The servers at THOR, where chef Jesi Solomon (formerly the sous chef at Stanton Social) has now taken the reins, aren't afraid to gush about the menu items they love. To hear them tell it, the Maple Brined Pork Tenderloin is “a party in your mouth,” and the veal burger lathered in foie mustard is “silky and irresistible.” Certainly they're biased, but for the most part Solomon's “modern American” menu—with seasonal highlights and gastronomic weapons... [continue]

In a city with an abundance of Italian and Latin flavors, it's surprising that these cuisines don't intermingle more often. At Miranda, on North 9th & Berry in Williamsburg (across from Hotel Delmano and Silent H), the husband-wife team of Sasha Rodriguez and Mauricio Miranda fuse mixed heritages and culinary experiences into grains, appetizers, and entrees with sauces both ragu and mole. The dining room is cozy, with a moderate sound level and low light... [continue]

Restaurants that we'd recommend off the L train's Montrose stop are few and rarely worth visiting twice. Mojito Loco is an exception, with recipes coming from the Peruvian chef-owner's fearsomely delicious arsenal. The dining room itself is a vortex of well-kept neighborhood restaurant and '80s music-video showcase house (think: Rod Stewart on repeat). And at Mojito Loco every hour is happy hour, which means extra-strong $5 margaritas in six flavors, mixed drinks for $7, and... [continue]

Rhong-Tiam fills a deep and dimly lit space in the row of businesses occupying the block of LaGuardia Place between 3rd and Bleecker Streets. By anyone's guess, the decor is a composition of remnants from the previous owner, with black and white striped built-in boat seating lining the north wall, and another dozen or so tables on an elevated platform, bordered by a white fence strung with fake ivy. A magenta scooter sits in... [continue]

Northeast Kingdom sits on the southwest corner of Wyckoff and Troutman streets in Bushwick, a block from the L train's Jefferson stop and myriad one-story warehouses and industrial spaces. Native Vermonters Paris Smeraldo and his wife, Meg Lipke, have invoked a funky ambiance with taxidermy and vintage wallpaper alongside a bar backed with orange and yellow stained glass. Throw in the flickering candlelight and you've got a place to linger for hours after dark.... [continue]

Biryani is classified as any number of spiced South Asian rice dishes, heavily spiced, and layered with meat—often chicken, lamb, or beef. The biryani at Sangam, a new hole in the wall spot on Bleecker Street just east of 6th Avenue, receives what owner Ishrat Ansari calls “an authentic royal haute cuisine preparation.” The description is definitely merited when it comes to his wife Rafat’s homegrown recipe, which is served all vegetable, with chicken,... [continue]

As the weather warms up, restaurants who keep their windows open wide maintain a serious advantage over their stuffier competitors. On a recent heated evening, this is how we stumbled upon the LES's Kampuchea, a crowded spot that riffs on Cambodian street food. While hardly authentic, Chef Ratha Chau's menu is heavy in chili, lime, coconut, and lemongrass: sweet meets sour meets spicy all over your palate. Soups and noodles comprise most of the... [continue]

Beast, on the corner of Vanderbilt and Bergen Streets in Prospect Heights, serves a wide range of tapas and brunch plates with a Spanish flare. As befits the restaurant's bristling name, the first of two dining rooms is dark – almost medieval – and dotted with appropriately colorful creatures: monsters, gargoyles, and demons. The kitchen is open and separates the front from the back room; curious diners can usually observe a small army of... [continue]

Freshly fried plantain chips and homemade chimichurri sauce start the meal off right Shachis, the Venezuelan spot in South Williamsburg run by Pedro Boyer and his partner Alan Rodriguez. You can snack on the chips while perusing the menu, which specializes in arepas – Venezualan corn cakes – but also offers delightful Latin American entrees incorporating flavors of saffron and piquillo peppers, yuca, and sweet plantains. A handful of simple salads are a gateway... [continue]

The term "diner" usually evokes thoughts of breakfast at midnight and dense menus of Dickensian length. But at the Jackson Diner in the heart of Jackson Heights in Queens, crowds assemble for some of the city's best North Indian food. In the heart of the borough's "little India," a large and casual banquet room with deep purple paper placemats is the go-to spot for a reasonably-priced unlimited lunch buffet and Indian food hankerings of... [continue]

Traffic on the main commercial strip of Red Hook – Van Brunt Street – will most definitely change when the blue walls of IKEA open their doors in August. One wonders where all these hungry consumers will flock to eat, but an obvious choice, if they can get a table, is The Good Fork. The Andrew Bird-endorsed restaurant is run by Korean chef-owner Sohui Kim and her husband Ben Schneider, who designed and built... [continue]

As its name implies, Pam Real Thai Food is in the business of authenticity. So be forewarned that entrees marked with the restaurant's four pepper rating are seriously spicy, and even two-pepper dishes like Pla Lui Suan—a whole deep fried red snapper colorfully adorned with mango, cilantro, and lime—prove that chef and co-owner Pam Panyasiri isn’t playing when it comes to spice. The reasonably-priced menu offers extensive options for combining sweet, salty, and spicy,... [continue]

The menu at Frankies 457 Spuntino reads like a gourmet marketplace, and placing an order amounts to trusting the chef to choose an antipasto plate full of cheeses and meats of superior quality. Lists of vegetables like broccoli raab and cremini mushrooms--usually compliments to a pasta or a meat dish--can stand alone on a plate, with sauces soaked up by the perfectly crusty bread from Grandaisy Bakery. On a recent rainy Wednesday night, the... [continue]

Maggie Brown, the Myrtle Avenue comfort-food spot on the border between Clinton Hill and Ft. Greene, has become a popular attraction for nearby Pratt students and locals who pack the summer garden to sip spiked frozen lemonade. While better known for their fried chicken and ribs, we braved Maggie Brown on a busy Sunday morning, hanging in there for a 45 minute wait which climaxed with our party of five crammed into a table... [continue]

A cross between a cafe, bakery, market, and gourmet takeout shop, Clinton Hill's Choice Market is one of those places which, once discovered, you're not quite sure how you lived without. Baskets of flaky croissants, raisin danish, and turnovers grace the window, and upon stepping inside – where a single communal table littered with the day's newspapers can can cause labyrinthine lines – you will also find luscious-looking scones (the orange chocolate is a... [continue]

A few blocks south of the Lorimer L stop in Williamsburg there was once a beloved cafe, Hope and Union, which served divine pastries and stellar brunch in a cozy room with exposed brick walls and a tiny kitchen. A handful of name and management changes later, the space is occupied by Elote, a inexpensively priced breakfast-lunch-dinner-and-tequila drinking spot that retains all of the previous architectural elements but offers a Mexican menu. A full... [continue]

On the stretch of Dekalb Avenue in Fort Greene just east of Fort Greene Park is a stretch of reasonably priced, neighborhood restaurants including the local Middle-Eastern favorite, Black Iris. Cash only and BYOB, the friendly servers at Black Iris seat you promptly in a dim brick-walled room hung with tapestries at one of a dozen tables in a room made drafty by people constantly walking in and out. The menu includes standard Middle... [continue]

On Moore Street in Bushwick, you'll be hard pressed to find a better place to eat than Roberta's, the newly opened and very discreet wood-fired pizza haven. A fire engine red wood-fueled oven with the restaurant's namesake painted in white churns out thin and perfectly crispy pizzas (and the occasional calzone) for a spacious wood-paneled room with a cafeteria-table set up that still sports remnants of industrial garage doors. Cash only, and BYOB, Roberta's... [continue]

In the territory immediately surrounding NYU, and therefore Washington Square Park, fine dining isn't always the first thing to come to mind. Instead, there's Mamoun's for late-night falafel, the Dosa Man, or the Dessert Truck – great for meals on the cheap and meals on the go. But on nights when you feel like you deserve a glass of wine with dinner, have a downtown date, or just crave a real sit-down meal, the... [continue]

In the restaurant world, terminology like "organic," "local," and "seasonal" have become so commonplace they can be easy to ignore. But, when Market Table – which offers all three of these – opened on Carmine Street (at Bedford) in the West Village last September, they highlighted a new buzzword: market. With an emphasis on bringing food from the market directly to the table, the restaurant simultaneously offers a capacious (and beautiful) dining room headed... [continue]