The 8 best new restaurants in NYC

Famed Manhattan maître d’-turned-author Michael Cecchi-Azzolina’s first eponymous spot revives a vintage-modern aesthetic in the West Village, and it’s as hospitable as a dinner party where you don’t have to bring anything. It’s the attractive, comfortable new NYC place to be, with terrific cocktails, raw bar items, steak and fries.   

This “unusual Italian restaurant” has oodles of perspective, hospitality and house-made pasta preparations. Snap the cute Castelvetrano jell-olives for your obligatory social media post, then enjoy the baked potato gnocchi and pork rib Parm. 

Breezily chic Justine’s feels effortlessly polished across its plush banquettes and icy-cool color scheme. It pours some very special wines by the glass, and its American Wagyu hanger steak is one of this year’s best cuts of beef so far. 

Chef Nasrin Rejali brings family recipes to this Persian restaurant in a bustling, second-story space on Billionaires’ Row. Dip into the mirza ghasemi’s smoky eggplant and tomato blend, and share large portions of zereshk polo ba morgh, whose emerald pistachios and ruby-red berries shine beside tomato-saffron chicken like the gems sold nearby. Ask in advance about the present alcohol availability. 

Downstairs, The Golden Swan’s Wallace Room is the pretty, emerald-hued, more casual answer to the more formal, lightly gilded Dining Room upstairs. A brief menu including cavatelli and charcuterie are available below, steak tartare meets in the middle, and the French and Mediterranean-influenced plates expand with halibut and a duck above.

The Musket Room’s follow-up nearby on Elizabeth Street does right by its location’s long previous history as a bakery. Raf’s bread is best in class, wonderful alone or with its accompanying luxe butter and close to required for starters like the great steak tartare. The Italian and French-influenced restaurant’s terrific half chicken’s a cluck above, too. 

Billed as a Spanish wine bar, Bar Vinazo is presently serving NYC’s much discussed drink of summer for 2023, and it’s actually a G&T. Pair the gardner cocktail, made with limited-edition, small batch ramp gin and that other titular ingredient with lomo ibérico and croquetas de jamón y queso. 

The “natural continuation” highly regarded Foxface, a tiny sandwich window that previously operated nearby, Foxface Natural is a full-service restaurant, replete with wine and beer to pair with your kangaroo tartare, hiramasa “pastrami,” pork tongue and whole fluke.