New York City is home to a variety of world-renowned culinary experiences. While cream cheese bagels and pastrami sandwiches can be found everywhere, the city also offers gourmet French bistros and intimate omakase restaurants.
Blue Hill, founded in Greenwich Village and now located Upstate is an early proponent of the Farm to Fork method. Try dishes like stuffed grape leaves and kebabs with wine pairings.
Sushi Nakazawa
It seems like every new restaurant offers some form of intimate omakase experience—you sit at the counter, and the chef serves you his best. But few have been as well received as Sushi Nakazawa, the West Village restaurant that starred in Jiro Dreams of Sushi and earned four stars from New York Times critic Pete Wells. Its price tag may be mind-boggling ($150 for a counter seat), but the quality of the food is undeniable.
The upscale 21-course menu, which changes daily based on what’s freshest, features Edomae sushi (invented in Tokyo 200 years ago). You can also reserve a stool at the kitchen bar to see Chef Nakazawa perform his craft up close. He’s a master at using subtle accents to cast specimens from Santa Barbara to Nagasaki in their most expressive light. And his tamago—a fluffy, sweet egg custard that Nakazawa tried to perfect for 111 minutes on Jiro’s film—is a revelation.
Some traditionalists found his mix of American and Japanese sensibilities off-putting, but the original Sushi Nakazawa helped introduce Tokyo-style omakase—where the chef decides what you’ll eat based on a deep understanding of the ocean’s seasons and a bit of pure whim—to New Yorkers who weren’t necessarily students of Japanese cuisine. And although the pristine space and eerily hushed dining room seem distinctly Japanese, there’s nothing pretentious about it.
The only drawback, really, is the flimsy wooden chopsticks, which prompt you to go the totally acceptable route of eating with your fingers. But with food this good, who needs utensils? This is a must-visit for anyone who loves sushi.
Daniel
Whether you’re in the mood for a decadent omakase tasting, a quaint diner serving up burgers and fries, or an immersive restaurant experience with dishes from around the globe, New York City has it all. This spring, try something different and visit one of these quintessential restaurants, diners, and takeouts that make NYC a food lover’s dream.
From a retro bar where vinyl records spin to an eerie cave complete with gilded mirrors and Victorian furnishings, these unique restaurants are some of the quirkiest in the city. And they’re sure to make for memorable dining experiences! Here are four of our favorites to try this spring.
Ilili
New York City is home to some of the country’s most renowned culinary experiences. Here, diners can find everything from a $120 solo dinner to a $1,000 meal for two. Most of the restaurants in this list offer a la carte options, and many feature tasting menus. Some also provide outdoor dining and takeout.
This modern restaurant offers a wide variety of Lebanese cuisine. Guests can enjoy a variety of dishes such as hummus, chicken schwarma, and beef kabobs. The restaurant also serves baklava for dessert. The ambiance is cozy and inviting. The staff is friendly and professional.
Located in the Flatiron District, Ilili is the brainchild of chef Philippe Massoud. He combines modern and traditional Lebanese food with great flair. This restaurant is a must-visit if you are a fan of Middle Eastern food. Its silky kibbeh nayeh steak tartare and generous mixed grill platters are sure to satisfy any appetite.
The restaurant is known for its upscale and delicious Lebanese food, which is served in a classy and sophisticated setting. The restaurant is also famous for its desserts, including the brittle kataifi and warm chocolate cake.
Since 2007, Ilili has shared the cuisine and culture of Lebanon in the heart of Manhattan’s Flatiron District. Owner and executive chef Phillipe Massoud has brought a sophisticated blend of modern and traditional Lebanese food to the table, welcoming curious New Yorkers while comforting native Lebanese with a taste of home. The restaurant’s high ceiling and light wood enchant visitors as they make their way from the corridor to the bar and then into the main dining hall. Then, a second corridor leads to a cozier space that features a lower ceiling for a more intimate experience.
Tatiana
Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s new New York City restaurant Tatiana is receiving global accolades just six months after its debut. Named after his sister, the restaurant at Lincoln Center in Manhattan’s Upper West Side celebrates Onwuachi’s New York upbringing and his rich African diaspora heritage with dishes such as Curried Crab, a luscious stew brightened with finger lime that plays off Trinidadian cuisine, and Braised Oxtails served with Thumbelina carrot and chayote squash.
Onwuachi’s passion for food began at home in Miami, where he helped prepare family meals and made his own desserts from scratch. Then, when he was 19, he began working in a restaurant to make his parents proud and show that Cubans are strong and smart. His father encouraged him to follow his heart, and that’s what he did.
Now, he wants Tatiana to be the place where “people just feel comfortable, man,” he says. He fiddles with an app on his phone that lets him change the color of custom cloud lights over the dining room’s green booths, and a playlist featuring Erykah Badu and Rick Ross fills the space. Onwuachi’s goal is to create a restaurant that reflects his community and the many cultures in it, which he hopes will help attract more people to the city’s culinary scene.
3s are confident in themselves and their abilities, which translates to bold textures and flavors as well as a curious approach to food. They often have a natural flirty demeanor and can be natural-born entertainers. They also tend to prefer to work on a larger scale. You are a natural charmer, and your ebullient personality makes others around you happy. Your confidence and charm can be a bit of a double-edged sword, as you have the ability to attract jealousy in some people.
Journey
New York City is home to a wealth of culinary experiences. Whether you want to go on an immersive dinner that takes you around the world (visually too), or just grab some street food from different neighborhoods, there’s plenty to discover.
Journey introduces theatrical gastronomy to the restaurant scene with an exciting blend of immersive video installations, fine dining and fashion tech. You can choose between the Journey Odyssey, where projection mapping will take you from the communal table to five exotic locations for each course of your prix fixe meal; Journey A La Carte, where augmented reality brings your dishware to life with comedy skits; and the Salon and Epic Cafe, where you’ll find a collection of replica antiquities and a hostess bedecked in stunning FashionTech couture.
Dinner and a show takes on an entirely new meaning with Le Petit Chef, the world’s smallest French chef, who turn your traditional static tabletop dinner presentation into a magical 3D experience. This unique experience, which was originally created for Disney’s Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, is available at The View for a limited time starting today. You’ll watch your table transform into a rainforest, a volcano, and even underwater shipwreck while the dishes on your plate match the taste and aesthetic of each location.
