Welcome back, dear readers! This week, we wanted to do our favorite type of newsletter: answering your restaurant questions. We reached out on our Instagram stories and you sent in your queries, from the very vague (“steak houses?” … try Gallaghers!) to the hyper specific (“new, fun dinner restaurant for 8 startup colleagues based in Bryant Park?” … how about Berimbau?).
Below are answers to a few of our favorite prompts, including where to carbo-load before a marathon, and where to take a date you’re on the fence about. We’re also excited to announce that you can now send us reader questions through a dedicated form that will be linked at the bottom of this and all future newsletters. It will make it easier for us to organize and read through reader questions, though you can still reach us at [email protected].
Carbo-loading before the big race
Where should I carbo-load before the New York City Marathon? — Maggie M.
I’m no marathoner, but I’ve always associated carbo-loading for marathons with eating pasta. And who am I to recommend otherwise? I think you’ll be running on air if you dig into any one of the seven pastas (but especially the bucatini amatriciana) at Lupetto near Madison Square Park. Over the weekend, I nearly passed out from the pleasure of the soy butter bigoli with shiitake mushrooms and shallot gremolata, at Kimika, a Japanese-Italian restaurant in NoLIta from the Wayla team. I could have eaten two more bowls. Even better, both are lovely spaces to bring the whole family before they cheer you on. NIKITA RICHARDSON
Korean BBQ with your BFF
Where to eat with my best friend before a concert at Madison Square Garden? — Margaret F.
I’m this close to recommending the Bar at Moynihan, shockingly an amazing place to hang out in Moynihan Train Hall, a.k.a. the new, yassified Penn Station. But this is your best friend we’re talking about! I’d take my own bestie to Jongro BBQ in Koreatown — she’d get a kick out of the entrance (through a nearly unmarked door in what appears to be an office building, up an elevator), the décor (a big pink Jinro Soju frog sitting on a bench, Korean LPs on the walls) and the opulent feeling of having a spread of banchan in front of you and a server grilling galbi for you. BECKY HUGHES
Catching up on New York City restaurants
“Haven’t been back to N.Y.C. since before the pandemic. Where should I go?” — Angie A.
I love this question because that was the entire catalyst behind “Where to Eat” — so much changed over those first two years and I felt as if we all needed a refresher on the restaurant scene. So if you’re asking for a primer on great restaurants that have opened since 2021-ish (and I think that you are), I’d have to recommend the absolutely incredible Persian street food at the two-year-old Eyval in Bushwick. Everything is good, but especially the lamb rack shishlik. If you want to feel enveloped in the warm embrace of a cool restaurant with cool food to match, grab a reservation at Bangkok Supper Club. (Maybe for an early dinner after an afternoon stroll through the Whitney.) And if you really want a meal that you won’t find anywhere else, book a table at Foxface Natural for their inspired takes on seafood. No one’s doing it like them. NIKITA RICHARDSON
For a first date that could go either way
Good date spot for drinks where you can order food if the date is going well? — Isabel F.
A first date venue is a big decision to make. Especially for that nebulous stretch after work, when you’re not sure if you need to keep it to just drinks (you’re not into it) or let it roll into a dinner date (you’re into it — yay!). I’ve got two options, one in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.
In the East Village, Sake Bar Decibel is exactly right for this occasion. It’s down a flight of stairs, dark with red lighting, always lively but rarely too full. To drink: sake, naturally, maybe a sake flight for some conversation fodder. (They have most other spirits, too, if it turns out your date is, say, exclusively a whiskey drinker). Hitting it off? Put in an order of octopus takoyaki, fried purple sweet potatoes, shrimp shumai and heavily sauced okonomiyaki. Romance!
Alternatively, in Cobble Hill, another personal favorite: the Long Island Bar, a walk-in only spot that’s kept its diner facade since 1951, but went cocktail-y about a decade ago. This is the place to come early, grab bar seats, toss back a couple of gimlets (reasonably priced at $16, actually) and then decide if your date is worthy of splitting a double-stacked burger and fried cheese curds with. BECKY HUGHES
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