One of the benefits of being around in NYC during the summer is checking out the restaurants on my wish-list. Wildair isn’t new, but it’s been on my radar forever. Wildair is the more casual wine bar of the now-closed, but rumored to reopen under some sort of iteration of Contra. Essentially, Contra was, and Wildair is, like the real-life The Bear on FX. By all reports, at Wildair, you have yourself a crew that is breaking culinary boundaries and…

THE UPDATED REVIEW This isn’t a new restaurant, and it certainly doesn’t have a velvet rope or Gigi or Kendall running around. What it does have, however, is one of the best fish and chips, and the city’s foodies, who call it their neighborhood joint. Overview Good news: You have a shot at a reservation at Dame restaurant in NYC. Everyone and their mother is in Europe this summer, so the city is quieter than normal. That also means that…

The Lower East Side is better and grittier than ever. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of neighborhood opinion, there’s no doubt that it’s a destination for the restaurant and cocktail scene. Eel Bar is a new arrival, but not by a team new to the neighborhood. The sister restaurant to Cervo’s right around the corner, Eel Bar is the Basque-focused rendition. This is our first look review at Galavante. Atmosphere Eel Bar is cool. Very cool. As…

Summer in New York City without your weekend house in the Hamptons isn’t so bad. In fact, we’ve been finding many a reason to stick around this July, and one of them is the Alice lobster dinner. Alice restaurant in the West Village is an Italian seafood bar. It’s one of the top underrated neighborhood restaurants in NYC, but now there’s a reason to give it a try. From now until Labor Day, Alice  is offering a $95 four-course lobster…

This isn’t a trendy Japanese restaurant like Tao or a commercialized sushi place like Nobu. It’s also not a Japanese restaurant like En Brasserie with an encyclopedia of options. If you’re looking for a fine dining $1,000 dinner like at Shion 69, this isn’t your place either. Instead, if you’re looking for a modern omakase restaurant in NYC that could become your go-to during the week, Shogun Omakase is for you. Atmosphere When I walked into Shogun Omakase I immediately…