when you want, where you want.
Where to Eat in May
Illustration: Naomi Otsu
Welcome to Grub Street’s rundown of restaurant recommendations that aims to answer the endlessly recurring question: Where should we go? These are the spots that our food team thinks everyone should visit, for any reason (a new chef, the arrival of an exciting dish, or maybe there’s an opening that’s flown too far under the radar). This month: A Village icon returns, and so does a destination for many kinds of pork. Cheap dinner is also an option (finally) as is an all-tofu tasting.
Dubuhaus (Midtown)
“When was the last time we had a nice tofu spot?” my friend wondered. “Was it Kajtisu?” There are restaurants making terrific tofu around town — try the fried, very plump kind at Mắm — but it’s true that there is no New York tofu temple. Or at least there wasn’t: Dubuhaus is a new high-end tofu restaurant on East 32nd Street. Stepping inside feels like a luxury spa, but it is soy from start to finish, beginning with a bowl of delicate fresh tofu, half-drowned in soy broth. There’s tofu stuffed into mandu, curls of tofu skin garnishing tender short rib in a heavily reduced soy-based sauce, and firmer rectangles of tofu braised in gochujang with kimchee and pork belly. And the silken seaweed maesaengi is paired with gently cooked oysters in the soondubu, as perfect a combination as I could imagine. —Chris Crowley
El Camino (East Village)
Summer interns, take note: El Camino may be the cheapest yet classiest place for your new-to-the-city Hinge dates. The sunny bar is a reprieve from the overflowing debauchery around the corner on St. Marks; the negronis (both classic and sbagliato) are well-balanced and priced at a now-reasonable-seeming $16. The better news is that it’s possible to build a full meal here: Chive-heavy smoked-salmon pâté is served with Ritz crackers, but when you run out you can finish off the fish with the Spanish potato chips served alongside some soft and oily mussels conserva. If you want more than tapas and bar snacks, the little gem is crisp, refreshing, and big enough to share, while a pulled-pork sandwich on crunchy bread will fill you up for less than $20. —Zach Schiffman
Cafe Zaffri (Union Square)
When is a private club not a private club? Cafe Zaffri may be located in the Twenty Two, a boutique-hotel-and-members’-only establishment imported from London to East 16th Street, but Zaffri doesn’t require the social credit check of its landlord. Inside, a plush clubbiness informs the décor, with its gothic fireplace, heavy red drapery, and marble-topped tables; a needlepoint sampler on the wall reading “Calling All Rebels” seems to encapsulate the mix of old money and new, self-aggrandizing chic that the Twenty Two, like so many other new-arriving members’ clubs, wants to claim. And yet, despite both my eagerness to eye-roll and what I’d heard were a rocky first few weeks, I am duty-bound to report that the restaurant is, at the moment, pretty good. Executive chef Mary Attea and executive pastry chef Camari Mick of Raf’s are overseeing the kitchen, trading their usual Fashion Week Italian for Levantine fare. This time, it’s personal: Attea is Lebanese. Late one weeknight recently, my table enjoyed a basket of warm pita, talami, and lavash with a trio of Mediterranean spreads and an impressive lamb Wellington, wrapped in grape leaves and baked inside its golden crust. —Matthew Schneier
Hakata TonTon (Chinatown)
The clock is ticking for those of us who consider any non-summer months “hot-pot season.” The good news is that Hakata TonTon — last seen in midtown after a successful run in the West Village — has relocated to the Mott Street Cha Kee storefront that previously hosted a different reboot, Mission Chinese Food. (Danny Bowien is now next door.) Chef Koji Hagihara’s nose-to-tail love of pork remains intact: Start with liver sashimi and trotter-stuffed gyoza still sizzling away in their cast-iron pans before the gas burner is ignited at your table and a gleaming pot of porky broth is carefully ladled out by a server. Silky ribbons of skin and belly mix with dumplings, soft tofu, and the pile of chives that cook down into the soup. Find a rainy night to duck in, when the steam from delicate bowls will still feel especially warming, and the brightness of the accompanying yuzu-kosho hot sauce will be extra welcome. —Alan Sytsma
Fedora (West Village)
The Coronation is a half-strong, barely wet mix of sherry and dry vermouth with a touch of Maraschino and orange bitters. It’s a slightly obscure classic, dating to around a century ago, much like the origins of the restaurant now serving it, which recently reopened under new management. I would happily drink two of them at the bar with an order of the asparagus tempura, a stack of a dozen spears encased in airy batter with a lemon wedge. Cordon bleu, another underappreciated standard, is chicken with some cheesy ham-scented sauce that would have been great with a few glasses of white. This is the type of restaurant that could serve Caesar salad and fries but thankfully doesn’t; the menu treads its ground well, managing to find items just outside the ordinary enough to crave upon reading. Soft pierogies are vivified with peas and favas, while sweetbreads are seared until caramelized yet creamy on the inside and sauced with a stick-to-the-plate sherry reduction. Nutty carrot cake with carrot juice in the frosting is a fitting way to end the meal, made more so with a shot of carrot eau-de-vie to underscore the earthy flavor. —Tammie Teclemariam
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