NYC Snags Top Slot In 'Best New Restaurants In America' Ranking

NEW YORK CITY — New York City has the absolute best new restaurant in America — and nine other eateries on the 40-member list, according to a new ranking.

Dhamaka, a restaurant serving Indian fare on the Lower East Side, grabbed the number one slot on Esquire's "Best New Restaurants in America, 2021."

"Eat. Sweat. Swoon. Drink. Repeat," the ranking states, before praising the eatery's "fiery, funky gurda kapoora, made with goat kidneys and testicles" and Bengal curry with baby shark.

The glowing review — which apparently pairs well with Dhamaka diners' spice-tickled taste buds — isn't the only effusive praise for a New York City restaurant in the ranking.

Big Apple restaurants had more "representation" on the list than previous years, the ranking notes.

"Why? Because New York is undeniably back in a big way," it states.

Here are the other New York City restaurants' rankings, along with a sampling of what Esquire reviewers had to say:

9. Cadence, 122 East Seventh Street, New York. "The word vegan can be divisive, but Cadence serves immensely flavorful, ingeniously conceived dishes that happen not to contain any animal products. Because does it really matter if chef Shenarri Freeman’s black-eyed-pea-and-garlic pancake—dwelling in between sweet and savory, topped with caviar-like pickled mustard seeds—doesn’t have dairy? Do you need to know that no cows were harmed in the making of the Bolognese, part of a sensational deep-fried lasagna?"

13. Iris, 1740 Broadway, New York. "The hummus might do it—that crunchy, earthy topsoil of fennel pollen and sesame seeds. Or maybe it’ll be the glistening meat of the quail kebab. Whatever it is, at some point at Iris you’ll find yourself surprised."

24. Gage & Tollner, 372 Fulton Street, Brooklyn. "A resurrected restaurant can be a Dr. Frankenstein mess or something Christlike. Chef Sohui Kim’s glimmering second coming of Brooklyn’s historic steakhouse is, praise be, the latter."

25. Rosella, 137 Avenue A, New York. "Earth-friendly sushi is Rosella’s calling card. You won’t find large-carbon-footprint items flown in from a Tokyo fish market here. And while delicious nigiri from local and sustainable ingredients—like scallops from Montauk—is worth snagging a seat for in the jewel-box-sized space, it’s everything else on Rosella’s tight menu that leaves the bigger impression."

27. Contento, 88 East 111th Street, New York. "People are here for Yannick Benjamin’s boundary-smashing wine list and chef Oscar Lorenzzi’s chickpea fritters and ceviches, and because they sense that Contento is a place that treats the idea of hospitality as an article of faith."

31 (shared). Fat Choy, 250 Broome Street, New York. "Thanks to chef Justin Lee, Fat Choy is the vegan Chinese street party of your dreams, with nothing pricier than ten bucks and everything tastier than a lot of tasting menus that cost 50 times more."

31 (shared). Aunts et Uncles, 1407 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn. "Aunts et Uncles, the vegan cafe opened by Mike and Nicole Nicholas in October 2020, is the kind of place you want to spend all day doing whatever at. Mostly eating, though. It’s relatively rare that Caribbean food goes through the vegan ringer at all, let alone as skillfully as it’s done here."

33. Les Trois Chevaux, 283 West 12th Street, New York. "Is it cool? Well, it’s weird and delicious and thrilling. Once, eating like this was au moment, and it will be again. If Mar has anything to do with it, those days are coming sooner rather than later."

35. Mark's Off Madison, 41 Madison Avenue, New York. "No 'small plates.' No tweezered microgreens. No boring sermons about the provenance of your potatoes. Just a big-ass menu full of big-ass flavor."

And two New York City restaurateurs also got recognition in the ranking.

Shenarri Freeman, who started Cadence, was named "rising star of the year."

Amy Racine, who works at Iris, was named beverage director of the year.

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