Welcome to Five Top Tables, a column from Bloomberg Pursuits to guide your dining decisions in major cities around the world, including London, Dubai, Paris, Brussels, Manila and Edinburgh.
New York is both easy and hard when you want to go out to eat. There are an estimated 18,000 restaurants across the five boroughs, so no matter what you’re craving, someone is doing a good job of making it. Whether it’s quality Indian food – the Big Apple’s is better than London’s, experts say – or a flaky Jamaican patty or a not-too-pricey steak, New York’s got it. Yet finding the best places is not easy in a city so vast. There are plenty of great restaurants, but alongside them disappointments. With costs climbing, it doesn’t pay to make dining mistakes.
– – –
New: Danny’s, Flatiron
ADVERTISEMENT
Joining NYC’s ever-expanding cache of clubby dining rooms comes Danny’s, named for its owner, media executive Dan Abrams. On any given night, you’ll see him working the white-cloth-covered tables and spacious booths.
The menu boasts a series of highlight-reel dishes, created by chef Ed Tinoco, a veteran of the vaunted Alinea Group. His chopped kale salad ($24) might make you flash back to your favorite ’90s tortilla bowl, studded with broken blue corn chips and chunks of avocado in a lime vinaigrette. It’s piled high so it looks like a Christmas tree.
On the main course side, supple taleggio-filled agnolotti, submerged in creamy tomato sauce ($34) is another comfort food staple. So is the craggy fried chicken with a couple of tender maple-flavored biscuits alongside ($34). It’s rich food, but no matter what, save room for the salty deep-dish chocolate chip cookie, served in a little skillet ($24). The cocktail list rounds up current favorites, starting with dirty martinis with blue cheese olives. All the wines are American, including interesting picks from less obvious regions like Colorado and Ohio. 46 W. 22nd St.; dannysnyc.com/
– – –
Business Meal: Le Veau d’Or, Upper East Side
There are only 50 seats at this transportive French dining room, and they’re tough to book at dinner – the place is jammed with UES brigades wearing bow ties and premium cashmere. But at lunch, the dark-wood-paneled dining room is a little easier to get into. You’ll see tables of people from Midtown offices talking shop as they tuck into the $85 set menu.
Starters include lush pâté en croute or a platter of oysters or little necks served with a little plate of well-seasoned chipolatas sausages As a main, the mustard-laced steak tartare is superlative; so is the crisp-skinned confit de canard. The beauty of lunch in this escapist room is that you can make it a quick and efficient meal, or linger a little longer over the $18 île floutante, a cloud of meringue in a sea of yellow custard. Along with classic cocktails, there’s a European wine list if you decide to make a day of it. 129 E. 60th; lvdnyc.com/
– – –
Value: Bánh Anh Em, East Village
Since it opened last April, this long, narrow Vietnamese dining room, an outpost of Banh on the Upper West Side, has been a sensation, and not just for the local NYU crowd. It doesn’t take reservations, and at night there’s always a line, but one that’s well worth your time.
Among the handful of bánh mi choices, all served on golden, freshly baked rolls, the OG is stocked with the coarse house pâté, ham slices, hot sauce and shredded pork floss. Another winner: the bánh mi heo quay, a pile of crispy fried pork belly with herbs and sautéed greens. (Both are $14.95.) The rotating phos all boast housemade rice noodles in meaty broth. One day there might be everything chicken with a few eggs thrown into the bowl, in a deeply flavored broth ($19.95). The hearty bún suon chả giò is a rice noodle salad with marinated grilled pork, pickled vegetables and a crispy spring roll for a textural bonanza ($19.95). 99 Third Ave.; banhanhem.com/
– – –
No Reservations: Grand Central Oyster Bar, Midtown
The closest you’ll get to a time machine in New York – for the vibe, if not the prices – is to descend a couple ramps in Grand Central Station until you see the vaunted arches of Grand Central Oyster Bar. The giant space is a sea of red- and white-cloth-covered tables serving up to 440 commuters, tourists and business lunchers.
The menu is almost as enormous as the space. There are around 100 options, including a rotating oyster selection, with prices starting at $3.25 a piece for Copps Island Bluepoints from Connecticut. Choices extend to fried calamari with marinara sauce ($19.95) and linguine with garlicky littleneck clam sauce ($36.95), plus daily changing seafood specials like blackened local swordfish with avocado salsa ($45.95). 89 E. 42nd St.; oysterbarny.com/
– – –
DINE: Raoul’s, Soho
Happy 50th anniversary to Raoul’s, the intimate dining room that started bringing the cool kids to Soho decades before Balthazar arrived in the neighborhood. Maitre d’ Eddie Hudson, who’s been here since 1978, still works the door, and peppercorn-crusted steak au poivre with hand-cut pommes frites ($64) is still the bestseller. There’s also buttery trout Amandine with haricot verts ($46) and, to start, frisée salad with lardons, a poached egg and the surprise addition of sweet pistachios ($26).
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorne Michaels and Kate Moss have all been regulars; it likewise registers high on Bloomberg’s DINE listings. “It had been a minute since I last ate at this pillar of the New York food scene,” Patrick Niro wrote in a recent DINE review. He continued: “From the Martini(s) plural, to the steak tartare, seared foie gras, crab beignets, steak au poivre, creme brulee all chased down by a delicious (albeit a little young, 2022) Monthelie Red Burgundy….. GREAT NIGHT, GREAT RESTAURANT. Already looking at the calendar to plan my next visit.” Another DINE reviewer is more succinct: “Greatest steak au poivre on this side of the Atlantic.” 180 Prince St.; raouls.com/