when you want, where you want.
Where to Eat in October
Illustration: Naomi Otsu
Welcome to Grub Street’s rundown of restaurant recommendations that aims to answer the endlessly recurring question: Where should we go? These are the spots that our food team thinks everyone should visit, for any reason (a new chef, the arrival of an exciting dish, or maybe there’s an opening that’s flown too far under the radar). This month: new Ethiopian, new Peruvian, new Thai, and two hotel restaurants that are actually good??
Johnny’s (Williamsburg)
Opened by a brother-and-sister duo, Johnny’s belongs to a long line of family-owned pollo a la brasa restaurants that started in Woodside back in 1973. This slightly upscaled, still unassuming corner chifa spot — where, under a curtain covering half the window, you can spy on the rotisserie chickens spinning on the spit in the back room — is planted in a restaurant-dense corner of Williamsburg, but it’s making a name for itself even with places like Llama Inn (a very different Peruvian spot) and Bonnie’s nearby. Sit at the bar and kick things off with a frozen lychee pisco sour that’s finished with a float of Angostura bitters. Then order the chicken, its mahogany-brown, crisped skin and side of creamy aji verde is a boon for the neighborhood. Make it a combo with the yuca fries, cut real thick. There’s a vegetarian fried rice that’s exactly what you’d want out of your neighborhood Chinese takeout, and a lomo saltado with a soy-vinegar sauce. But then again, no one will judge you for just getting a whole chicken and calling it a day. —Chris Crowley
Barbuto Brooklyn (Dumbo)
Jonathan Waxman’s new iteration of his West Village standby — here sitting inside a huge space at the bottom of the 1 Hotel — is the perfect place for parents, and it goes both ways. Parents visiting their adult children will appreciate the comfortable space and just-interesting-enough food. Parents with young children of their own to feed will also appreciate the comfortable space, the “pasta bambini” on the menu, and the entirety of Brooklyn Bridge Park just outside in case a toddler needs to walk off a mid-meal meltdown. Waxman’s classics have been ported over well enough; pollo al forno is still the most agreeable roast chicken in the city. The new waterfront location also adds a few seafood dishes to fit the setting, like the pizza al mare, garlicky clam pie topped with Maine lobster and shrimp. —Zach Schiffman
Narkara (Union Square)
The Thaissance continues apace in NYC, and good contenders are springing up as fast as I can go to them. I didn’t necessarily have high hopes for Narkara, which plunked down off Union Square. With its cavernous size, costumed wait staff, and Tao-ish décor, I feared it was too fussily dressy to be really good. But Narkara is neither bland nor unduly tourist-safe. The menu is studded with Thai specialties not universally available — cold pork-curry terrine, pig’s-blood rice — and even basic preparations are well handled. They might even surprise you. I was skeptical when my date argued for roast chicken, but amid the cool raw-corn salad and stir-fried duck curry, it was my favorite dish of the night, sugared with sweet chile sauce on one hand and pricked by a fishy, fermented chile sauce on the other. (Apparently, Khao Suan Kwang in northeastern Thailand is renowned for its skill raising and grilling birds, and this one is a tribute to that facility.) I’ll be back for the pork terrine. —Matthew Schneier
Seahorse (Union Square)
Approximately 1,000 feet away from Narkara on 17th Street, John McDonald, Soho restaurateur extraordinaire, has expanded north. After years of delays, his new spot in the W Hotel is open and, based on a recent visit, already filled with beautiful people settling into the plush blue booths. What’s on the menu? Seafood, in versions that will be instantly familiar to even the most inexperienced fisherman: fresh crudo slicked with olive oil, stacks of oysters, spicy lobster pasta, tuna au poivre, and Dover sole filleted at the table (of course). None of the food is particularly adventurous, which seems to be exactly the point. This is not a restaurant to visit to feel culinarily challenged. This is a restaurant for wooing dates and closing deals. That you can eat well doing either is the real bonus. —Alan Sytsma
Zoma Express (Upper West Side)
This delivery-friendly Ethiopian restaurant opened about a month ago, just a few blocks south of the original Zoma, which was a standby on Frederick Douglass Boulevard for more than a decade until the pandemic closed it down. The follow-up was never meant to seat customers, but a handful of tables, chairs, and Zafferano lamps were added to the converted waiting area last week by popular demand. The kitchen does right by their two beef dishes: Zoma tibs, cubed sirloin stir-fried with honey wine until saucy; and kitfo, tartare that gets freshly chopped to order and seasoned with cardamom, very hot red-chile powder, and warm butter. All of the vegetable dishes are made vegan, including a green and garlicky gomen, where the collard greens were cooked to a pleasant al dente, and well-spiced misir wot. It’s all served with a sufficient amount of gluten-free injera that is brown, bubbly, and even better than before. Try it as kategna, infused with butter and berbere and fried until crisp while the spices turn dark and aromatic. —Tammie Teclemariam
More New Bars and Restaurants