#new-york-restaurants

#new-york-restaurants

When you hear that a restaurant is hard to get into, it signals that there must be something worthy of drawing a crowd - and with all of the restaurants on this list, that is certainly the case. Whether it's food so creative you just can't find it anywhere else, cocktails and wine lists crafted to impress, stellar service, or celebrity sightings, these locations are hard to get a table at for a reason.

Helmed by executive chef Hillary Sterling, Ci Siamo has become one of the most consistently thrilling Italian tables in New York since opening in Hudson Yards. Its wood-fired hearth anchors both the room and the menu, sending out blistered focaccia, charred vegetables and deeply savory pastas that manage to feel rustic and refined all at once. Sterling's cooking nods to Italian tradition while embracing a distinctly New York sense of scale and confidence,

Hanukkah is about many things: Jewish resilience, miracles and-as is usually the case with Jewish holidays-food. Two dishes reign supreme during the Festival of Lights: sufganiyot-deep-fried donuts traditionally filled with jelly, though in recent years they've embraced all kinds of inventive fillings-and latkes, crispy potato pancakes that have also undergone a modern culinary glow-up, moving beyond their plain, traditional roots to creative versions with diverse fillings and toppings.

Chinatown: Kimmi, an entirely gluten-free restaurant, opened on Wednesday, December 3, from the team behind Tiger Lily Kitchen and TLK by Tigerlily Kitchen, which closed in 2024. The restaurant - which will use products from gluten-free facilities to keep its food celiac-safe - serves dishes like peanut noodles, mango and papaya salad, spicy tuna rice cakes, and grilled pork belly skewers. Much of the menu is also vegetarian. Drinks include wine, with glasses between $13 and $16, and low-ABV cocktails.

A weekend-only mash-up from Buba and Kisa turns the humble bureka into a kimchi bomb. On November 8 and 9, the shop will debut the kimchi melt bureka, a $19 collab with that layers black sesame tahini, classic kimchi, kimchi greens, half-sour pickles and a soy-marinated egg into Buba's signature, shatteringly crisp pastry. It'll be available from 9am to 3:30pm each day at Buba's Greenwich Village counter at 193 Bleecker Street.

Michelin has a new crush list-and it's all New York. The tire company-slash-restaurant arbiter just dropped 12 fresh additions to its 2025 Michelin Guide New York and this batch covers everything from moody kaiseki counters to buzzy Tex-Mex hangouts. These spots aren't yet starred, but they're officially "recommended," which means inspectors were impressed enough to put them on the map-and maybe in line for a shiny Bib or star later this year.

On a trip to India 10 years ago, my guide ushered me into a private section of Jaipur's Amber Fort, to a part of the Sheesh Mahal not usually open to the public. All of this famous hall of mirrors is visually stunning but this section was a secret-a small, vaulted ceiling inlet lined with mirror fragments. He then lit two matches and the ceiling illuminated like a sky full of stars.

The other week, chefs and longtime business partners Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr were sitting in a plush green banquette talking hockey - they are lifelong fans of the Rangers and the Canadiens, respectively - and steak dinners. They were mulling the menu for their next restaurant, Wild Cherry, seemingly in no rush to make any final decisions until absolutely necessary. "The menu will go down until Saturday, when we have a tasting," Hanson said.

David Rabin stated, "I don't want Mamdani to be mayor. I will do anything to try to stop him." This reflects a strong opposition to Mamdani's potential candidacy.

Kabawa, the Caribbean tasting menu spot from Momofuku vet Paul Carmichael, has received accolades for its elegant dark green dining room and sophisticated three-course tasting menu.