Best Brooklyn Bites: Dosa Royale
For years now, we Brooklynites have bemoaned the lack of a single South Indian restaurant in Brooklyn. Sure, you’ll find plenty of places serving saucy, Northern-style Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Korma and Saag Paneer, but not a one featuring the unique, largely vegetarian fare associated with the Southern region, like Dosas, Idlis and Vada Pav, that is until now…
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Where To Celebrate Mardi Gras 2014
If you can’t make it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras this year, be grateful that you at least get to spend it in New York because our bars and restaurants (Cajun, Creole, Southern or otherwise) simply never miss an opportunity to party. (Well, it’s true.) So don your beads and masks and spend Fat Tuesday sipping Sazeracs at Andrew Carmellini’s The Dutch, eating Smoked Duck Gumbo at Back Forty, or snacking on King Cake…
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Where to Eat, Drink & Watch the Oscars in NYC
Hollywood’s biggest night of the year is this Sunday, March 2nd. If you didn’t manage to score a ticket to Vanity Fair’s exclusive star-studded Oscar party or your invite to Sir Elton John’s gala got lost in the mail, there’s no reason to be home alone. There are plenty of places in New York to enjoy some glitz and glamour, award-winning foods and cocktail specials on this star-studded evening. Check out our guide to the best places to celebrate the 86th Annual Academy Awards…
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Spotlight on New York’s James Beard Award Nominees
The Oscars may be coming up this weekend, but for members of the restaurant industry, there’s no greater honor than receiving a James Beard Foundation Award. Established in 1990, the JBFA’s recognize excellence and achievement in numerous culinary fields, from chefs and restaurateurs to food journalists, cookbook authors, wine curators and designers. And while the actual winners won’t be announced until the spring, just being nominated officially grants recipients bragging rights for life…
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Where to Celebrate NYC Beer Week 2014
We celebrated cider four months ago, and now it’s time to pay homage to that other fermented beverage, which is well on its way to becoming just as universally respected as wine. Beer! New York City Beer Week is back for its sixth year, promoting local breweries and beers. If you’re still drinking Corona and Coors light, this is the week to expand your horizons and drink local…
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Where to Eat During NYC Restaurant Week 2014
If you’re anything like us, the list of recently opened restaurants that you just need to visit is a mile long. And while in theory, Restaurant Week seems like the perfect, most cost effective opportunity to check out as many as you can, the truth is, few of the newest, buzziest eateries ever participate. That’s why we view the annual event as an ideal time to attend to our other list, focused on iconic New York restaurants that amazingly, we’ve still never frequented (we’ve also never climbed the Statue of Liberty; it must be a native thing).
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The New School Face of Old World Brooklyn Cuisine
You’d be hard-pressed to find a cold weather vegetable that comes in greater variety than winter squash. There’s sweet Butternut, creamy Pumpkin, meaty Acorn and even butter-yellow Spaghetti Squash, its silky strands resembling a freshly cooked plate of pasta. And that exciting versatility is precisely what makes squash such a sought after ingredient at restaurants, so be sure to check out the vegetarian-friendly Pumpkin Tacos at the brand new Mission Cantina, the hand-cranked Butternut Squash Panzotti at Michael White’s elegant Italian steakhouse Costata…
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New York’s Sexiest Edible Aphrodisiacs
We don’t prescribe to love spells and potions, but there’s another, all natural way to fan the flames of passion this Valentine’s Day. And that’s with edible aphrodisiacs; foods that have long been believed to enhance the libido and stimulate the senses due to their concentrated levels of certain chemical compounds. And we’re not just talking oysters and chocolate by the way. We’re talking unexpected ingredients, like almonds, avocados, salmon and chilies, which can also get your juices flowing. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of our favorite aphrodisiac-focused dishes in New York…
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NYC’s Most Creative Valentine’s Day Chocolates
Our tastes have refined as we’ve gotten older, and it takes a bit more for our significant others to impress us than with Whitman’s Samplers or packages of Russell Stover. That’s where New York’s most creative candy companies come in, from Vosges Haut with their sweet and smoky Bacon Bars to the Japanese import Royce’ and their supremely decadent Cocoa Squares and Brooklyn’s Liddabit Sweets, currently selling Passion Fruit Truffles from their brand new outpost in the Chelsea Market!
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Our Favorite Chinese Joints To Celebrate the Lunar New Year
One of the most exciting aspects of living in New York is having access to cuisines from all over the world, from Austrian, Polish and Uzbeki fare to Pakistani, Malaysian and Guyanese. But probably the thing we’re best known for (besides having great pizza, hot dogs and bagels that is), is being a mecca of amazing, regional Chinese food. So whether you’re looking to celebrate the Chinese New Year this Friday (or are merely in search of top notch dumplings and noodles), we’ve got a terrific list of don’t-miss places for you…
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The Ultimate Valentine’s Day Dining Guide 2014
Do you want to show your significant other that you really care this Valentine’s Day? Then you’d be wise not to wait until the last minute to make a dinner reservation. Granted, it’s still January, but you can bet that all the best holiday tables will get snapped up… fast. So make your phone calls now if you want to treat your sweetheart to White Sturgeon Caviar at Ristorante Morini on the Upper East Side, Lobster and Sea Urchin at Juni in Midtown, or a selection of succulent Oysters from Maison Premiere in Brooklyn…
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NYC’s Tastiest Winter Stews
Now that it’s winter, chefs are turning their attention towards highly refined (but no less soul-satisfying) slow-simmered stews – from the Toulouse-style Cassoulet at Mountain Bird in Harlem to the Blanquette de Veau at Le Philosophe in NoHo and the rustic Wild Boar Spezzatino at Bar Corvo in Brooklyn…
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Manhattan Restaurants To Try in 2014
It’s always a daunting task to pinpoint our favorite restaurants at the end of each year. But 2013 brought in such an unprecedented slew of truly notable openings that we couldn’t even contain our borough-wide picks in one single list… so we didn’t. Did you not get the memo about surprise success, Piora and its Korean-Italian mashup menu (we swear it’s delicious), or Richard Kuo’s new hip Bowery spot, Pearl & Ash and its killer drinks? How about New York Sushi Ko and its blow your mind omakase? No problem. Here’s our top ten to put on your must-try list for 2014…
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Fun Food Holidays to Celebrate this January
There’s no need to feel let down now that the holiday season is officially over. Because if you love eating just as much as we do, there’s always a reason to celebrate. That’s why we’re commemorating January’s tastiest food-focused holidays at a number of New York restaurants, including National Hot Toddy Day at Whiskey Soda Lounge in Brooklyn and National Pastrami Sandwich Day at Alder on the East Village!
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Best New Brooklyn & Queens Restaurants for 2013
2013 was an absolute banner year for Manhattan restaurants… it seemed like practically every week there was yet another place that we absolutely had to try. But that doesn’t mean that things weren’t every bit as exciting outside of the island. So without further ado, here’s a roundup of our favorite new outer-borough eateries, from The Elm, Luksus, and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Brooklyn to Bun-ker, MP Taverna and M. Wells Steakhouse in Queens…
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Local Products to Look for at the New Brooklyn Whole Foods
Here at Restaurant Girl, we tend to obsess about great New York restaurants. Not grocery stores and certainly not Whole Foods, a massive chain with interchangeable shops all throughout the U.S. But the recently opened Gowanus outpost of Whole Foods is shaping up to be Brooklyn’s own little version of Eataly… except that instead of Italian imports, the concentration is on hyper-local, artisanally produced goods. From the freshly baked pies from Four and Twenty Blackbirds to the heat-and-eat pizzas from Roberta’s, here are a few brands to look for at Brooklyn’s borough-backing branch of Whole Foods…
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