Borgo
The first foray into Manhattan for Andrew Tarlow, a restaurateur best known for his roster of uber-cool Brooklyn places (Diner, Marlow & Sons, Roman’s), Borgo seems like a leap from his signature bare-brick rusticity. But its posh elegance has sacrificed none of the accessible soulfulness of those beloved establishments. The stiff white cloths on Borgo’s tables are softened by flickering candlelight in a room that feels both grown-up and buzzy. And the trattoria-style menu includes the kinds of certified crowd-pleasers Mr. Tarlow’s restaurants do best, like an irresistible disk of cheese-topped focaccia, savory fried delicata squash rings and a bronze-skinned roast chicken with Marsala — along with earthier, more complex fare, such as plump sweetbreads, and a leg of lamb with puntarelle and prunes. Pair these with a bottle from Lee Campbell’s thoughtful, natural-leaning wine list, and raise a toast to Mr. Tarlow’s nimble hop across the East River.
124 East 27th Street (Lexington Avenue), Midtown South; 646-360-2404; borgonyc.com
Bungalow
At Bungalow, the famed chef Vikas Khanna brings playfulness and creativity to regional Indian dishes, with a level of ambition that shows just how much Indian dining in the United States has evolved in recent years. The flavors at Bungalow are big and uninhibited — the shrimp balchao cones come alive with earthy mustard seeds and curry leaves; the lamb chops have a formidable crust rubbed with garlic, ginger and mango powder. And some dishes you may not have seen on Indian menus before. Mr. Khanna is anything but a distant celebrity chef; he strolls through the restaurant on a nightly basis, greeting each table in an ornate dining room that feels more like a wealthy ancestor’s home.
24 First Avenue (Second Street), East Village; no phone; bungalowny.com
Cafe Carmellini
Much has been made of Café Carmellini’s bearhug embrace of such fine-dining rituals as captains in bow ties and table linens smoothed with a hot iron before you sit down. The dining room puts on a show, all right, but the more compelling drama is on the menu. Andrew Carmellini’s kitchen is equally fluent in French and Italian cuisine, and in classic and modern modes. So many techniques and ideas are kept spinning in the air that you wait for them to come crashing down, but they don’t. It’s complicated cooking, and the complications are essential to the thrills.
250 Fifth Avenue (West 28th Street); 212-231-9200; cafecarmellini.com
Carnitas Ramirez
There are several good taquerias in New York, but fewer truly excellent ones that nail every part of the taco. Carnitas Ramírez has achieved the holy trinity. The tortillas are warm, supple and homemade; the salsas are fresh and kicky; and the meat (most of it offal) arrives tender and dripping in its own fat. The key is the cooking method: the meats are added to the same pot, a comal choricero, in a specific order, allowing the flavor to deeply develop in a bath of bubbling lard. Each organ has a distinct appeal — my favorites were the juicy shingles of cachete, or cheek, and the trompa, or snout, which had an irresistible chew. Pull up a stool (or a paint bucket), and delight in the abuela-esque décor and lardy aromas.
210 East Third Street (Avenue B), East Village; no phone; carnitasramirez.com
Eulalie
By now you’ve probably heard that Eulalie doesn’t take reservations online, only over the phone or face to face. You may see this as charmingly retro or as a pain in the neck, but it sets the tone for the personal approach of the owners, Chip Smith and Tina Vaughn. She’ll look you up in the book when you get there, offer what she always calls “a splash” of wine once you’re settled in, and make sure you know how good the sweetbreads and coconut cake are. Mr. Smith, for his part, brings his Southern upbringing and his French training to his prix-fixe menus, now priced at $125. The couple’s point of view isn’t particularly up-to-date, but it is theirs, and they know just what they’re doing.
239 West Broadway (Walker Street), TriBeCa; 646-476-2380; chipandtina.com
Four Twenty Five
Tucked into two levels of a glass-sheathed skyscraper perched on Park Avenue, Four Twenty Five evokes the movie-star glamour of a 1930s ocean liner. It’s easy to imagine Barbara Stanwyck floating down the grand open staircase in a spangled satin gown. The kitchen too, a collaboration between Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Jonathan Benno, glows with megawatt star power. Together the two chefs offer an opulent but unfussy menu that manages to be both classic and innovative. Dishes like an exquisite fluke tartare slicked with tahini and chile oil, and a rosy-rare duck breast served with crunchy Thai salad showcase the kitchen’s fresh conceptions and pitch-perfect execution. Sure, it’s impossible not to wow with a fat mound of golden osetra caviar. But when the accompanying fried potato cakes are just as good, you know it’s high art.
425 Park Avenue (56th Street), Midtown; 212-751-6921; 425parkrestaurant.com
Hamburger America
George Motz, founder of this homage to classic hamburger joints and sandwich counters, has a passion for vintage Americana that is slightly demented. The lunacy is what makes his place so enjoyable. He runs monthly tributes to regional burger styles; the most recent one was inspired by a tiny shack in Meriden, Conn., where square patties are steamed and buried under a landslide of steamed cheese. An off-menu item that is basically a grilled cheese with a burger inside it, the Chester Special, was taken from a Long Island snack bar that figured prominently in Mr. Motz’s childhood and has loomed in his imagination ever since. The terse menu, perversely, offers more sandwiches than burgers, including a superlative hot ham on a bun with melted Swiss for $7.
51 MacDougal Street (West Houston Street), SoHo; hamburgeramerica.com.
Levant
Feteer, a crisp-on-the-outside, flaky-on-the-inside laminated bread from Egypt, is the centerpiece of this ornately decorated sliver of a storefront on Steinway Street in Astoria. Each one is made to order — stretched, tossed and baked into gossamer, ghee-enriched layers. Try it stuffed with cheese and homemade sausage flecked with cracked spices, or just as exciting, sweet with Biscoff Cookie Butter and a shower of nuts. On a street with no shortage of culinary gems, even the other offerings from the Levant region — darkly charred kebabs glistening with fat and herbs, hummus the consistency of whipped butter and baklava with a barely sweet cream layer — stand apart.
25-64 Steinway Street (28th Avenue), Astoria, Queens; 718-233-8800; levantnyc.com
Le Veau d'Or
From the moment you enter its intimate, low-slung dining room, Le Veau d’Or can feel like stepping back in time. This second-coming of a near-century-old French restaurant — once a hangout for luminaries like Truman Capote and Orson Welles — arrived in July, courtesy of the chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, who run the popular neo-bistros Le Rock and Frenchette. They have restored the wood panels, the checked tablecloths and the old-school dishes like tripes à la mode. The food is nostalgic and precise. There’s a scene-stealing duck with crisp skin and a flush of cherry jam, and the île flottante is a perky, not-too-sweet swirl of meringue that’s as light as cotton candy. This is old New York with some splashes of downtown energy.
129 East 60th Street (Lexington Avenue), Upper East Side; 646-386-7608; lvdnyc.com
Lola's
Before opening Lola’s, Suzanne Cupps was the chef at Untitled at the Whitney, where she was known for her refined brilliance with fruit and vegetables — special-occasion food at its most seasonal. She’s kept the same local produce-driven ethos at Lola’s, but more low-key. Her cooking now features the kinds of casual, homey dishes that you can’t help but crave on a weekly basis, all served up in a relaxed, convivial dining room. You’ll find roasted carrots spiced with garam masala and served with warm naan; springy, homemade noodles that are pan-fried with Japanese curry and greens; crisp cubes of tilefish coated with jalapeño tartar sauce and served like fish tacos, with lettuce instead of tortillas. Although Ms. Cupps’s cuisine is comforting and familiar, it’s never simple, embellished with invisible, cheffy touches that make everything shine.
2 West 28th Street (Broadway), NoMad; 646-941-4787; lolasnyc.com
Penny
Some of the smartest seafood cooking in the city takes place behind the long counter of this skinny room a few steps above East 10th Street. Joshua Pinsky’s ideas are precise but not persnickety: octopus over potato salad that crunches with bits of pickled daikon; squid filled with chard and tuna and seared over charcoal. The chilled seafood sparkles, too, like garnet-red sheets of tuna spread out on a cold plate under sweet curls of shaved onion. Nothing is overworked or overembellished, down to the ice cream and fruit preserves sandwiched between light and springy slices of sesame brioche.
90 East 10th Street (Third Avenue), East Village; no phone; penny-nyc.com
Sawa
When the siblings Samaya Boueri Ziade and George Boueri opened Sawa in April, their aim was to bring the herb-imbued, orange blossom-scented cuisine of their Lebanese childhood to Park Slope, Brooklyn. Their bright and minimalist dining room has since become a beloved neighborhood destination, offering a seasonally inspired menu that mixes regional dishes with Levantine classics, layered with a dash of New York sophistication. This mix is captured perfectly in dishes like summer heirloom tomatoes spread with garlicky toum, a supple lamb shank with freekeh and fava beans, and balloons of homemade pita so puffed and light it almost seems sad to rip them open — until the sumptuous plates of hummus, labneh and muhamarra arrive.
75 Fifth Avenue (Prospect Place), Park Slope; 347-457-6761; sawa.nyc
