Restaurants in New York City

Toro – Reviewed

Cuisine: Spanish | Featured in Hottest Newcomers, Restaurant, Reviews

Anyone who’s eaten with me knows I don’t care much about the scene. It’s not that I’m a hater. I just prefer great food to a great room or cool crowd. Afterall, you can’t eat decor (as they say). So I was a little wary when I walked into Toro opening week to find the 100-seat tapas spot, packed with scenesters, clamoring for a peek of the new eatery and a taste of the food (or at least I was). Housed in the former Nabisco factory, Toro boasts sky high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Hudson River. The industrial chic space is outfitted with hanging aged jamon, a bull’s head, plenty of high top communal tables to socialize while you’re nibbling on tapas, and an ivy-covered wall at the rear of the restaurant near the plancha bar, which happen to be the best seats in the house…

Mitchmallows

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

Marshmallows are something we generally reserve for popping on top of hot chocolate or roasting over an open flame.  But the artisanal, homemade squares at Mitchmallow are delicious enough (not to mention interesting enough) to be eaten out of hand.  There are over three dozen incredibly diverse, multi-layered creations, from Classic S’more, Creamsicle, Sweet Potato Vanilla and Peanut Butter and Jelly, to Wasabi-Ginger, Tempura, Wine and Cheese and even BLT… tomato with bacon!  (That sounds a little scary, doesn’t it?)  And for Halloween, there’s Candy Corn and Green...

La Maison du Chocolat

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

This Paris-based chocolatier is as posh as any Madison Avenue boutique — although instead of silk scarves and Birkin bags, the glittering glass cases hold finely crafted candies filled with Fennel-infused Ganache, Honeyed Cognac, and Gianduja Praline.  At $65, the limited edition Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin concealing Amanda’s (cocoa-covered Almonds) and Rochers Suisses is a bit of a splurge, but sure to make a statement as the centerpiece of an especially elegant Halloween...

Dylan’s Candy Bar

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Deliso Confections

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

Who would have imagined that a former Wall Street stockbroker would go on to make some of the best chocolates in Brooklyn?  It’s worth a pilgrimage out to Bay Ridge for a box of Anthony Deliso’s work-of-art and flavorful truffles, made with 100% Belgian chocolate and real fruit purees, top-shelf liquors, freshly ground nuts and all-natural infusions.  We especially love the tiny Dark Chocolate Coffee Cups filled with espresso cream, beautifully balanced Sea Salt Caramels, and the boozy Bourbon Pecan Truffles, the nut-studded chocolate shells giving way to a geyser of full-bodied whiskey...

Neuhaus

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

Hershey’s, Mars Bars and Milky Ways are great when you’re young.  But as you get older, you crave chocolate that, well, actually tastes like chocolate.  That’s where this famed Belgian manufacturer comes in.  They really know their way around a cocoa bean (the company was founded in 1857), so pay a visit to the New York flagship store for Peruvian Chocolate Praline, silky Pistachio Truffles, buttercream-based Manon Sucre, Dark Chocolate Orange Tablets, or impossibly decadent candy bars, studded with Wild Strawberries, Feuilletine, Speculoos, or crunchy Gianduja and Puffed...

Handsome Dan’s Stand

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Sokerbit

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

Nordic cuisine has become one of the hottest and most pervasive trends on New York’s food scene, so it’s hardly a surprise that the obsession has extended to candy.  This seriously modern West Village shop exposes a sweet side of Scandinavia way beyond Swedish Fish, with Lucite trays full of Banana Bubs (banana-caramel foam biscuits), Cocosar (coconut-covered licorice), and perfect for Halloween, 8 oz. jars of teeth-chatteringly sour Gummy...

Yao’s Dragon Beard Candy

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

For a truly original treat, prowl the streets of Chinatown in hopes of spotting the elusive Yao’s Dragon Beard Candy cart (it’s most often parked outside of the subway on the corner of Chrystie and Grand).  So named because they resemble a mythical dragons beard, the Vendy Award-nominated sweets are made by hand-pulling powdered sugar into gossamer-thin strands, twisting them into a ball and forming a sticky cocoon around a filling of toasted peanuts and coconut.  We hunt them down year round, but Halloween is an especially good...

Q & A with Piora’s Chris Cipollone & Simon Kim

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in Chef Q&A, Restaurant

There’s no shortage of restaurants serving fusion fare nowadays. Chinese-Mexican. Jewish-Japanese. French-Scandinavian. But Korean-Italian? That’s a new one, even for New York. “Our approach is simple… to cook and serve who we are,” said Simon Kim, owner of the exciting new West Village eatery, Piora. “We have two different heritages, Italian and Korean, so it was a natural process to marry our two cuisines.”

Roberta’s

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Q & A with Toro’s Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette

Cuisine: Spanish | Featured in Chef Q&A, Restaurant

Boston has a lot more to offer New York than just Baked Beans, Clam Chowder and Cream Pies. In fact, our city has just become home to one of the South End’s best restaurants, Toro, a Barcelona-inspired tapas joint owned by chefs Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette. Housed in the old Nabisco Factory building in the Meatpacking District, overlooking the Hudson River, the 100-seat eatery is outfitted with floor-to-ceiling windows, an arched entryway flanked by an ivy-colored wall, and a pair of lofty, wooden shelves sporting hanging Iberico Hams. And like its Boston predecessor, Toro serves a mix of traditional and modern Spanish dishes, made with greenmarket-inspired ingredients…

Dish Spotting: Dominique Ansel’s Gingerbread Pinecone

Cuisine: Bakery | Featured in Dish Spotting, Restaurant

Meet Dominique Ansel, the Daniel alum behind the SoHo phenomenon, Dominique Ansel Bakery. He was recently nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef, on the strength of a slew of treats that have taken the city by storm. His first masterstroke was the Cronut, a cream-filled croissant/donut hybrid that has drawn worldwide attention, countless blog posts, three hour-long lines (actress Emma Roberts was infamously turned away by security after trying to cut in), and despite being trademarked, has inspired scores of imitators, from the Dough’Ssants at ChikaLicious to the Cro-Do’s at Stew Leonards shops upstate.

Q & A with Charlie Bird’s Chef Ryan Hardy

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in Chef Q&A, Restaurant

Chef Ryan Hardy has experienced plenty of “highs” in his career. And yet, the accomplished chef considers Charlie Bird, his new urban Italian eatery in the heart of SoHo, to be his greatest achievement yet. “It’s afforded me all sorts of creative opportunities,” Hardy says of his cross-country move to New York. “I was able to open a place that provided terrific service and delicious food with great art and awesome music, that wasn’t (or didn’t have to be) fine dining.”

Piora – Reviewed

Cuisine: American | Featured in First Bite, Hottest Newcomers, Reviews

It ain’t often a chef comes out of nowhere and knocks your socks off. But when it happens, it reminds you exactly why you love eating out in the first place. I didn’t expect to find chicken skin crumbled over an appetizer of Scallops and Corn (the last of the season) at Piora, a new restaurant in the West Village. The scallops are pan-seared and plated over corn kernels, chanterelles, and an aerated corn puree, a sweet, ethereal last glimpse of summer. But I digress from the chicken skin. It’s laced with fennel pollen and crumbled over the dish, lending an umami-like depth to an otherwise, delicate scallop and corn combination. Lest I forget the black and white sesame seeds sprinkled over the top for nuttiness. One bite and you realize something exciting is going on in the kitchen…

Q & A with Balaboosta and Bar Bolonat’s Einat Admony

Cuisine: Israeli | Featured in Chef Q&A, Restaurant

Have you noticed how fashionable Israeli food has become in the last few years? Einat Admony has a whole lot to do with that. The forward-thinking chef first launched her popular falafel spot, Taim, in the West Village, over seven years ago. (There are now two Taim outposts and a mobile Taim truck.) That was just the beginning for this talented chef.

Spotlight on Madison Square Eats

Cuisine: | Featured in Al Fresco Dining, Best Of

Twice a year, Madison Square Park transforms into Madison Square Eats, an outdoor, European- style culinary pop-up market that’s quickly become one of the city’s favorite al fresco dining destinations. Now in its fifth year, the fall market is being held from September 27 to October 25th, and is open from 11am to 9pm to satisfy any and all food cravings.

Q & A with RedFarm’s Ed Schoenfeld

Cuisine: Chinese | Featured in Chef Q&A

How does a local, Brooklyn boy, and a Jewish one at that, become a Chinese food expert? Add successful restaurateur and ask the incomparable Ed Schoenfeld, who is currently orchestrating the build out of three exciting restaurants alongside partner, Zach Chodorow. There’s the under-renovations RedFarm in the West Village, his top-rated, modern Chinese eatery that’s expanding to meet a growing demand. There’s Decoy, a Peking Duck spot and cocktail lounge just downstairs, currently operating as a 28-day, pop-up Steakhouse. And then, there’s the spacious new RedFarm on the Upper West Side, which will serve restaurant signatures, like Pastrami Egg Rolls and sculptural Chicken Salad, although Chef Joe Ng’s famous Pac-Man Dumplings will probably be replaced by a new, Hello Kitty version. “The way things have worked out, fortunately or unfortunately, is that everything is coming down at the same time,” Schoenfeld shrugs. “Red Farm UWS took longer and Decoy is coming together quicker, so we’re just rolling with the punches.”

Dish Spotting: The French Onion Soup Burger at Little Prince

Cuisine: French | Featured in Dish Spotting

Chef at the family-owned Le Rivage, which has wooed Hells Kitchen with garlicky Escargots and buttery Sole Meuniere since 1982, Paul Denamiel is essentially French food royalty. So it only made sense that the scion should open his own charming bistro called Little Prince… even if it’s just named after the SoHo street, and not actually a tongue-in-cheek reference to his culinary lineage.

Q & A with New York Sushi Ko’s John Daley

Cuisine: Japanese | Featured in Chef Q&A

New York Sushi Ko’s John Daley doesn’t exactly fit the expected mold of Sushi Chef. His bare arms are covered by a riot of tattoos, with the words “FISH” and “RICE” emblazoned across his knuckles. He plays reggae music over the restaurant’s sound system, and is known for muttering expletives (sometimes playfully, sometimes not) at his sous chefs. Oh, and he’s caucasian.