes, is back again, shaking up its list like the world’s booziest margarita and garnishing it with the world’s biggest grain of salt.  The annually updated index is under the umbrella of The 50 Best Brand, which also produces scrolls of the supposed 50 finest bars on North America, and inventories of the globe’s purportedly greatest restaurants. That’s all in the grasp of the food and drink sector data and events business, William Reed. And this edition of the corporation’s compilation of the Earth’s most esteemed watering holes was arranged by what it calls The World’s 50 Best Bars Academy, which numbers 680 “drinks experts” from 28 geographic regions who shan’t consider any consumer experience dating farther than than 18 calendar months back, for voting purposes, per a press release.   RECOMMENDED: This new Williamsburg restaurant has can’t-miss oysters and a dessert that’s literally fire. Anywho, 2023’s honorees include just three from NYC. The Lower East Side’s Double Chicken Please—number one on the aforementioned North America roundup announced this past May— clucks in at number 2. Overstory (NA’s number 7) in the Financial District soars at number 17. And Katana Kitten (3) roars from the West Village in the planet’s 27th spot. In 2022, the trio was ranked at numbers 6, 34 and 9, respectively, and also joined then by Attaboy, Dante and Employees Only, each absent this iteration.  This year’

It is finally fall in New York City, with radiators clickity clack clack banging back on, frozen drinks melting into hot cocktails and hospitality awards percolating on everyone’s palate. Each year’s final quarter brings a crush of reminiscences, round-ups and best of lists. Time Out New York’s annual best restaurants ranking, for example, is the best of them all, and the ‘World’s 50 Best Bars’ are also reliably revealed right around now.  Yesterday at a ceremony in Barcelona, the consortium, including “650 drinks experts from across the globe,” bestowed honors, many beverage company-branded on half-a-hundred sippy leaders. New York City took six spots, with Double Chicken Please at number six, Katana Kitten at number nine, Attaboy at number 22, Overstory at number 34, Dante at number 36 and Employees Only at number 47. DCP was also recognized for the “Highest New Entry,” as it ranked 54th (there are two tiers: the ’50 Best’ and the 50 rest) last year. Photograph: Courtesy of Noah Fecks No other city had as many mentions in 2022.  The top spot, however, went to Barcelona’s Paradiso. It is the group’s first number one bar outside of New York or London, according to 50 Best reps.  “Hidden behind an antique refrigerator in the back of an unassuming pastrami shop in Barcelona’s trendy El Born district, Paradiso offers a truly masterful take on the speakeasy, combining technique, precision and creativity with an unwavering sense of fun,” a press release reads. “Paradiso signatur

It only took one try to get a recent Friday night reservation at Neeloo. That relative rarity—a new restaurant, with abundant early media attention, where you can still get in, is befitting a topline family-run business, even one where the patriarch’s résumé includes Per Se.  Like most other dining rooms in New York City, Neeloo’s is considerably more casual than that august institution. Its cooly-quaint, brick-lined space seats 70 in a stretch back to the intimate patio, where there’s room for 24 more. It’s warm and cozy, but decently spacious, with a long bar running along its right side. Exposed lightbulbs hark back to the Edison variety that saturated the borough enough years ago that their glow now feels nostalgic, rather than clichéd.  The dinner menu is described in press materials as new-American-meets-Mediterranean with influences from the South of France. The cocktail list isn’t quite so broadly precise; an incongruous lineup of five, led by what they call the luxure martini, made with a sugary mix of vodka, clove, maraschino, Giffard framboise, lime and pineapple, and ending with the curiously character-free, save its viscosity, La Passeggiata, likened to a white Negroni. The bar’s classic Manhattans and martinis are, fortunately, much better (all $16+). Photograph: Courtesy of Onbrand Productions To start, Neeloo’s hearth-broiled Wellfleet oysters ($19/6) are wonderful. The Cape Cod bivalves are cloaked in warm Camembert. The earthy melted cheese is the item’s m

Restaurants and bars open at an incredible rate in New York City, reception ranging on a scale from “okay?” to “wowie zowie.” Will the public be moved by yet another boîte billed as a love letter to something or other that turns out to be affection for profit alone? Actually, sometimes yes. But folks really take notice when a place premieres with some pomp, pageantry and pizzazz.   Paradise Lost, which opens Friday, October 13 in the East Village, is billed in a press release as “a campy, transportive experience that takes guests to a tropical “hellscape,”” with a space that “elicits a sinister escapism.”   But wait, there's more—including an invented backstory that somewhat borrows from Milton’s epic poem by the same name, like a fable that the bar “exists in a cosmic plane known as "The Abyss”.” Where Milton’s Abyss was, of course, famously visited by Satan, this one’s “inhabited with unique characters,” with drinks and design elements intended to engage guests with this fiction.  Some of those narrative-pushing fixtures number an eight-foot altar, oversized bat taxidermy (head only), a white fur interior door and snakeskin banquettes. There is also a lighting arrangement that changes when you order select cocktails.  Photograph: Courtesy of Noah Fecks Takes on “tiki-inspired and tropical” tipples are ominously monikered, like the archfiend, (jalapeño-infused tequila, makrut leaf-infused mezcal, galangal agave syrup, lime cordial, hibiscus syrup, hellfire bitters), the c

Like nature itself, and the majesty of fall’s color changing leaves, early twilight hours and crisp breeze, autumn in New York is so much more than an incredibly bizarre, hospitality-adjacent old movie. These last few months of the year also usher in new beginnings; a snap back to action after the long lull of summer, the first day of school, cuffing this and that. It is also the time to start working warming or otherwise seasonally appealing savory, sweet and all-occasion foodstuffs into your dining routine. Here are some to try right now at Time Out Market New York.  Mr Taka Ramen  What: The black garlic tonkotsu ramen ($21.50).  Imagine, rustling back inside your roomy and improbably elegant cabin after a lively round of snowmobile tag, your cheeks red with excitement and a little windburn. In the shabby-chic, double-island kitchen awaits a soothing bowl of ramen, replete with thin noodles, sliced pork belly, scallops, bean sprouts, kikurage mushrooms, black garlic oil and garlic chips swirling in its pork broth. It’s a victory. Photograph: Courtesy of Time Out Market New York Clinton St. Baking Company What: The pancakes with warm maple butter ($15).  Some flavors simply say fall while others sing it out like Liza with a Z and this stack of pancakes is all pizzazz. The satiny maple butter goes a long way toward that seasonal conceit, cloaking and Clinton Street’s expert breakfast signature (also available in blueberry, banana walnut or chocolate chunk varieties) like Ha

Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights has long been one of the most idyllic stretches in New York City. Bookended by the picturesque promenade to the west—relatively peaceful in spite of its tremendous tourist appeal—and distinguished Borough Hall to the east—a sick, though formally disallowed, skate spot—with brownstones, quaint shops, and the occasional bank in-between, it’s just peak TV-NYC.  There are also quite a few neighborhood restaurants across Montague’s four blocks, amid its creeping chains. Actual neighborhood restaurants, the sort that you can expect to walk into for an event as far afield as, say, dinner, rather than press release destinations that claim the category while accruing gaggles of well-heeled aspiring diners on the sidewalk outside. Chama Mama, which joined the area offerings in July, slots in splendidly.  This is the Georgian restaurant's third location after premiering in Chelsea in 2019 and expanding to the Upper West Side in 2021. Although its layout echoes the Pain Quotidien that previously occupied its address, Chama Mama has reimagined the space. What was once a live-laugh-love-looking counter is now a sleek, long bar worth a visit even on its own for its cocktails and lovely Georgian wine varieties, the latter available in fun flights. The adjacent front dining room has swapped the previous corporate spin on reclaimed-wood communal tables with a similarly social, but fresh arrangement. And Chama Mama’s back section near the open kitchen is like

There are a ton of French phrases that succinctly capture sensations way better than some collection of sounds like, say, ‘and you were in my dream, too but you were not you.’ Also related to the unconscious mind, there’s déjà rêvé, for when you’re pretty sure that something happening right now already occurred during those brief, sweet, rapid eye movement moments. Presque vu is for when you’re poised for a breakthrough that never quite cracks. Then, there’s good old déjà vu, the most famed of them all, the one you reach for when you know you’ve done this before—haven’t you?  There is a chance you are experiencing déjà vu right now, as the Michelin Guide (cue flashes of rubber tires on a rain-soaked road) just announced 11 more additions to its NYC-area collection (enter visions of dinners at restaurants you must have heard about somewhere) in advance of its star announcements next month.  Today’s 11 new inclusions join 15 spots that were also introduced four weeks ago, 17 updates from this past May and 14 from January. That amounts to a whopping 57 recognized destinations so far in 2023.  Some are obvious contenders for Time Out New York’s own list of this year’s best new restaurants that will be revealed in December. Others may be honored with Michelin’s Bib Gourmand designation or its coveted stars in a ceremony scheduled for November. A few might overlap. And many will simply remain on the outskirts of objective excellence or subjective worthiness, sleepwalking around the

Time Out Market has destinations all over the world, and this fall in New York City, two chefs from two of these culinary hubs are joining forces under one roof.  Brooklyn’s own Michael Ayoub will partner with Time Out Market Dubai’s Reif Othman on the Dumbo waterfront food hall’s beautiful fifth floor rooftop on Tuesday, October 17 at 7pm. Ayoub is the owner and operator of Fornino, which spins pizza, meatballs and arancini here at home. Othman’s eponymous Reif Kushiyaki outpost serves ramen, uramaki and sandos overseas. Together, set against the sparkling backdrop of the East River, Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline, they’ll prepare a multi-course, seated dinner for $120 per person, including a wine pairing. Limited tickets are available here.  “This collaboration is special, as when I started out as a young chef, one of the restaurants I worked at was in an Italian restaurant where we made wood-fired pizza,” Othman says. “This collab is bringing together both Italian and Japanese cuisine in one night. My team and I have worked to ensure that there is a synchronization and harmonious blend of tastes, but still showcasing the Japanese ingredients. Both chef Michael and I are in constant contact to ensure that we are both on top of everything.”  “How we came to this menu,” Ayoub says, “I sent to Reif some ideas that I initially had in mind. As the host chef, I wanted to create some dishes that would be Japanese/Asian & Italian fusions. Chef Reif then submitted the dishes