The Top 100 Restaurants in Brooklyn
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Rank 1. Aska
Scandinavian, Tasting
In a dark South Williamsburg room, Fredrik Berselius executes Nordic cooking with precision and intimacy—dry-aged quail with morels and truffle jus, langoustine with gooseberry, hake crowned in beluga and beer cream. The kitchen presents each course, the chef himself circulating, all of it built on local, seasonal sourcing that feels deliberate rather than decorative.
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- 50 Best 2025 · #24 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- The New York Times 2026 · #16 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 2. Lilia Ristorante
Italian
At Lilia, pasta commands attention, but the opening moves—fried dough with cacio e pepe spice, blowfish in Sicilian lemon, charred focaccia with green garlic butter—arrive with equal ambition. These early dishes establish the restaurant's gift for marrying rustic Italian foundations with precise, burnished technique.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Missy Robbins
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 2. Bar Madonna
Italian-American
- 50 Best 2026 · #36 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. East
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Rank 4. Pitt's
Southern
- Food & Wine 2025 · Pancake Soufflé · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year
- Punch 2025 · Rosie Martini · Our Favorite Cocktails
- Punch 2025 · Best New Bartenders · Ben Hopkins
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Rank 5. Gage & Tollner
Steakhouse
A Brooklyn steakhouse from 1892 glows with vintage mirrors and brass chandeliers, its no-nonsense cocktail list and amber-lit dining room instantly charming. The kitchen honors Edna Lewis's Southern legacy through seafood towers, crab cakes, and fried chicken that justify the historical setting with genuine substance.
- World's 101 Best #84 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Esquire 2023 · Turf Club · The Best Martinis in America
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. East
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Rank 7. Sofreh
Persian
In a serene Park Slope room of marble and black timber, chef-owner Nasim Alikhani cooks the Persian cuisine of her homeland with confident restraint. Roasted eggplant yielding to kashk and crispy onions, pomegranate-marinated ribeye kebab, lamb shank braised into submission—the colorful plates need no ornament here, only the clean walls to frame them.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Nasim Alikhani
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Nasim Alikhani
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Rank 7. Bong
Cambodian
A cramped Cambodian counter in Crown Heights where the energy matches the spice. Plea satch ko arrives as gossamer beef in a funky, incendiary sauce; a whole fish, bronzed and crackling, comes with green mango and the apparatus for lettuce wraps. It's the kind of place that works best in a crowd, shouting over the din.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
- Eater 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 9. Maison Premiere
New Orleans-Style Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best 2026 · #40 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Time Out #7 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars in NYC
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Rank 9. Antica Pesa
Roman Italian
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Rank 9. L'industrie Pizzeria
New York-style Pizza
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #1 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
- The Infatuation #19 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 9. Red Hook Tavern
American
The Red Hook Tavern welcomes you with brass rail and vintage fixtures—exposed brick, frosted glass, floral wallpaper—arranged around an intimate bar. A dry-aged burger crowned with American cheese arrives alongside cottage fries; French onion soup comes properly bronzed and bubbling. It's comfort food and cocktails executed with the understated competence you'd expect from the Hometown BBQ team.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation #22 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
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Rank 13. The River Café
Contemporary
Beneath the Brooklyn Bridge's shadow, this landmark trades intimacy for theater—jacket required, tables angled toward the Manhattan skyline. The prix fixe menu moves through precisely executed dishes: blue shrimp atop corn hominy, Dover sole in Burgundy truffle sauce, a soufflé that arrives warm and quivering. Formal service that doesn't feel starch, old money without the stuffiness.
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Rank 13. Oxomoco
Mexican
A lively Greenpoint room where casual surfaces hide serious ambition: tacos arrive loaded with chanterelle or the day's catch, but the kitchen roams Mexico's regions with equal conviction, from tropical hamachi agua chile to smoky tlayuda to brined and smoked chicken. Vibrant, balanced, never showy.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Time Out 2026 · The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
- Roadbook The best restaurants in Greenpoint, New York
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- VinePair 2023 · Industry Icon of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. East
- Time Out #11 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
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Rank 16. Sailor
Seafood
Lines snake around this Fort Greene corner for Bloomfield's seasonal cooking that makes simplicity look inevitable: eggs with celery salt and mayo, a Caesar salad, roast chicken. Lunch brings a spring onion and goat gouda quiche and fries that justify the wait. Light falls through the skylight onto a bistro settling into its role as neighborhood anchor.
- Esquire 2024 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Eater 2024 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 16. Francie
Brasserie French
In a limestone-fronted South Williamsburg corner, exposed brick and widely spaced tables frame an open kitchen where the real theater unfolds. Conchiglie arrives glossy with clam sauce, bacon, and sesame breadcrumbs; roast duck is wheeled tableside whole before carving. This is brasserie cooking rendered with enough precision to justify the attention.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Chris Cipollone
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Rank 16. Agi’s Counter
Creative
Pink walls and the ghost of a Hungarian grandmother preside over Crown Heights, where Jeremy Salamon's diner specializes in bread that demands second visits. A grilled potato pullman arrives under whipped chicken liver mousse and sour cherry caramel; nokdeli float in restorative chicken broth. Casual and fine-tuned at once, often leaving you wondering if you have room for one more.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Jeremy Salamon
- Punch 2025 · Best New Bartenders · Ben Hopkins
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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Rank 19. Theodora
Mediterranean Seafood
Wood smoke hangs thick in this Fort Greene dining room where Tomer Blechman applies Mediterranean sensibilities to seafood aged and charred over open flame. The dry-aged black cod arrives with miso beurre blanc and grilled vegetables; a pita comes topped with monkfish liver 'nduja. The restaurant hums with purpose, built entirely around what fire can do to fish.
- VinePair 2024 · Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Time Out 2026 · The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
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- Time Out #9 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC
- Eater The Best Croissants in NYC
- The Infatuation The Best Croissants In NYC
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Rank 19. Brooklyn DOP Pizza
NY-Style Pizza
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Rank 19. Xi'an Famous Foods
Xi'an-Style
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Rank 19. Hometown Bar-B-Que
Barbecue
Wood smoke announces Hometown's Red Hook warehouse before you see it. The counter-service brisket arrives with a deep smoke ring and yielding pull; the jalapeño sausage, studded with melted cheese, reminds you why the trek from Manhattan matters. Collards and potato salad round out a meal that trades ambition for the clarity of meat cooked right.
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Rank 19. Al Badawi
Palestinian Middle Eastern
Plastic flowers cascade across the front and interior of this Palestinian spot on Atlantic Avenue, a visual announcement of the bold, abundant cooking within. Enormous mezze platters arrive with hot saj bread from the domed oven by the door, though the kitchen's finest moment may be its plainest: thin flatbread topped with melted cheese and ground pistachios.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
- Grub Street 2025 · The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
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Rank 19. Cafe Mado
American Contemporary
Café Mado unfolds from casual coffee counter to skylit dining room, where house-baked bread and handmade pasta anchor a menu that shifts seamlessly between breakfast and refined dinner. Pissaladière with anchovies and caramelized onions gives way to pici with pesto, each dish marked by restraint and precision.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Grub Street 2025 · The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
- The New York Times 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in New York
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Rank 19. Win Son Bakery
Taiwanese-American Bakery
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Rank 19. Eyval
Modern Persian
Ali Saboor's Bushwick restaurant wields the Persian pantry with painterly precision—barberries, fenugreek, saffron, black lime—in modern arrangements that feel both reverent and playful. The yogurt alone, voluptuous and tangy, suggests a chef thinking in flavors rather than categories.
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
- Grub Street 2025 · The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
- The New York Times 2026 · #57 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 19. Taqueria Ramirez
Mexican
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Giovanni Cervantes
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
- Grub Street 2025 · The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
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Rank 19. Xi'an Famous Foods
Xi'an-Style
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Rank 31. Salsa Pizza Napoletana & Street Food
Neapolitan Pizza
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Rank 31. Pizza Secret
Neapolitan Pizza
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Rank 31. Ops
Neapolitan Pizza
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Rank 31. Restaurant Yuu
Contemporary French
The kitchen emerges from darkness like a stage reveal, all whites and precision, as Chef Yuu Shimano orchestrates a tasting built on French discipline and Japanese refinement—smoked clam against celeriac, abalone risotto dusted with nori. Each plate moves between restraint and indulgence, anchored by the duck and foie pastry that tastes like a relic, punctuated by the mojito that tastes like now.
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Rank 31. Lingo
Japanese-influenced New American
In a Greenpoint corner, chawanmushi meets rock shrimp and sea grapes; bone marrow steak tartare gets dressed in black sesame cream. The beef pie—Hokkaido curry inside a golden pastry shell—is where Lingo's casual American template and Japanese sensibility stop negotiating and start singing together.
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Emily Yuen
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 31. Bonnie's
Cantonese Chinese
A nondescript corner spot in Williamsburg channels retro Hong Kong diner aesthetics while Chef Calvin Eng interprets Cantonese regional cuisine with modern precision. Crispy yeung yu sang choi bao stuffed with shrimp and mustard greens, salt-and-pepper shrimp lacquered with melted onions, and cheung fun dressed in X.O. sauce reveal a kitchen unafraid of both tradition and invention.
- Esquire 2023 · MSG Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Calvin Eng
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Calvin Eng
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Rank 31. L&B Spumoni Gardens
Old-School Pizza
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
- The Infatuation Square Slice · 25 Iconic Dishes That Define New York
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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A Park Slope cocktail bar where Indian spice logic governs the program: draft Negronis tinged with toasted coconut, a Mangalorean built around mango powder and curried coconut cream. Jay Kumar, who runs the Indian restaurant Lore nearby, approaches mixing with the same restless seasoning hand that defines his kitchen.
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Rank 38. Kellogg's Diner
Retro American
- Eater 2026 · Where to Eat Brunch in New York City
- Eater The Best Breakfasts in New York
- The New York Times 2024 · Passion Fruit Tajín Icebox Pie · Here Are Our Top New York Dishes
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Rank 38. Border Town
Mexican
- The Infatuation The 21 Best New Restaurants In NYC
- Eater 2026 · The Best New Restaurants in Brooklyn Right Now
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Rank 38. Tanoreen
Middle Eastern
In a narrow Bay Ridge storefront, Rawia Bishara and her daughter compose a warm Middle Eastern kitchen where meals unfold across dozens of small plates—harissa-bright tomato spreads, grape leaves, braised lamb suspended in yogurt cream. The portions are generous, the flavors vivid, the olive oil excellent: a place that feeds you as if you were family.
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Rank 38. Roman's
Italian
At Roman's, bare wood tables catch the light of low candles while the marble bar behind becomes a shrine to aperitif knowledge and seasonal Italian cooking. The menu shifts with the calendar, but each dish arrives as though it were the only thing you came for.
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2026 · #53 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 38. LORE
American-infused Indian
A corner storefront in Park Slope where chef Jay Kumar fuses Indian spice with American ingredients in dishes like roasted squash over babaghanoush and duck confit with tamarind sauce. The warm service and poetic cocktail list elevate what might feel like a neighborhood spot into something more deliberately refined.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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- Eater 2026 · Where to Eat Brunch in New York City
- Grub Street 2026 · The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)
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Rank 38. Roberta's
Pizza
A red door opens onto industrial brick and a bohemian fervor that has only intensified over the years. Grilled bread arrives heaped with gigante beans and dandelion greens, crowned with a soft egg; the house bucatini swims in bright sungold tomato. The signature pizza remains the thing to eat here, though a porchetta sandwich to go works when the wait grows unbearable.
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A rum-focused cocktail bar in Williamsburg where daiquiris anchor a menu that pivots between spirit-forward drinks and seafood snacks like oysters with tepache mignonette. The operators, both seasoned in craft cocktail culture, have furnished the space with intention—everyday pricing, basement rum bar included—suggesting they built this for regulars, not tourists.
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Rank 38. Miss Ada
Middle Eastern
A Fort Greene mainstay where whipped ricotta with brown butter and lamb-topped hummus emerge from a shockingly small kitchen. The backyard garden fills nightly despite scarce reservations, though the bar welcomes walk-ins for charred skewers and market salads meant for sharing.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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Rank 38. Café Kestrel
Pan-European French
In a narrow Red Hook storefront, Café Kestrel balances casual ease with refined technique, its French-leaning menu moving gracefully from fried halloumi with sage and honey to duck leg confit nestled against rutabaga purée and candied kumquats. Service arrives unhurried and attentive, desserts—particularly an apricot cake with caramel—feel like the point of the meal rather than an afterthought.
- Eater Restaurant We'd Most Want to Be Regulars
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times 2024 · Fried Halloumi · Here Are Our Top New York Dishes
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Rank 38. Yemenat
Yemeni Middle Eastern
In Bay Ridge's thriving Middle Eastern enclave, Yemenat serves Yemeni home cooking at a family table: lamb haneeth arrives as a glossy braise over hadrami rice, while sides like spiced tomato paste and rashoosh bread are portioned for sharing. The cooking is straightforward and generous, each dish calibrated not for refinement but for sustenance and togetherness.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times 2026 · #31 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2024 · Beef Fahsa · Here Are Our Top New York Dishes
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Weekend chaos rules at this dim sum palace, where crowds surge through the doors and an announcer bellows reservation numbers like bingo calls. Carts laden with siu mai, shrimp-and-rice-noodle bundles in sweet soy, and tea leaf–wrapped zongzi roll past tables in the gold-trimmed room with assembly-line precision. Weekdays offer the same kitchen without the theatrical crush.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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Rank 50. Hart's
Mediterranean
Beneath the Franklin Avenue subway stairs sits a slate-blue sliver where Nick Perkins commands a marble counter kitchen like a conductor in a phone booth. Heirloom tomatoes swim in olive oil and chili; hake arrives with anchovies and bitter greens; pork Milanese arrives bronzed and playful. The space is whitewashed brick and blonde wood, but the real economy is in every plate.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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Rank 50. Ciao, Gloria
Italian
- Time Out #20 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC
- Sprudge The Sprudge Guide to Coffee In South Brooklyn
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Rank 50. I Cavallini
Regional Italian
Chef Nick Curtola works in clean, unadorned lines at this neighborhood trattoria—braised beef tendons shaved thin with acidic onions, handmade pastas balanced with restraint, a tiramisu so light it seems to dissolve. The room invites lingering, and the cooking, rooted in regional tradition, knows the difference between simplicity and emptiness.
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Rank 50. Frijoleros
Mexican
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Rank 50. Russ & Daughters
Jewish
- BagelUp #4 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- The New York Times The 16 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now
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Rank 50. Zaab Zaab
Isan Thai
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Bryan Chunton and Pei Shan Wei
- The New York Times 2026 · #38 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 50. Chrissy's Pizza
NY-Style Pizza
- The Infatuation 2025 · #5 · NYC’s Best New Restaurants
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
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Rank 50. Chez Ma Tante
Canadian French
Aidan O'Neal and Jake Leiber run a compact French-Canadian kitchen where pork preparations and offal terrine anchor a menu that refuses apology. Fennel sausage over beans and bacon, gnocchi with blue cheese, maple crème brûlée—the cooking is forceful, richly flavored, and worth the weekend crowds.
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- Grub Street 2026 · The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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Rank 50. F&F Pizzeria
Pizza
- Grub Street 2025 · The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
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Rank 50. Uzuki
Noodles
Chef Shuichi Kotani's soba shop occupies a raw Greenpoint warehouse, where hand-cut noodles arrive in ceramic vessels he has thrown himself. The buckwheat preparations are spare and exacting, though prices run high for what amounts to disciplined simplicity.
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Rank 50. Peter Luger Steak House
Steakhouse
Wood-paneled rooms fill with generations of regulars and newcomers ordering the Porterhouse, dry-aged and broiled until it sizzles, then finished with butter. Peter Luger trades in uncomplicated pleasures: bratwurst, creamed spinach, cheesecake with schlag—and the particular ease of a room where the servers know the rhythm. A steakhouse that feels less like a destination than a birthright.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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- Eater 2026 · The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
- Vogue 2026 · The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
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- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
- The New York Times The 25 Best Pizza Places in New York Right Now
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Rank 67. Café Mars
Contemporary
Chef Paul D'Avino's Third Avenue spot treats the familiar with gleeful irreverence—negroni Jell-O with olive, garlic knot monkey bread, muffaletta dim sum—each dish a small provocation. It's a restaurant that announces itself through whimsy, yet the execution and generosity of spirit suggest a kitchen genuinely interested in pleasure.
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Rank 67. Sobre Masa Tortilleria
Mexican
At Sobre Masa, a husband-and-wife team nixtamalizes heritage corn daily, rolling out tortillas that anchor everything from carnitas to wagyu tongue empanadas with equal grace. The salsas alone—avocado-lime, garlic tuom, chile morita—reveal a kitchen that treats condiment as seriously as main course.
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Rank 67. Speedy Romeo
Wood-Fired Pizza
A former garage turned tavern where the wood-fired oven turns out pizza that breaks Italian rules without apology—St. Louis style with Provel cheese and pickled peppers sits alongside stuffed peppers studded with salami. The owner's Jean-Georges training shows in the smart, whimsical touches that elevate a kitschy space into something genuinely appealing.
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Rank 67. Win Son
Taiwanese Chinese
A light-filled room of blonde wood and exposed brick channels bodega warmth through a modern lens, serving Taiwanese dishes with unfussy confidence. The briny clams in Shaoxing wine, the pillowy bao, the chewy zha jiang mian with lamb and Sichuan heat—each arrives without pretense, meant to be eaten.
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Rank 67. Untable
Thai
Chef Rachanon Kampimarn's cozy Cobble Hill kitchen pulls from northern Thailand with confident flair, turning curry and heat into something far more interesting than mere provocation. The soupless khao soi and grilled chicken thigh in green curry reveal his gift for balancing boldness with restraint, though the specials board—fried branzino with chili and garlic—often steals the show.
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Rank 67. Alta Calidad
Mexican
Light floods through the windows at this modern Mexican restaurant where a communal table and convivial bar create easy fellowship. The kitchen riffs on tradition with crispy tempura shrimp on tortilla with cabbage remoulade and paper-thin carne asada charred with Chihuahua cheese until the edges crisp and caramelize. It's cooking that respects its foundations while testing their limits.
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Rank 67. Taqueria El Chato
Mexican
A narrow storefront with a few stools and a counter, where handmade tortillas cradle tender al pastor, chorizo, and melted cheese beneath salsa verde and raw onion. The vampiro—a fried tortilla shell loaded with cheese and toppings—justifies the cramped quarters and absence of pretense.
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Rank 67. Gordo's Cantina
Mexican
In Bushwick, Gordo's Cantina anchors the neighborhood with generous portions and unfussy hospitality. Chef Reyna Morales, trained in Mexico City, treats familiar dishes with care—chorizo tacos carry a mild warmth, chile rellenos hold creamy queso fresco and beans, and the mole sauce wrapping chicken enchiladas deepens with time and attention. A place that feels like home.
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Rank 67. Olmo
Mexico City Mexican
At Olmo, communal tables and pale wood create an unhurried cantina where Mexico City flavors feel lived-in rather than curated. Grilled branzino sits atop stewed beans ringed with morita salsa; carne asada arrives with a smoky chipotle bearnaise that outshines the verdolaga and fennel. The flan paleta, caramel-draped, closes the meal with restraint.
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Rank 67. Chavela's
Mexican
Chef Arturo Leonar's guacamole arrives laced with smoked trout and morita chile, a provocation wrapped in tradition; his crabmeat taquitos and Oaxacan tamales show equal ingenuity without abandoning the fundamentals. The dining room explodes with color—Mexican tile, ceramic butterflies, wrought iron—matching the kitchen's restless intelligence.
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Rank 67. Haenyeo
Korean
At this narrow Fifth Avenue corner, Korean fundamentals meet playful cross-cultural improvisation: tteokbokki crowned with Oaxacan cheese, daegu jorim braised into silken submission. The kitchen's gift is knowing when to honor tradition and when to surprise, all delivered with the ease of a neighborhood place that has earned its reputation.
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Rank 67. Pierozek
Polish Eastern European
In a Greenpoint storefront adorned with hand-painted Polish pottery, Alexandra Siwiec and Radek Kucharski turn out delicate pierogi—jalapeño and potato, raspberry and cheese—alongside borscht, golabki, and kielbasa that tastes as though it knows its own purpose. The casual room feels less like a restaurant than a kitchen that happens to sell what it makes, which is precisely the point.
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Rank 67. Shalom Japan
Jewish fusion Japanese
A narrow South Williamsburg kitchen steers between Japanese and Ashkenazi traditions with casual precision, marrying matzoh ball ramen and lox bowls studded with avocado and pickles. Wagyu pastrami on caraway shokupan and toro tartare over sake-kasu challah suggest a chef thinking in flavors rather than categories.
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Rank 67. Chuan Tian Xia
Sichuan Chinese
The dining room at this Sunset Park Sichuan spot runs spare—wooden tables, backless stools—but the earpiece-wearing staff moves with balletic precision, guiding newcomers through a menu that prioritizes layered flavor over numbing heat. Whole fish comes swaddled in sweet peppers; slivered pork swims in vinegary garlic. The chefs understand restraint.
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Rank 67. Sal Tang’s
Cantonese American Chinese
Sal Tang's marries red-lantern nostalgia with refined Cantonese-American cooking, its crispy egg rolls and silken wonton soup anchored in dark wood and cherry blossom wallpaper. A weeknight refuge where classics like beef and broccoli meet blood orange sorbet finales.
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A few steps from Fort Greene Park, this bistro wraps you in tropical warmth while its kitchen moves fluidly between northern and southern Thai traditions with ingredient-driven precision. The gui chai arrives crackling and golden; the braised short ribs, caramelized and yielding, taste like they've been waiting for you.
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Rank 82. arthur
American
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Rank 82. Bar Bruno
American
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Rank 82. Ammazzacaffè
Italian
A spare, welcoming Italian trattoria where a handsome wood bar and garden patio set the stage for seasonal pastas and grilled fish. The ondine—shrimp in tomato sauce—and branzino with roasted grapes arrive with the precision of a kitchen that understands restraint.
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Rank 82. Café Spaghetti
Modern Italian
- Grub Street 2026 · The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)
- Esquire 2022 · #18 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 82. Randazzo's Clam Bar
Seafood
Across from the glimmering bay, this century-old Randazzo outpost warns of lobster-lovers-only parking with deadpan humor, its wood-paneled rooms smelling of the sea. The fried calamari arrives buoyantly crisp, but the real inheritance is Elena Randazzo's tomato sauce, fine-tuned in the 1950s and offered hot or mild with each plate.
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Rank 82. Saint Julivert
Seafood
A narrow room on Clinton Street yields outsized kitchen talent: tempura delicata squash with black garlic labneh, fried hamachi boudin with Thai chili mayo, tamarind-glazed pork over coconut spinach. The wine list champions small producers in concert with seafood-forward cooking that refuses the space's modest footprint.
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Rank 82. Bamonte's
Red-Sauce Italian
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Rank 82. Defonte's Sandwich Shop
Sandwiches
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Rank 82. Zoli
American
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Rank 82. K'Far
Israeli Middle Eastern
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Rank 82. Runner & Stone
Bakery
A former Per Se baker channels the city's milling heritage through concrete-slab walls and house-ground flour, turning sandwiches into studied compositions. The tuna confit melt and broccoli fritter pita prove that a bakery counter need not apologize for its ambitions.
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Rank 82. Bar Ferdinando
Italian
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Rank 82. Entre Nous
French
A Clinton Hill wine bar that nails the French apéro formula: copper bar, cherry wood, and natural bottles lining the walls. The kitchen keeps its French small plates honest—chicken liver parfait, mushroom croquettes, Jonah crab salad—with the restraint of someone cooking for people who actually know wine.
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Rank 82. Happy Salad
Hong Kong-Style
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Rank 82. Casa Ora
Venezuelan
Isbelis Diaz and her son cook Venezuelan food in a Williamsburg room lined with ceramics by a Caracas artisan, their tequenos crackling and their asado negro braised until it dissolves. The staff moves with genuine warmth, and a plate of sweet plantains with cheese and crema feels like a benediction.
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Rank 82. Tlacualli Breakfast
Mexican
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Rank 82. Amdo Momo
Tibetan
A former Tibetan monk operates this food truck in Jackson Heights with an almost monastic devotion to a single item: momos folded with visible care, their delicate skins yielding to beef that has surrendered completely to broth. Eight dumplings for eight dollars arrives as something between sustenance and sacrament, steam rising like an offering.
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Rank 82. Daphne's
Contemporary Italian
A corner storefront in Bed-Stuy glimmers behind silver beads, signaling the refined calm within—a tightly edited Italian-American kitchen that moves between shareable plates and house-made pasta with quiet confidence. The focaccia arrives golden and anchovy-bright; the grilled pork chop, ringed with slow-cooked greens and beans, tastes like restraint and precision working in concert.
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Rank 82. Neta Shari
Sushi
A spare, cobalt-walled omakase counter in Bensonhurst where dry-aged fish and beef hang in the window like trophies. The chef's knife work yields precisely calibrated bites—Hokkaido scallop bright with lime, Arctic char sealed in crisp skin and yuzu miso, eel seared and glazed to buttery submission. Value and precision meet without pretense.
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Rank 82. Meadowsweet
Mediterranean
Meadowsweet sits in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge behind glass and whitewashed brick, where a steady crowd gathers for nimble, reasonably priced cooking. The kitchen moves from crispy baby artichokes to spiced duck with corn polenta with equal grace, served in a room that feels both urbane and welcoming.
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A Montreal deli wedged into Boerum Hill where cured beef brisket arrives in towering, mustard-slicked piles on rye, with poutine variations and latkes that justify the pilgrimage. The counter and communal tables fill quickly; takeout from the sidewalk window lets you eat the thing at home.
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Rank 82. Maya Congee Café
East Asian
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Rank 82. Bunna Cafe
Vegetarian Ethiopian
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Rank 82. Cas
Jamaican, Caribbean
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Rank 82. Laser Wolf
Middle Eastern
A rooftop skewer house where Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook have engineered something genuinely convivial: salatim arrive first—babaghanoush, harissa beans, pickled vegetables—followed by lamb kofta and grilled vegetables that justify the kitchen's open-flame fervor. The room pulses with string lights and music, reservation-worthy precisely because it refuses to feel exclusive.
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Rank 82. Ayat
Palestinian Middle Eastern
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Rank 82. Leland Eating and Drinking House
Mediterranean
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Rank 82. Mable's Smokehouse
Central Texas-Style Barbecue
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Rank 82. Fausto
Italian
Chef Erin Shambura's Italian-inflected kitchen at this Flatbush corner catches light from an open hearth, creating the kind of dim warmth that suggests both intimacy and occasion. Pasta sings—a tagliatelle with lamb ragu and saffron sets the tone—but it's the composed restraint across each plate, from roasted cauliflower to braised pork shank, that lingers.
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Rank 82. Bark Barbecue
Central Texas-Style Barbecue
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Rank 82. 6 Restaurant
European
The open kitchen anchors this intimate Carroll Gardens bistro, where exposed brick and leather booths create warmth for both dates and groups. Dishes like hamachi crudo in whey broth and duck confit gnocchi show a kitchen fluent in European and South American inflections.
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Rank 82. Vato
Mexican
A counter-service tortilleria in Park Slope where house-made flour tortillas are the reason to come, watched being assembled before your eyes. The burnt ends burrito—pulled meat, eggs, cheddar—announces itself on the first bite, and the cinnamon rolls, salted and frosted, linger after you leave.
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Rank 82. Mango Bay
Caribbean
A Fort Greene brownstone draped in island florals and anchored by leather banquettes serves Afro-Caribbean cooking that feels both ancestral and urgent—char-grilled octopus arrives over braised collards and burrata, oxtail braises alongside roasted carrots. The sides alone, mango chow and fried plantains, make you want to return with everyone you know.
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Rank 82. Los Burritos Juárez
Mexican
A Fort Greene counter turns out burritos in the El Paso style, built on house-made flour tortillas cooked to order with lard—soft, chewy, and warm. The fillings are slow-cooked guisados: pork in red chiles, brisket in salsa verde, bound together with pinto beans. A regional tradition, executed with quiet competence and available at breakfast until the supply runs out.
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Rank 82. Tong
Thai
A Thai kitchen in a concrete warehouse that wields chilies with fearless precision, asking diners upfront how much heat they can handle. Small plates of fried banana blossoms and crispy rice with fermented pork sausage showcase sharp flavors and textural contrast.
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Rank 82. Sunday in Brooklyn
American
A second-floor dining room of palms and whitewash sits above the rustic bar, where on-site baking and unhurried lingers define the rhythm. The signature skillet pancake—fluffy, topped with hazelnut-maple praline—arrives with brown butter and syrup; crusty sourdough with creamy beer butter follows naturally into the day.
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Rank 82. Madre
Contemporary
In the vaulted lobby of a boutique hotel on Franklin Street, Madre serves contemporary cooking that moves between Mediterranean and Latin flavors with casual confidence. Jalapeño cornbread madeleines with whipped honey, octopus with romesco and nopales, and a dark chocolate pot de crème suggest a kitchen unafraid of specificity.
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Rank 82. Mesiba
Levantine Middle Eastern
Chef Eli Buliskeria's Levantine cooking honors a sprawling regional cuisine with precision—crispy whole striped bass, charred-onion kreplach, properly executed falafel—in a sleek, minimalist dining room that channels Tel Aviv. The lively ground-floor space at the Moxy hotel crackles with the kind of appetite and noise that makes eating here feel like an event, not an obligation.
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Rank 82. Fette Sau
Central Texas Barbecue
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Rank 82. Wenwen
Taiwanese Chinese
Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the clean, airy dining room at this Greenpoint Taiwanese restaurant, where Chef Eric Sze applies precision to bold flavors: sacha hot honey popcorn chicken dusted with a sugar-spice powder, whole striped bass in black sugar and yuzu, a beef noodle soup built on sixteen hours of oxtail broth. The cooking is assured and unsentimental.
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Rank 82. Masalawala & Sons
West Bengal Indian
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Rank 82. Risbo
Rotisserie French
Boris Ginet's industrial-chic cafe anchors itself around a Parisian-style rotisserie, where a 72-hour-marinated roasted chicken emerges as the undisputed centerpiece. The menu spans bowls, seasonal vegetables, and house platters, all best enjoyed on the garden patio steps from Prospect Park.
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Rank 82. Rose Marie
Southern New American
Rose Marie trades Yellow Rose's structured Tex-Mex for a looser, rustically charmed contemporary American menu with Southern edges. Saltine-crusted fish and a bacon-laden patty melt justify lingering over cocktails in this Williamsburg sibling's freeform groove.
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Rank 82. Laghman Express
Uyghur Noodles
The Gravesend location trades the original's paper-and-plastic brevity for bamboo booths and china, yet keeps faith with the same hand-pulled noodles and cumin-dark lamb. Gold-veined bread and dough pearls—some stretched long as harp strings, others chopped into dense coins—announce an emerging Uyghur chain worth following.
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Rank 148. Joe's Pizza
NY-Style Pizza
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Rank 148. Fortunato Brothers
Italian Bakery
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Rank 148. Kru
Thai
A sleek dining room of exposed brick and polished concrete frames the contemporary take on Thai cooking by husband-and-wife chefs Ohm Suansilphong and Kiki Supap. Braised beef shank arrives in a broth balanced between sour and spice, while red curry branzino steams atop egg and cabbage on a banana leaf. The lesson here is tradition made urgent.
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Esquire 2022 · #37 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 148. Brennan and Carr
American
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Rank 148. La Vara
Spanish
The dining room hums with the ease of a Madrid kitchen transplanted to the Lower East Side. Alex Raij's cocina casera elevates pantry staples—grilled beans in romesco, slow-roasted suckling pig with chimichurri—through ingredient intelligence and a refusal to overthink. It's cooking that knows exactly what it wants to be.
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Rachel Miller
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Alex Raij and Eder Montero
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Rank 148. Sawa
Middle Eastern
On a Brooklyn corner, siblings and their chef have opened a spirited spot where the line forms before service even begins. House-made pita arrives hot for labneh and hummus spiked with wagyu beef cheeks, while golden-fried rakkakat stuffed with akkawi cheese arrives with the confidence of a dish that knows what it is. It's Middle Eastern cooking that doesn't whisper.
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Rank 148. Ali's Trinidad Roti Shop
Trinidadian Caribbean
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Rank 171. House
French/Japanese
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Rank 171. Paulie Gee's
Neapolitan Pizza
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Rank 171. Lamonte
European
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Rank 171. Di An Di
Vietnamese Noodles
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Rank 171. Lise & Vito
Natural Wine Bar
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Rank 171. Glasserie
Mediterranean
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Rank 171. Le Crocodile
French
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Rank 171. Fulgurances Laundromat
Experimental French
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Rank 171. La Superior
Mexico City-Style Mexican
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Rank 184. Ensenada
Seafood Mexican
- Bon Appétit 2023 · America's Best New Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Luis Herrera
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Rank 185. Sofreh Cafe
Persian
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Rank 187. Ursula
New Mexican Bakery
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Eric See
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
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Rank 187. Karenderya
Filipino