Keep up good work! Paying less attention and being less politically correct to multiethnic cuisines also would not hurt.
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Chumley's: "where just about nobody remembered eating." Except us nobodies who enjoyed their Monday Shore Dinners where an extra lobster could be had for a song (6 or 8 dollars? I don't remember exactly). Once upon a time there was a tavern...
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Pete, your writing is sharp as usual, but it seems your tastebuds have taken a sabbatical.
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most of these restaurants are corporate midtown places for tourists
only one brooklyn restaurant somehow? really?
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Tourists don't eat? Tourists palate's are less sophisticated? Tourists do not expect excellent food and service for their NYC culinary spend? In all events, the great, great majority of New Yorkers cannot afford to eat at most of these places anyway, at least not with any regularity, and those that do come from the same economic class and cultural background as the tourists who can afford it. Bottom line: What on god's green earth does your comment even mean?
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It means KMK that tourists are more likely to be enticed by publicity, celebrity, popularity and other factors not-related to the quality and value of the food. Many tourists stick to well-worn paths as they think the crowds must be right. The crowds are not always wrong, but if the locals don't like a place that should tell you something.
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What is the sound or cacophony level of these establishments?
The one or ones with the lowest have my reservations.
If I can not hear what the server is saying or the conversation of my dining partner(s), I'm not going there.
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NYT constantly features articles on climate change and environmental degradation as well as any MSM entity.
Yet the food writers constantly tout the carnivore menu items and neglect vegetarian options. Vegan/vegetarian restaurants and items for purchase in grocery stores are growing as fast as anything in the food world.
Factory farming is a huge contributor to both climate change and degrading the environment. To say nothing about spreading antibiotic resistance.
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I think it might have been wise to postpone this list a bit, to see what other revelations came out about rampant sexual abuse in restaurants. Might be embarrassing to wind up having recommended a restaurant at which women were repeated groped or worse.
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Always bookmark your selections for random jaunts to the city and boroughs. Little Tong is my next visit. Thanks!
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King. Great call, Pete.
This column is so out of touch with what is going on in the restaurant world of New York. It is amazing.
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Since you bothered to comment, please share you favorite new NYC restaurants that are more in line with the restaurant scene in NYC.
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No thanks.
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Niche, excellent comment. Zappo is such a typical New Yorker that I can really only bear the locals about 1-2 months a year, even though I have an apartment there. He and often the Times are perfect examples of how out of touch they are with the rest of the country, and not just Trumpland.
If Blamey left, isn't it no longer the same restaurant? Did you return to make sure the food was still good before deciding to keep it on this list?
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Gotta disagree with The Grill. The pomp and circumstance of it all may be a cool niche, but like the critical acclaim of the movie Boyhood, I have the same response: "So what?" I want great food. Every other factor is secondary. Having been to The Grill a few times, I can say that nothing I had on that menu even approaches the quality of Los Angeles' Gwen. Maybe I'm letting my favor for LA in general cloud my judgment, but the New York restaurant scene seems to be exceptionally disappointing of late. Perhaps it's due to the extreme stranglehold of restaurant group openings, rather than individual endeavors.
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It might also have to do with the extremely high rents. My expectations rise with the prices. Oiji, an upscale Korean restaurant in the E.V. is a good example. On our first (and last) visit the waiter suggested 3 to 6 plates for the two of us. We ordered three. The food was well prepared, but not intriguing or exciting. The slow cooked oxtail with root vegetables at $32 was stingy with the vegetables, and rice was extra. Since carrots are cheap, the strategy must be to serve small portions so I have to order more. $100 later I was still hungry and was yearning for that great bowl of soondae guk we used to get in Korea for a pittance.
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