NEW YORK CITY— Four New York City restaurants are included in The Restaurant List 2026, an elite compilation of the 50 best restaurants in America by The New York Times.
A 16-person scouting team traveled across the country for the list, eating everywhere from small-town Wisconsin to downtown Manhattan. The critics made reservations, waited in lines and arrived unannounced, paying for their meals and accepting no freebies.
Included from NYC are:
Bistrot Ha, located at 137 Eldridge St, blends classic French technique with Vietnamese flavors.
Though still in their 20s, chefs Sadie Mae Burns and Anthony Ha have already made a significant mark on New York's dining scene, first with Ha's Snack Bar and now with its larger follow-up, Bistrot Ha, which opened in February.
"The contours are French but the soul is fish sauce, honoring Mr. Ha's Vietnamese heritage," Ligaya Mishan wrote.
Meju, located at 5-28 49th Ave, offers an intimate Korean tasting menu with a chef-led, educational dining experience.
The restaurant puts fermentation at the center of the experience.
"Each bite makes a powerful case for food as both pleasure and cure," Mishan of the NYT wrote.
Yamada, located at 16 Elizabeth St, is known for refined Japanese kaiseki featuring seasonal ingredients, precise cooking and an intimate chef's-counter experience.
"The subtlety of the flavors is not austerity, but clarity, allowing us to taste them as if for the first time," she wrote.
Zoli, located at 312 Maujer St, combines seafood-forward cooking with dramatic aquarium-filled interiors.
Chef Ned Baldwin, raised by a fisherman, brings a deep-rooted connection to the ocean to his cooking. His restaurant celebrates New York's identity as a great waterfront city, with seafood at the heart of the experience.
"Chewy surf clam in aguachile and red shrimp tartare seamed with kimchi dust appear alongside impeccably charred squid and naked mussels as plush as you would wish," Mishan wrote.
The restaurants aren't ranked, and none appeared on a previous edition of the annual list. The selections include places that opened only weeks ago as well as restaurants that have been serving customers for decades.
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