Best New Restaurants To Try This Week
Including a fast-casual concept from the best restaurant in the world
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New York:
Made Nice
The much-anticipated fast-casual concept from the Eleven Madison Park team has finally landed in NYC. Dishes like quinoa falafel over a beet salad and cod Provençal atop hummus all clock in between $11 and $15. Brace yourself for long lines.
Fusco
Scott Conant, who put Scarpetta on the map years ago, is back in the kitchen, this time across the street from Gramercy Tavern at Fusco. The menu, which can be ordered à la carte or as a tasting, ranges from a truffled pea Caesar to scallops with wax beans and black rice.
Badshah
Diners missing Babu Ji will find some of their beloved dishes at this Hell's Kitchen newcomer. And for good reason—Charles Mani, a Babu Ji alum, is serving the shuttered restaurant's General Tso's cauliflower, as well as fisherman's catch tandoor with jumbo prawns and lamb knuckles with Kashmiri spices and saffron.
Ortzi
Philadelphia's Jose Garces, whose Amada opened downtown last year, can now count a Midtown Basque restaurant among his fleet. In addition to tapas, there are heartier dishes like rabo cazuela, a dish of braised oxtail, chickpeas, tomato and fennel sofrito.
Los Angeles:
LASA
What started as a residency inside Unit 120 is now a full-fledged restaurant and lunch counter. Brothers Chase and Chad Valencia are preparing California-inflected takes on Filipino dishes like beef kilawin, or tartare with patis aioli and salt-and-vinegar taro chips, and brown rice arroz caldo, made with green garlic and ginger broth, mushrooms and a soft egg.
Mixed Company
You can pass an entire day studying the menu at Mixed Company. To start, try the PB&J croissant, the orange and fennel morning bun or the Egg McMuffin-inspired breakfast sandwich. By midday, transition into veg offerings like roasted maitakes with crème fraîche and grilled sourdough, or the Pineapple Express pizza with smoked ham, grilled pineapple, Manchego and fermented jalapeño.
Parsnip
Anca Caliman, who moved from Romania to the U.S. when she was a teen, is cooking the food of her homeland at her new outpost, like bulz, or dumplings filled with red peppers, cheese and sauerkraut; sarmale, or stuffed cabbage; and goulash.
San Francisco:
Salt & Straw
Portland's ice cream go-to has traveled down the coast to San Francisco. Expect flavors like olive oil and lemon custard, roasted strawberry tres leches and a limited-edition caramelized almond s'mores. Beware, though, this ice cream is highly addictive.
Sláinte
Irish breakfast (including black and white pudding, bacon, beans, and soda bread) is up for grabs all day long. To wash it down: plenty of Irish whiskey and Guinness.
Washington, D.C.:
Mason Dixie Biscuit Co.
Jason Gehring now has a brick-and-mortar destination where you can swing by for fried chicken stacked on a biscuit with Benton's bacon or Virginia ham, Swiss cheese and milk gravy. And the spot even comes equipped with a drive-thru window. Picnic-ready chicken? Yes, please.
Houston:
Helen in the Heights
Fans of Helen Greek Food & Wine might want to drop by the team's newest addition, where the focus is on classics like moussaka, pastitsio, souvlaki and lots of mezes. The entire wine menu is from Greece which produces intriguing wines that aren't always readily available in the U.S., so arrive thirsty.
Miami:
Tatel
Enrique Iglesias has officially entered the restaurant game. The singer joined up with celebrity athletes Rafael Nadal and Pau Gasol to open a second outpost of this Madrid-based restaurant empire inside the South Beach Ritz-Carlton. The team's serving a fried veal steak with a slow-cooked egg and black truffle, grilled octopus with confit potatoes and squid-ink fideuà with calamari.
Kiki on the River
This swank newcomer channels the Mediterranean with a lineup that features Greek meatballs, chicken souvlaki and olive oil-braised octopus with crispy fried capers. You can also order a whole fish baked in salt for the table.