New York City’s Nominees for the 2024 James Beard Awards

Owner-chef Jeremy Salamon channels his Hungarian and Jewish grandmothers at this engaging all-day café and pastry shop, with its menu of Jewish deli and Hungarian specialties. While the restaurant opened primarily for brunch and lunch, they also have a standout dinner menu, too. Pro tip: Hit the bakery on Fridays for Linzer torte or on Sundays for donuts.

Brooklyn-born chef Calvin Eng named his modestly sized Williamsburg Cantonese-American restaurant after his mom — who, he says, taught him everything he knows about classic Cantonese cooking, with a uniquely New York lens. Pro tip: Save room for the showstopping fish entrée.

Cadence’s executive chef Shenarri “Greens” Freeman has accomplished the seemingly impossible: a next-level Southern and soul food vegan concept. Cadence is the culmination of Freeman’s love affair with plant-based cuisine, and her plates — smoked grits, Southern lasagna, and the usual suspects — are something else.

Cadence is just one of the many plant-based concepts coming out of Ravi DeRossi‘s Overthrow Hospitality Group. They include Etérea, Avant Garden, Ladybird, the soon-to-open Third Kingdom, and others.

Lightning strikes again with Danny Meyer’s latest — a stylish new Italian place on the second floor of Manhattan West, just opposite Hudson Yards. And it’s in no small part due to chef Hillary Sterling, whose Italian fare drew raves at Vic’s. This time around, the accomplished chef is going personal and veering for delicious simplicity, making pastas in-house and cooking meat and fish on a custom-built wood-fired grill.

Everyone’s favorite contemporary Korean barbecue is known for their $68 Butcher’s Feast, but you should really dine here if you appreciate an excellent wine list, too. Crafted by Victoria James and Mia Van de Water, it’s the perfect pairing for Cote’s exceptional dry-aged cuts.

P.S. Here are some tips on how to get in.

Roberta’s founders Carlo Mirarchi and Brandon Hoy are behind this dreamy Alphabet City wine bar where you can expect plenty of natural wines (but of course) along with an Italian-leaning menu that’s inventive and rustic: think pastas like sunchoke caramelle or veal agnolotti with amaretto, and snacks like polenta with Maine sea urchin and grilled tripe with pecorino and mint.

The award for one of the most daring and exciting restaurants to open in New York in the last year would likely go to Foxface Natural. Definitely don’t sleep on the wines, and do note that you can, and should, order a bit of everything from the menu, whether it’s hiramasa “pastrami” and elk tartare to aged quail and black maitake.

HAGS is a fine-dining experience unlike any other. Helmed by executive chef-owner Telly Justice and sommelier-owner Camille Lindsley, it’s a tiny East Village haven that’s both creative and welcoming, and most of all, fun.

For years, chef Atsushi “ATS” Kono worked at acclaimed, Michelin-starred yakitori specialist, Yakitori Torishin as its executive chef and general manager, and now, he finally has a namesake restaurant all his own. In the same Canal Arcade where Nakaji is located, you’ll now find Kono, a kappo-style yakitoriya that showcases a multitude of different cooking techniques with seasonal ingredients and, of course, chicken (he sources three different types of chickens specifically for the 16-course omakase here). 

This celebration of Iberian cuisine from Neilly Robinson and New Jersey chef David Viana of “Top Chef” acclaim puts a delicious spin on Portuguese ingredients, techniques, and traditions. whatever you do, don’t sleep on the paella.

Note: Lita is located in Aberdeen Township, N.J.

Dan Kluger is a quintessential New York chef and Loring Place is his debut solo restaurant. He’s worked under and alongside some of the greatest names in the restaurant world — Danny Meyer, Floyd Cardoz, Tom Colicchio, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten — and he’s tirelessly devoted to his relationships with Union Square Greenmarket farmers, which form the roots of his masterful farm-to-table cuisine.

Michelin-starred The Musket Room, a Soho mainstay since 2013, is still one of the city’s best restaurants for incredible, thoughtful cooking. And now, under executive chef Mary Attea and pastry chef Camari Mick, it’s become an exemplary testament to what a fine dining restaurant can, and should be. Attea’s seven-course tasting menus, one for omnivores and another that’s vegan, take you on a culinary journey, while Mick’s desserts are truly sublime. If the weather’s nice, a table in the serene backyard patio lined with flowers can’t be beat.

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.

The original Zaab Zaab, from owners Bryan Chuntan and Pei Wei, wowed diners and critics alike with its undiluted and offal-y vision of Thailand’s northeastern Isan cuisine, and the trek to Elmhurst (if you live far) is still absolutely worth it, in case you were wondering. There’s a reason why everyone waxes poetic about the larb ped udon with duck, but don’t sleep on the hor mok (sticky rice dumplings filled with catfish or pork belly) and “crying tiger” sliced rib-eye either.