Best New Restaurants In NYC, L.A., SF & More
New York regains one of its best pizzerias, plus more places you'll want to visit
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New York
Una Pizza Napoletana
Nine years ago, one of New York's best pizzaioli, Anthony Mangieri, decamped to San Francisco. Now, he and his pizzeria are back on Orchard Street, just a block or so up from where his partners, Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske Valtierra, operate their critical darlings Contra and Wildair. There's more than just pizza: Expect beef crudo with pistachios and white asparagus with bottarga oh, and long lines to get in.
Joe and Pat's
Una Pizza Napoletana isn't the only new serious pizzeria to open in Manhattan recently. This Staten Island staple, known for its thin, crispy crusts, is now serving pies dotted with fresh mozzarella and classic toppings in the East Village.
Arata
Matthew Kenney, who's known for vegan fare at restaurants around the country and beyond, is looking to Japan for inspiration at this new restaurant also in the East Village. There's kabocha squash with eggplant, shiitake, avocado and lotus root, and sushi made with vegetables like tempura mushrooms.
Chicha CafetíChicha
The sophomore effort from husband-and-wife team Vanessa Palazio and Adam Schneider, who owned the now-closed Little Muenster, is a Nicaraguan restaurant in Bushwick. A section of the menu is dedicated to quesillo, a classic street food composed of a thick tortilla with hand-pulled cheese. There's also baho, or slow-cooked pork with crispy rice. "We know these aren't familiar dishes," the team writes on the menu. "Let us answer your questions or recommend our favorites!"
Los Angeles
Veranda
Hotel Figueroa in Downtown L.A. is ready for summer. The new poolside restaurant, Veranda, has its outdoor oven fired up for flatbreads with potatoes and leeks, and platters of roast chicken with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms served with romesco. Naturally, there are plenty of summery beverages to sip on, including, according to Eater LA, an Aperol Spritz with passionfruit LaCroix.
Avra Beverly Hills
New York's fine dining Greek restaurant, Avra Estiatorio, heads west with plenty of outdoor seating for those who want to imagine they're in the isles. Much of the menu is focused on seafood that's sold by the pound: The selection changes with the seasons, but look for white snapper from the Mediterranean, king tiger prawns and Maine lobster that's cooked over charcoal.
San Francisco
Bear & Monarch
Howard Ko, an alum of The Restaurant at Meadowood and The French Laundry, is in charge of this dining room inside the Loews Regency Hotel. The restaurant's open all day, but come dinnertime guests will find bread with a flight of butter options (including cultured, smoked salmon with dill oil and green goddess herb options), ocean trout pastrami with turnip kraut and Manila clams served in a buckwheat sourdough bowl.
Chicago
Pacific Standard Time
This restaurant isn't technically on the West Coast but owners Erling Wu-Bower and Joshua Tilden would like for you to imagine yourself there. Two hearths churn out a series of fire-kissed plates like wood-roasted baby carrots with onion-tahini purée and spicy schug and a whole-roast duck that's served two ways and paired with muhammara (a spicy pepper dip) and yogurt.
Passerotto
Jennifer Kim is bringing together two cuisines that rarely find common ground: Korean and Italian cooking. The results, like seasonal banchan, galbi—or glazed short ribs—and dukbokki rice cakes with lamb neck ragù, are more than worthy of a trip to Andersonville. Diners who like to eat at the bar will also find plenty of room.
Washington D.C.
Tacos, Tortas and Tequila and Buena Vida
This new Silver Spring project is a twofer. On the first floor there's Tacos, Tortas and Tequila, a fast-casual restaurant, while upstairs diners will find something a bit more refined at Buena Vida, a space that could be mistaken for a spot in Baja or Miami. Small plates are highlighted on the second floor: Diners an unlimited number of items like shrimp ceviche with hibiscus, mescal-cured salmon tostadas and fried tomatillos, for just $35.
Houston
Wanna Bao
Dean and Grace Dee are doubling down on dumplings at their new Montrose restaurant. There are xiao long bao, or Shanghainese soup dumplings, shrimp bao with crispy, panfried bottoms and steamed dumplings in various hued wrappers. The menu also includes Sichuan recipes like a pepper-loaded fish soup and whiskey shrimp on fire.
Detroit
Culantro
The team behind this new Ferndale restaurant tells the Detroit Metro Times it's running the only Peruvian restaurant in the state. In an effort to honor a country nearly 4,000 miles away, the menu not only offers classic dishes from Peru but detailed explanations on each one. There's aji de gallina, or a chicken and rice dish made with a creamy aji amarillo pepper sauce. There's also chicken cooked over a charcoal rotisserie, yuca fries and alfajores cookies.
Miami
Chotto Matte
This Peruvian-Japanese restaurant is a London import boasting mulitple styles of cooking: sushi, robata grilling, sautéing and tempura. Diners can pick and choose small plates from the methods they prefer or order from one of the three Nikkei (the cuisine that formed when Japanese immigrants arrived in Peru) menus to try a sampling from each category.
Devra Ferst is a food writer, editor and cooking teacher based in Brooklyn. She cares much more about babka than any one woman should. Follow her on Instagram at @dferst.