Restaurants in New York City

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.

Heartland Brewery

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of, Fall Foods

Restaurant Girl visits Heartland Brewery on her search for the best fall cocktails.

Mission Chinese’s Fusion

Cuisine: Global Fusion | Featured in Best Of

After years of working late nights as a line cook, Bowien found that he and his colleagues were always searching for the perfect Asian junk food to eat after work. Hence, Mission Chinese was born.

Miranda’s Latin-Italian

Cuisine: Global Fusion | Featured in Best Of

What happens when a Mexican chef falls in love with an Italian front of the house guy?  Tuck into Miranda for dinner and you’ll get a pretty good idea.   The love child of husband-and-wife culinary team, Sasha and Mauricio Miranda, this homey Williamsburg spot, furnished with brick walls, oak floors and reclaimed mirrors, makes you feel a lot like you’re dining in the couple’s kitchen at home.  The menu fuses the vivacious cultures of Latin America and Italy, featuring dishes, like Arancini made not with ground veal and beef, but with Chorizo and a garlicky tomato fonduta.  Instead of the typical Italian ragu, the Pappardelle at Miranda is made with a deliciously intense, Mole-Braised Lamb Ragu.  It’s comfort food with a delicious twist.   At brunch, the menu veers towards the Latin American influence with Huevos Con Mole and Pernil (slow-roasted...

Flor De Mayo’s Chinese-Peruvian

Cuisine: Global Fusion | Featured in Best Of

With two locations on the Upper West Side, Flor De Mayo is beloved by its neighbors. Perennially busy and sparsely decorated, this Chino-Latino joint has been serving crowd-pleasing dishes for more than 30 years.

La Caridad 78’s Chinese-Cuban

Cuisine: Global Fusion | Featured in Best Of

Another Chino-Latino fusion restaurant on the Upper West Side, La Caridad has been an institution since the sixties. Established by Chinese immigrants who lived in Cuba before the revolution, La Caridad specializes in working-class fare from both countries.

Chinese Mirch’s Indian-Chinese

Cuisine: Global Fusion | Featured in Best Of

As spice is the common denominator between the regions, (mirch means “spicy” in Hindi ) everything on the menu at Chinese Mirch packs some heat, even a bowl of egg drop soup.

Vermilion’s Indian-Latin American

Cuisine: Global Fusion | Featured in Best Of

The woman behind Vermilion, Rohini Dey, is a force to be reckoned with and what Time magazine dubs, “a culinary superstar.”  Following stints as an economist for the World Bank and a consultant at a Chicago financial advising company, Dey, a New Delhi native, was inspired to leave her finance career behind and launch a very novel restaurant concept.  Her idea was to celebrate the shared Arabic and Portuguese culinary influences in Latin and Indian regions and the result are dishes, like Duck Vindaloo Arepas and Artichoke Pakoras with Eggplant Coconut Sauce.  The drink menu is just as international and unique, featuring a mix of lassis, aguas frescas, and “herb and spice” Latin cocktails.   Not to mention that Vermilion’s an unusually sexy restaurant for such seriously ethnic cuisine:  The bi-level space is sleekly outfitted with white woven chairs, glossy wood...

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...

Amali’s Dreamy Vegetables

Cuisine: Mediterranean | Featured in Dish Spotting

I have to admit that I get pretty excited when a good restaurant opens anywhere north of 30th street.   Sure, we have a few great ones uptown (Dovetail, Boulud Sud, and Marea), but we could always use a few more.  I always a had a thing for Periyali, so I was happy to learn that the same owners had opened another civilized and sophisticated (code for pricey) Greek joint on the Upper East Side last year.  It was called Persephone and it didn’t last long.  The cooking and the space just didn’t have the same warmth or soulful appeal that Periyali does.  I forgot all about the space until I read Adam Platt’s review of Amali in New York Magazine the other day.  Amali is the owners’ second attempt, a do over of sorts, this time with a Mediterranean menu and an...

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...

Dovetail’s Pumpkin Soup

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of, Fall Foods

People have been talking about Dovetail’s Pumpkin Soup for years.  While it’s not technically new, it just keeps getting better with age.   Owner and chef John Fraser made a splash when he first opened his ambitious seasonal American restaurant on the Upper West Side, earning praise and a Michelin star in the process.  This fall, he’s upped the ante on one of his now signature dishes.  This season’s version is a luscious, yet light broth (made with pumpkin juice and whole pumpkin puree), scattered with Pomegranate Seeds, Granny Smith Apple Pearls, and Pumpernickel Croutons for crunch.  The final touch is the unique addition of homemade Marshmallows, spiced with Vadouvan, a French curry blend typically made with onions, shallots, garlic and cardamom.   And if you’re still craving pumpkin come dessert, order a scoop of Dovetail’s Pumpkin Ice...

Park Avenue Autumn’s Pumpkin & Molasses Cake

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of, Fall Foods

This midtown spot not only include a change in the menu but the entire décor and space as well. Park Avenue Autumn is here until late November, with a menu that highlights the season’s best, including Roast Chicken with “Pumpkin Pie”.  Except this year the talented Richard Leach has added a new and exceptional sweet to his dessert menu, a Warm Pumpkin & Molasses Cake.  A stunning arrangement of four components that include a warm and deliciously dense Pumpkin Cake, sweetened with molasses, alongside a a Sour Cream Panna Cotta Bar, and Chilled Molasses...

Spiga

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Sugar Sweet Sunshine’s Pumpkin Eggnog Pudding

Cuisine: Bakery | Featured in Best Of, Fall Foods

We’ve been fans of this teeny Lower East Side bakery and its pies, cakes and cupcakes for years.  We love the story of these two ladies, Peg and Deb, who met while performing in The Music Man, living parallel lives of auditioning and working together at Magnolia Bakery.  They launched this itty bitty bakery over nine years ago and we think it gets better every year.  Come October, they roll out their moist and surprisingly light Pumpkin Cake. But the best card they’re holding is the Pumpkin Eggnog Pudding Cake, a mildly spiced trifle layered with moist Pumpkin Cake and a thick and luscious Eggnog Pudding....

Fat Witch

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in First Bite, Reviews

What’s with the sudden restaurant migration to the Upper East Side? First, the guys from The Lion made the trek uptown to open The Crown last year, then came Il Mulino’s recent fall, “red sauce” debut and now Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto. Except Salumeria Rosi didn’t exactly move uptown. Instead, partner and chef Cesare Casella made his way across Central Park from the West Side to open a second Salumeria Rosi outpost, a partnership with Parmacotto meat purveyors.

Destination Dining: The New Plaza Food Hall

Cuisine: | Featured in Destination Dining

I’m not sure what rock I’ve been living under, but I missed the memo about the new additions to the Plaza Food Hall.  I knew that Todd English had taken over and installed a swanky food court of his own where you could sit anywhere and order from the sushi counter, raw bar, pasta station, pizza oven and rotisserie. Considering its location and proximity to Central Park, it was bound to be touristy and crowded, but it’s a good solution for diners who can’t decide what to eat for dinner because you can get a little of everything. But the latest additions are a game changer.  Living in midtown has always had its drawbacks, which mostly come in the form of overpriced restaurants. It’s not like living in the West Village where a funky, new restaurant with an ambitious...

Four and Twenty Blackbirds’ Apple Rose Pie

Cuisine: Bakery | Featured in Best Of, Dessert

Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a favorite among curious customers who aren’t afraid to try something new. The menu changes daily, allowing for ample experimentation in the kitchen from Melissa and Emily Elsen, a team of sisters. With only one oven in a small rustic looking pie shop, Melissa and Emily pump out each pie by hand every day for one customer at a time.