Not food/wine but MoMA PS1 is free and it’s a cool way to kill an hour
Also love hanging out at Focal Point Brewing when the weather’s nice although it might be a little cold for that
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Would have done MoMA, but Closed today 
Thx on Focal. Will flip a coin when we land.
foul witch dunzo.
Its sad. I am having dinner tonight with Carlo in Miami.
Your intrepid reporter is on the scene! Hit Kelang on night 2 and it is excellent. Of course they gave us VIP treatment and made sure everything was great and sent out a few extras. The space is both unique illustrating their concept of Malaysian eatery through the eyes of a family raised in Brooklyn and it fits in with the Greenpoint neighborhood. I can’t wait to go back. They are waiting on their liquor license so corkage is free but they do not have glasses.
On Saturday we went to Sunnyside to try Kora Bakery. A former EMP Pastry Chef doing Filipino influenced pastries. WOWSER the pastries were absolutely stunning. And happy to report Sunnyside is going to explode! It will be the next Ridgewood.
Since we were already in Queens we headed over to Pierogi Brothers. Everything was excellent. Their store next door to the restaurant is chock-full of cool things. I made an impulse purchase of a voilet white chocolate swedish licorice balls that was insanely great!
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Hungry Thirsty might just be great.
I have vested interest in the opinions since moving close by, but have been pleasantly surprised.
The wine list is good for the food and they have a large beer list, which I think does great with Thai.
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Finally hit Borgo. Excellent spot for a cold evening. The real fireplace is very nice. The pasta was excellent and everything else was very good. Tried Lee Campbell’s Virgina wine and thought it was surprisingly good. I think it was listed under Common Wealth Crush - The illuminaqua. The grapes were Albariño/Petit Manseng.
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NY Times has its best new NYC restaurants for 2025 list:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/dining/best-new-nyc-restaurants.html
Super happy to see Sunn’s on it!
I think almost all have been mentioned in this thread early on!
I will admit to missing Yamada.
Has anyone been to Yamada? Someone I know went after the NY Times 4-star review and wasn’t very impressed.
I’m looking forward to Kabawa and Bridges in a couple of weeks. Scored some reservations! (Also hoping to walk into Sunn’s on a Sunday).
Do folks know whether trying to do Golden Diner for an early lunch on a Monday or Tuesday requires a long wait?
not NYtimes related…
any recent experiences with la vara or saint julivert? wife and i used to go to la vara often but that was like over a decade ago. still good?
La vara is still good. Not sure on Saint Julivert.
So happy to hear this about La Vara. What a run for Alex and Eder between their places over the years. Good people.
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La Vara still does corkage for $30 or $35 as well
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La Vara: still really good.
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I’ve been to St Julivert early when it wasn’t too crowded about 6-8 months ago and liked the food and atmosphere a lot. Went more recently during prime time when it was packed and very loud and liked the food and atmosphere much less. Not sure about the correlation, but I would only go back on the earlier side, unless I’m alone and don’t need to talk to anyone. But maybe that’s just me.
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I went to Saint Julivert a year ago and it was very good. I also went on the early side.
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Just had a most excellent meal at La vara…a restaurant my wife and I went to semi regularly in 2013-2014 and haven’t been back since.
We have had rare nights out over the past few years and tend to visit the new spots. Lately, we’ve had more opportunities and opted for dinner here and we were both hugely happy we did. Service was perfect…crowd was great…some older folks at first (ending their meal when we arrived at 7pm) and an eclectic group after. We were surprised how lively it was after 9pm as most Manhattan restaurants are dying off by then.
Food was awesome. We had croquettas (fine), fried delicata squash, a particularly delicious preparation of pan con tomate with amberjack crudo, a special of shrimp and chicken and the best version of fideua since being in costa brava.
$35 corkage and very friendly about it. Great night and score one for the classic restaurants in the city.c
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FInally made it to Wayward Fare last night with friends. It’s really good! Thanks for the recommendation.
The room is pretty and has a warm, wintry glow; seating is fairly tight and the energy was high and the volume rather loud, making it feel more like a downtown hotspot. The food was terrific and we enjoyed everything we had, including the house-made focaccia with three spreads (whipped ricotta, roast eggplant, chicken liver mousse), the fantastic chicory salad, grape leaf-wrapped prawns, lamb merguez ravioli, skate cheeks with saffron risotto, and the roast chicken. We had cocktails (great) and I had a glass of Calabretta’s Cala Cala (a favorite producer of mine, a plus). Would happily return.
Thanks for the write up! Chef Alex Raij used to cook for us at the Tasting Room. She is extremely talented. I am going to make it a point to get to La Vara. Thanks!
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