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.
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.
Included from New York City are:
Bistrot Ha is located at 137 Eldridge St. on the Lower East Side and is known for French and Vietnamese fusion.
The Times singled out the "effusive and electric" menu, which includes escargot with lemongrass, beef and broccoli, and a ca phe Pavlova.
"And the tight, jostling room feels essential and alive," New York Times critic Ligaya Mishan wrote.
Meju is located at 5-28 49th Ave. in Long Island City, inside the Little Banchan Shop.
Meju is a tasting menu restaurant known for traditional Korean dishes with an emphasis on the fermentation process in Korean foodways.
Chef Hooni Kim "explores the wonders of fermentation, speaking directly and disarmingly to diners and cooking with the fervor of a preacher," Mishan wrote. "Each bite makes a powerful case for food as both pleasure and cure."
Yamada is a Japanese Kaiseki tasting menu restaurant located at 16 Elizabeth St. in Soho.
Chef Isao Yamada received accolades from the New York Times for his minimalist, thoughtful approach to the menu.
"The subtlety of the flavors is not austerity, but clarity, allowing us to taste them as if for the first time," Mishan wrote.
Zoli, located at 312 Maujer St. in East Williamsburg, 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.
For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.
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