Ten Restaurants That Define Great American Cooking Right Now

Although New York has never wanted for Indian restaurants, it often has been a struggle — in Manhattan especially — to get ones with ambitious cooking and ambitious décor. Even the legendary Tabla was ahead of its time. Which is why it’s a pleasure to see this collab between actress and author Priyanka Chopra Jonas, entrepreneur Maneesh Goyal, and restaurateur David Rabin (Lambs Club, the Skylark etc).

A lot of influences are folded in here by chef Hari Nayak: Chopra Jonas’ longtime quest for great Indian cooking in New York; Goyal’s family history with restaurants in Houston (the India House butter chicken on the menu acknowledges that history) and even homage to Tabla’s Floyd Cardoz, with his Goan fish curry featured on the menu. Just as significant, though, is the gilded décor from Melissa Bowers, a tribute to Art Deco-era Mumbai, with perhaps a dash of Miami Beach in the mix. It helps Sona feel luxurious in all the right ways.

Chef Diana Davila is at the forefront of the new guard of Mexican American cuisine, and that perhaps shows itself best through the sheer diversity of her menu at Mi Tocaya, a standout in a city that has been pushing Mexican cooking forward for a while now. On the one hand, you might encounter a dish like her tamal of napa cabbage mixed with masa, accented with a mushroom escabeche and squash-blossom salsa; or her beef tongue in peanut-butter salsa. On the other, there’s something like the steak burrito, a nod to the best of Mexican American taquerias — and a dish we recently deemed one of Chicago’s new classics.

Nina Compton has found wonderful ways to dovetail her Saint Lucian heritage with the foodways of New Orleans, already steeped as it is in Creole traditions. But neither of those references quite define the brilliance that has earned Compton accolades from the James Beard Foundation and many others.

Take, for instance, her scialatielli with shrimp and “rundown sauce,” which builds on a shrimp-shell base with coconut milk, lemongrass, and more — acknowledging not only tropical flavors but the city’s long Italian heritage in the form of that Amalfiesque pasta. Much the same with her Caribbean chop salad, or dirty rice arancini. We’d never discourage you from comprehensively eating your way through New Orleans, but dining here does manage to distill so many of its inspirations into one remarkable meal.

Junghyun and Ellia Park have risen to the top of New York’s realm of neo-Korean cuisine in part because of their tasting-menu Atomix. But their original restaurant, Atoboy, remains unique in how it redefined modern Korean American dining — namely because of the Parks’ ingenious reconception of banchan.

This doesn’t refer to the raft of small accompaniments, as Americans tend to think of them, but banchan’s original form — standalone dishes that together can compose a meal, like the current selection of galbi beef with broccoli di ciccio and Korean pear. A new $75 prix fixe also includes a bevy of smaller banchan on the side, including their now-famous lotus root. And of course the optional fried chicken add-on is a modern classic — and arguably non-optional.

Speaking of New Orleans, one many threads in its culinary fabric has been Alon Shaya’s renowned take on Israeli cooking — currently at Saba, but also having moved west, to Denver’s RiNo neighborhood, where Shaya opened Safta in 2018. His thoughtful tweaks to classic dishes are equally on display here: pink peppercorns to accent the labneh; sunflower seeds dotting the Persian rice; laurel to add aromatic punch to harissa chicken. While Saba leans more into Gulf seafood, Safta counterpoints turf to the New Orleans surf, with more beef and lamb on display. This is the Front Range, after all.

Pinky Cole made veganism downright sultry with her original Slutty Vegan, one of Atlanta’s biggest runaway hits in years.  She’s now extended that into Midtown, specifically to Ponce City Market, with Bar Vegan — which combines exuberant cocktails with a specifically Philly take on veganism from Derrick Hayes of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks.

Which, if you were doubtful that you could swoon over a proper cheesesteak, but vegan, doubt no more. That’s probably why slots for dinner are in such notably short supply.

Nancy Silverton has defined so much of how Los Angeles eats today — from her days at Spago and Campanile to the arrival, with Pizzeria Mozza, of epic pizza to SoCal. Amid all that, it can be easy to forget that she also brought the great Tuscan beef tradition to town as well, with Chi Spacca.

Bouncing back out of the pandemic, this homage to Italianate steakhouses is in full effect, whether you want to stay light (light?) with her pepper steak accented with green garlic, or go full in with a 50-ounce Florentine steak dry-aged by the West Coast meat maestros at Flannery Beef.

Pro tip: The burger, with fries and mint aioli on the side, remains one of the best in a town with a lot of contenders.

All love to L.A. but candidly, Miami feels like the city that was born to host José Andrés’ Bazaar — and Andrés has extended his Spanish purview in all the right ways here, folding in not only Latin American touches — conch fritters, Cuban-style chicken rubbed in black garlic — but also Singaporean ones (bao stuffed with lechon) as a way to link the two cities’ Art Deco vibes. There’s even a wink or two to Miami’s other influences. (The “bagels and lox” with salmon roe, ahem.) It all adds up to one of Andrés’ most playful projects, and one that leans into South Beach perfectly.

Andrew Carmellini added a big boost to Detroit’s Italian options when he opened San Morello in the Shinola Hotel in late 2018. But this was more than a big-deal New York chef (Locanda Verde) dropping into town — Carmellini is from the Midwest, namely Cleveland, and he and his partners brought a raft of quintessential options to Motor City, including fried chicken (Penny Red’s) and a great beer hall (the Brakeman).

The pastas faithfully echo Locanda Verde, in particular Carmellini’s memorable mezze rigatoni with ragu, and his grandmother’s ravioli. But what’s unique here is the pizza, helping to complete that Midwest loop. Don’t miss the OG, which doubles the fire thanks to ‘nduja, pepperoni, and chiles.

It doesn’t matter if you are Enrique Olvera; L.A. is a tough town to impress with Mexican cooking. But Olvera aimed high, and hit the mark, aided by an unintentionally gradual rollout because of the pandemic, which allowed he and his team to start with the back-door taqueria Ditroit. (Want to win over Angelenos? You’d best start with tacos.)

Anyway, Damian is now in full effect, with head chef Chuy Cervantes turning out the sort of thoughtful and remarkable cooking that set apart New York’s Cosme and of course Pujol in Mexico City: a Dungeness-crab gordita with Meyer lemon, for example; or the costillas enmolada, pork belly in a black mole served with tortillas, kimchi, and sriracha. And don’t miss beverage director Jun Kwon’s no-waste cocktail program.