New on Resy: The Tyger, Dirt Candy, St. Anselm, Ops, and More

At the Tyger, the Chinese Tuxedo team puts the food they love to eat on display, making pit stops in Pakistan for curries, Singapore for street food, Cambodia for fried chicken, and Malaysia for fried rice. Think of it as a chef’s curated best of East Asian cuisine, with a twist or two — all in in one rambunctious neighborhood joint, thoughtful cocktails and skin-contact wines included.

Leave it to Amanda Cohen to still be blowing to smithereens every preconceived notion about vegetarian dining. The chef-owner of Dirt Candy is a James Beard nominee, a pioneer of the vegetable-forward culinary movement, and a leader intent on building a better industry: Thanks to a no-tipping system, the entire team shares equally in the restaurant’s profits. Her layered plates elate, but they’re also a lot of fun — start with the Korean fried broccoli; there’s a reason it rarely leaves the menu.

First-time visitors usually come to St. Anselm for the signature beef (the unbeatable $28 hanger steak), and rightly so, before being flabbergasted by what else the kitchen has to offer — notably an arsenal of vegetables, meat, and seafood cooked expertly on an open fire, which you should absolutely pair with a side of pan-fried mashed potatoes, and a magnum from the deep wine list, if you have a full crew with you.

All hail the marinara pie at Ops! This cushy brick-walled Bushwick locale fires a sourdough leavened dough from a tiled oven, and the result is pretty close to pizza perfection. Think a chewy and puffy crust topped with uncomplicated yet flavor-packed toppings, and best paired with a bottle of whichever natural wine the staff managed to woo you with.

The second restaurant from Little Tong Noodle Shop chef-owner Simone Tong, Silver Apricot is a breathtaking exploration of what the next chapter of Chinese American cuisine could be. Here, mainstays of familiar hybrid cuisine get the fine dining treatment (via the team’s collective résumé at WD-50, Per Se, and Eleven Madison Park), resulting in dishes like wontons filled with greenmarket-fresh produce, and scallion puffs.

When something as simple as anchovies and butter is a revelation, you know it’s special. And such is the case at La Vara, where wife-and-husband team and tapas extraordinaires Alex Raij and Eder Montero explore Spain’s Moorish and Jewish heritage to craft some of Cobble Hill’s most riveting small plates. Bonus: The Spanish-minded wine list is a treasure trove worth investigating.

You can trust Suzanne Cupps with vegetables. The chef at the helm of this West Village corner haunt hails from Untitled and Gramercy Tavern, and has developed a knack for extolling the flavors of the humblest produce, thanks to a trusted roster of local purveyors and the open kitchen’s roaring wood-burning hearth. Nevertheless, if the rare roast chicken makes an appearance, run, don’t walk.

Ephemeral in its way, and built around modern British cooking, Dame moonlights as the city’s best fish-and-chips shop, from a team who’s honed their chops at the Beatrice Inn, the Spotted Pig, and Cherry Point. Pro tip: Go on Sundays for their exciting chef pop-ups, whose proceeds go to a charity of the guest chef’s choosing.

Note: Dame will be open until the end of October in the hopes of returning as a permanent restaurant in the spring of 2021.

Nestled in the original Winnie’s locale, Dr. Clark is your one-way ticket to the engrossing karaoke culture of Japan, and of Hokkaido especially, where a riot of not-your-typical izakaya plates (like lamb barbecue) pepper the menu. Warning: Your night will end with overworked vocal cords and a boozy midnight parfait.

In a luminous townhouse setting, chef-owner Nasim Alikhani lovingly restyles the Persian dishes of her childhood, doling out some of the most compelling (and fluffy) rice dishes in town. You’ll also want to order any and all desserts laced with rosewater. Also anything that features the kitchen’s housemade yogurt.

Daniel Boulud has completely revamped his flagship, in partnership with a host of luxury brands, to take diners on a trip to the south of France. Please welcome Boulud Sur Mer: Same high-touch service, world-class cellar, and a new prix fixe of Mediterranean-tinged classics (bouillabaisse, salt-baked fish).

Note: Restaurant Daniel will reopen for indoor dining as the new Boulud Sur Mer concept on Sept. 30, and run until the end of November; diners may reserve that, or a revamped DBK Terrace outdoor experience.

The Ops people are behind Leo, so it’s no surprise that the naturally fermented pies are on point and the natural wines top notch. Throw in oil-slicked pizza by the (square) slice, morning pastries, seasonal focaccias, soft serve, and a larger space, and Leo starts to shine just as bright as its older sibling.

Who knew that the Wayla’s team sequel restaurant would be the Italian-Japanese mashup Nolita needed? Informed by a genuinely warm service, the menu is as playful as they come, with dishes like uni-topped fried pizzette, rice cake lasagna, and mochi bombolini making perfect bicultural sense. And the cocktails, rich in Japanese ingredients, deserve a special mention of their own.

As the city’s regional Italian dining scene is booming, it’s hard to keep track of its first loves. So consider L’Artusi, the West Village’s de facto trattoria, which still impresses over a decade later. You’re here for the sumptuous pastas and the Italian wines, and pro tip: The bar’s still the best place to be, whether you’re in a pair or dining solo.

Meaning “the spice merchant,” MasalaWala is an underrated gem for regional Indian food from owner Roni Mazumdar (Adda, Rahi) and his father. Dive into the street food, biryanis, and curries of their home of Kolkata, and pair it all with an ice-cold mango lassi for good measure.

An essential New York bar with a Japanese soul, Bar Goto is the perfect stylish-yet-subtle drinking den from bar maven Kenta Goto, where shochu and sake are shaken and stirred into brilliant cocktails. Miso wings and kombu celery are required snacking.

At the second, roomier location of his essential New York bar, Kenta Goto hones in on distinctly Japanese flavors (sparkling sake, yuzu bitters, roasted green tea, dashi) for his brilliant cocktails. If you’re a Bar Goto aficionado you’ll spring for the miso wings, but don’t sleep on the newer korokke, or Japanese croquettes.

Throw together Christian Liaigre’s industrial-chic design and a globe-trotting menu by way of Jean-Georges and you get the Mercer Kitchen, a seductive underground space beneath the Mercer Hotel that’s wined and dined visiting celebrities and well-heeled locals for over two decades.

From the team behind Her Name is Han comes this celebration of Japanese drinking foods, with special emphasis on poultry. Everything from the tail to the neck is skewered for grilled-to-order yakitori, while the bones lend depth to milky bowls of ramen.