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Break out your compost buckets: Make Food Not Waste Restaurant Week is back in New York, running September 29 through October 5, and this year it’s bigger, splashier and even scrappier. More than 20 of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants are teaming up with Mill, the food recycling company with a cult following, for a week of menus where nothing goes to waste.
The lineup reads like a who’s who of New York dining: Bangkok Supper Club, Corima, Cafe Mado, Dept of Culture, Family Meal at Blue Hill, HAGS, The Musket Room, Smithereens, NARO and plenty more. Each restaurant is rolling out a special dish or cocktail that proves scraps aren’t trash—they’re secret weapons. At Corima, cuttlefish livers get the star treatment in a pipián sauce. At HAGS, mushroom stems and squash seeds are spun into grits and carpaccio. Even cocktails get in on the action: JR & Son is shaking up an oyster-infused martini with olive brine and Italian colatura.
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Mill, which launched in 2020, turns kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich grounds that can be composted, used in organics bins or sent back to farms. For the week, the company is partnering with Reclaimed Organics to collect leftovers from participating restaurants and deliver them to a downtown community garden, where they’ll be turned into compost for city trees and green spaces.
“Restaurants are the soul of a city and chefs inspire how we all think about food,” said Harry Tannenbaum, cofounder and president of Mill. “Make Food Not Waste Restaurant Week brings together incredible talent to show how a shared commitment to a more sustainable food system can spark creativity and raise awareness about how we can all treat food as the valuable resource it is.”
The first edition launched last year, but 2025’s event nearly doubles the roster with Michelin-starred dining rooms, James Beard darlings and neighborhood gems all embracing the challenge. For diners, it’s a rare chance to book a table at some of the city’s hardest-to-snag spots and try dishes you won’t see again once the week is over.
Want in? Reservations can be made directly through participating restaurants and posting your no-waste feast to Instagram with #MakeFoodNotWasteNYC could even score you your own Mill for home. Call it a win-win: a good meal now and maybe greener leftovers tomorrow.