
Sometimes other writers, critics, and bloggers pique my interest in a particular restaurant. Oliver Strand, Frank Bruni, and Adam Platt have all favorably mentioned Vinegar Hill House--though, interestingly enough, none of them felt compelled to write a full-on review of the...
Posted December 10, 2009 | 18:00:46 (EST)
When Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and chef Mark Ladner opened Del Posto three years ago, Batali and Bastianich did not try to hide their ambition. They wanted Del Posto to be the first four-star Italian restaurant in New York, and they weren't shy about telling the world that.
Posted November 30, 2009 | 11:19:52 (EST)
Ed Levine is off this week; Carey Jones, editor of Serious Eats: New York, fills in.
Saul Bolton has a nose for neighborhoods. Ten years ago, his first restaurant, Saul, opened on Smith Street and garnered immediate acclaim as a Boerum Hill pioneer—a distinction underscored by the Michelin...
Posted November 19, 2009 | 11:57:53 (EST)
Posted November 11, 2009 | 11:01:32 (EST)
Brooklyn Star chef-owner Joaquin Baca and I have a history I'm not particularly proud of. When he was partners with David Chang at Momofuku Noodle Bar, I raved about their chicken soup in the New York Times in 2006. There was only one problem. I spelled his...
Posted October 28, 2009 | 16:29:18 (EST)
Right now, at this moment, it's raining burgers in this burg. And not just any kind of burgers: smashed burgers made from freshly ground, humanely raised beef.
Danny Meyer and company were the pioneers of this style of burger in New York with the now legendary Shake Shack, though...
Posted October 21, 2009 | 13:25:58 (EST)
To me it was only a matter of time before 'wichcraft, Tom Colicchio's very solid sandwich bar, started serving dinner. Why? A couple of reasons. Its food has been overseen since its inception by chef-partner Sisha Ortuzar, who like all talented and trained chefs, developed his craft making non-sandwich...
Posted October 7, 2009 | 15:55:43 (EST)
Here's how Char No. 4 in Cobble Hill describes itself: "Char No. 4 is a whiskey bar and restaurant inspired by a passion for bourbon. It features over 150 American whiskeys and serves a menu of American fare with a Southern influence. The American whiskeys are augmented by...
Posted October 1, 2009 | 15:19:26 (EST)
Almost every day I pass by Dallas BBQ, and each and every time it's packed. Lunch, dinner, even in between. Even more interestingly, it's packed with an incredibly diverse set of New Yorkers, of every race and ethnicity imaginable. All these folks appear to be having an insanely good...
Posted September 24, 2009 | 16:44:50 (EST)
When, like me, you've spent the better part of fifty years searching for the cheapest form of deliciousness possible, it's hard to just swallow hard and accept the fact that eating at four-star restaurants is, well, expensive. Really expensive.
So, until I ate the insanely reasonable $28 two-course lunch...
Posted September 16, 2009 | 12:33:50 (EST)
As the fancy-pants fried chicken craze continues unabated, it's worth noting that over the last few years I have heard from numerous reliable sources that Andrew Carmellini made the best fried chicken in New York City when he was cooking at Cafe Boulud. So even though Carmellini is now...
Posted September 9, 2009 | 19:20:42 (EST)
Serious cooks are getting mighty serious about breakfast in this town. And as an early riser and serious eater, all I can do is say yay, halleleujah, and it's about time!
Because there was a time, not too long ago, when breakfast choices in New York were limited to Greek...
Posted September 2, 2009 | 11:22:04 (EST)
I have literally eaten hundreds of meals at the Fairway Cafe, but most of them have been breakfast, where the pancakes are sublime and the eggs will be scrambled soft if you're willing to send them back the first time, or lunch, when the burgers and fries...
Posted August 25, 2009 | 19:08:00 (EST)
Note: Ed Levine is off this week; Carey Jones, editor-in-chief of Serious Eats: New York, fills in here.

[Photographs by Robyn Lee]
Somewhere in this world is a dog-eared manual inscribed with the title: How To Open A Brooklyn Restaurant: 2008-2009 Edition.
I'd like...
Posted August 19, 2009 | 16:26:19 (EST)

All photographs by Robyn Lee
Though bowling and eating seem in some ways to go hand in hand, no bowling alley I've ever been in has tried to seamlessly blend an ambitious menu and a state-of-the-art bowling experience quite like...
Posted August 12, 2009 | 13:57:00 (EST)

Photographs by Robyn Lee
Traditionally, the Upper West Side of Manhattan has been a place for established chefs to open their first major restaurants. Bill Telepan, Tom Valenti, and Ed Brown all came to the neighborhood to open fairly big,...
Posted August 5, 2009 | 15:26:37 (EST)

Caption: All photos by Robyn Lee.
I always get nervous when I hear chefs or restaurateurs talking about "concepts" -- as in, replicable concepts that can be cloned around the city (and around the world) as part of a brand roll-out. (In fact,...
Posted July 29, 2009 | 13:53:43 (EST)

Though it might be a case of wishful (or should I say pig-full) thinking, I don't think it is: Pig roasts are everywhere. In fact, pig roasts may be the new bacon (or maybe...
Posted July 22, 2009 | 15:13:57 (EST)

As an unabashed lover of food carts and street cuisine I feel it is not out of line to complain about the quality of food at the typical breakfast bagel and coffee carts that are ubiquitous in many...
Posted July 16, 2009 | 07:50:04 (EST)

Imagine, if you will, your local Greek coffee shop or diner (one that only serves lunch and dinner) being taken over by a hard-working fancy pants celebrity chef, who happens to be Greek-American. Sounds promising, doesn't it? Inspired by the pleasure he derived...

Posted January 20, 2010 | 12:04:25 (EST)