Restaurants in East Village

Dirt Candy’s Corn Grits

Cuisine: Vegetarian | Featured in Best Of, Fall Foods

Corn is one of summer’s undeniable superstars; picked fresh from the cob and delivered straight from the grill with little more fanfare than a sprinkle of salt and a slathering of butter.  It reappears again — albeit briefly — on the Thanksgiving table, taking the form of Native American dishes, like corn bread or corn pudding.  Thanks to the veggie-adulating eatery Dirt Candy, however, we can appreciate the sweet starch any time of year. Experience corn in multiple forms in Amanda Cohen’s entree of Stone Ground Grits topped with Corn Cream, Pickled Shitakes, Huitlacoche, and a Tempura Poached...

Back Forty

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

A farm-to-table locavore Thanksgiving dinner may not be what you’re used to at home because it’s so much better.  Peter Hoffman crafts a locally sourced, holiday menu at both Back Forty outposts where his large-format, laidback dinner is perfect for a group of family and friends.  The menus vary depending on location, but both offer up a three-course meal, served family-style.  For the first course, you’ll be enjoying either a rich Autumn Vegetable Minestrone with ricotta dumplings, or Chicken Liver Mousse with house pickles.  Second course includes Pumpkin Ravioli, Grass Fed Steak, Salmon, or Turkey Breast.  And for dessert, plan on enjoying a slice of Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Pie, or Pecan Tart. 3-course family style, $60/person (East Village) $65/person (SoHo), 2pm –...

Pouring Ribbons

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Restaurant Girl visits Pouring Ribbons on her search for the best fall cocktails.

The Beagle

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of

Restaurant Girl hits up The Beagle and its seasonal cocktail selection on her search for the best fall cocktails.

Indochine’s French-Vietnamese

Cuisine: Global Fusion | Featured in Best Of

Another serendipitous result of colonial history, French-Vietnamese cuisine combines buttery Gallic extravagance with the fresh, peppery flavors of Vietnamese chilies, cilantro, and lemongrass.  Indochine has been serving this sexy fusion of flavors for over twenty years.  The room itself feels like a tropical vacation with palm trees, wicker chairs and twirling ceiling fans.   Settle into the swanky digs and start with the Duck Confit Salad, a combination of chopped duck, Napa cabbage, carrots, pear tomatoes, orange, apple, coriander, anointed with a Vietnamese vinaigrette.   There’s a Five Spice-Roasted Hen and Glazed Duck Breast on Bok Choy with Vidalia Onion Sauce.  One of our favorites, a delicious take on the classic French stew, the Vietnamese Bouillabaisse is brimming with sea scallops, prawns, shrimp, baby squid, mussels, and cabbage in a lime leaf and galangal sauce (galangal is a peppery root used...

Empellon Cocina’s Pumpkin Seed Cake

Cuisine: Mexican | Featured in Best Of, Fall Foods

Dessert isn’t usually the first thing most people think of when going for Mexican food.  Then again, you wouldn’t think an acclaimed pastry chef would open a Mexican joint and leave the pastry department to his wife.  You’ll want to broaden your horizons and save room for dessert at Empellon Cocina.  Alex Stupak pushed the envelope at WD-50 and he continues to do so at his innovative and modern Mexican.   One of the best things they’re serving at the restaurant is a Pumpkin Seed Cake.  What arrives on the plate is a long, rectangular slice of moist, spicy cake, topped with crumble, strawberries, cajeta, and drizzled with brown butter. The final touch is an ice cream quenelle.  Heck, we’d pop in for a shot of tequila and this blissfully complicated sweet...

Momofuku Milk Bar’s Crack Pie

Cuisine: Bakery | Featured in Best Of, Dessert

Momofuku Milk Bar Pastry Chef Christina Tosi’s Crack Pie is the ultimate holy grail of pies. Many have tried to replicate this pie (especially now that Milk Bar has a cookbook out) to no avail. Why is it called the Crack Pie? Well, it’s so good that it’s the only fitting description is that it’s “as good as crack.”

Westville’s Pumpkin Pie A la Mode

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of, Dessert

Since Apple Pie is the pie to which all others are compared, it’s difficult to say which version is the absolute best. We’re always looking for that one slice of apple pie where the apples aren’t too limp or too crisp. We’ve found what may be the perfect, simple apple pie at Westville.

Chikalicious Dessert Club

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Perbacco

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in Best Of

At Perbacco, Chef Simone Bonelli blends her love of traditional Italian cuisine and modern innovation. For an appetizer, try the Crème Brulée di Parmigiano Reggio, a delightful dish where 18-month aged Parmesean cheese is used as the base.

Momofuku Ssäm Bar

Cuisine: Asian Fusion | Featured in Best Of

David Chang has won over the hearts of many with his epic large format feasts, from the Fried Chicken Dinner at Noodle Bar to the Smoked Lamb Shoulder with Rice at Ma Peche. While we’d happily sit down to get our fill at any of these group meals, when we have a hankering for some duck, we round up a few of our food loving friends and reserve the Rotisserie Duck feast at Ssam Bar.

Gotham Bar and Grill

Cuisine: American, Seafood | Featured in Best Of

Talk about a classic New York dish: The tuna tartare at Gotham Bar and Grill has been around since the late 80’s and it’s still going strong.  (Eater recently featured it as one of it Untouchables.)  Chef Alfred Portale dreamed up the dish while sitting at a sushi bar, which is why he uses sushi-grade yellowfin tuna (his purveyor is the same as the guy who use to deliver fish to his favorite sushi spot, the late Sushi Hatsu).  Portale likes to build food vertically and his tower of tuna is visually captivating.  He makes his tartare with finely diced tuna mixed with shallots, salt, pepper, and some fresh herbs.  The tower itself rests on a bed of Japanese cucumbers and comes topped with three baguette spears and a tangle of frisee.  It’s an architectural masterpiece that sits about six...

Chef Joe Doe

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of

Chef Joe Dobias and mixologist Jill Schulster have put together what they’ve dubbed as an “aggressive American” menu at their East Village restaurant. Not only does that phrase capture the essence of their bold dishes, like the Fried Chicken Feet and the Pork and Beans with Duck Eggs and Bacon Dough, it also explains Chef Joe Doe’s list of Prepared Beers. The 10-item beer cocktail list features primarily American brews spiked with hand-made spirits seasonal juices, salts, and unusual ingredients like frozen marshmallows and peanut dust.

Death and Company

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of

Death and Company is one of the city’s cult cocktail spots, one of the drinking establishments that helped bring back the world of speakeasies and old school cocktailing. The bar is notorious for its supply of bitters, infused spirits, and sweet syrups. The drink menu is expansive, you might even say it’s encyclopedic, featuring everything from punch to Juleps and tequila-based drinks. They even have a selection of intricate beer cocktails, lovingly referred to as “Noble Hops.”

Desnuda

Cuisine: Seafood | Featured in Best Of

It wouldn’t be right to mention ceviche in Manhattan without a nod to teeny spot in the East Village called Desnuda It is a cevicheria afterall and a fine one at that. Other than wine, they have little else, so settle in for a ceviche tasting. There’s no kitchen, just a sushi fridge and a toaster oven.

Crif Dogs

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of

There’s plenty of places (and corners)  to grab a hot dog in New York, but none rival this funky hot dog stand on Saint Marks Place.  Two childhood best friends started this place back in 2001 after going on a two-year tasting tour to sample some of the best hot dogs on the East Coast.  The resulting menu features dogs, like the Philly Tubesteak (a lot like a Philly Cheesesteak) and the Garden State (wrapped in ham and covered with chopped pepperoncini, American cheese, and mustard), but our favorite is Crif’s Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog.  Get one Bacon-Wrapped Dog “Spicy Red Neck-style” with chili, cole slaw, and jalapeños or breakfast-style with melted cheese and a fried egg on top.  Or you can keep it simple and get it with lettuce and tomato for a one-of-a-kind take on the BLT.  No matter which...

Jimmy’s No. 43

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of

It’s not easy to find a bar with a seasonal menu, never mind a bar in a basement.  But leave it to Jimmy’s No 43 shows New York City just how good bar food can be. Since it’s always changing, you can’t be sure but you’ll find, but the latest menu features dishes, like a Market Salad with arugula, fennel, carrots and a lemon vinaigrette.  There’s shishito peppers with lemon and sea salt, BBQ beef tacos served with marinated feta and even a cheese plate.  They’ve got 12 beers on tap right now, including Young’s Double Chocolate Stout (which is made with real dark chocolate).  If you’re looking to celebrate, go for a bottle of the 3 Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek.  It’s the closest thing you can get to traditional, cherry flavored, Belgian Kriek (we’ve tried the real thing in Belgium, and...

Pylos – The Destination Date

Cuisine: Greek | Featured in Best Of

Dating can be a bit monotonous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Add some spontaneity and fun to the mix with a destination date. No, we’re not suggesting you scour the internet for cheap flights and hotels with an ocean view room (although that’s not a bad idea). Instead, travel to Greece for the night with a meal at Pylos in the East Village. We love the romantic setting, a white-washed dining room with cozy throw pillows and over 1,000 clay pots dangling from the ceiling above. Pylos serves classic Greek food with a modern edge, like a vegetarian moussaka made with artichoke hearts or grilled haloumi with grappa and grapes. Consulting chef Diane Kochilas is the leading expert on Greek cuisine in America and the menu she’s collaborated on here reflects her love of the flavors and...

Peasant

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in RG's Favorites

If you’re looking for the perfect date spot, this is your guy. There’s just something about the open kitchen, brick oven and dripping candles that draw couples back time and time again. But it’s the Tuscan fare and the open fire cooking that has kept us coming back over the years. Everything – the skate, the leg of lamb, the tomatoes – is touched by some form of an open flame.

Frank

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in RG's Favorites

This East Village Italian never gets old, which is why it’s always buzzing with diners, hungry for their juicy Meatloaf, Fresh Gnocchi or Mussels Marinara. They don’t take reservations, but you can linger at the bar while you wait for your table. As soon as you grab a table, grab a glass of well-priced Italian wine and the gorgeously buttery, imported Burrata, still one of the best in the city, with sliced tomatoes.