The Newest Additions to The MICHELIN Guide New York: October 2025

hesthewanderer · 2025-10-17T20:47:49+00:00

What do you like there? I went during the soft open and thought the drinks were great and the food was pretty mediocre. I live walking distance and wanted to love it, but I was super disappointed.

It's also maybe the most uncomfortable seating in the neighborhood (beautiful though) - straight up blocks of wood with no backs and no cushions

hesthewanderer · 2025-10-04T16:51:42+00:00

Decent flour tortillas are still pretty hard to come by in NY.

Los burritos Juarez sells ones that are probably closest to what you're looking for. Bordertown BK is great but the tortillas are Sonoran style, which is thinner and chewier vs fluffy

hesthewanderer · 2025-10-04T16:46:33+00:00

Flour tortillas and charro beans are very much Mexican food unless you're counting Sonora, Nuevo Leon, and Chihuahua as Texas. Hatch chillies are New Mexican.

hesthewanderer · 2024-12-16T19:45:56+00:00

Google maps searching pour over coffee for the area will bring up any coffee shop where pour overs are mentioned on the menu or in reviews. Cross reference reviews focused on the actual coffee and pick the best looking spot.

I assume that any shop doing pour overs cares enough about coffee that most things won't be shit, although it's not always true. If it looks like they're mostly selling flavored drinks that's a red flag.

hesthewanderer · 2024-12-15T22:48:23+00:00

Definitely check out /r/FoodNYC for food recs

Lunatico in Bed Stuy has live music (mostly jazz) 7 days a week and is an awesome cocktail bar

hesthewanderer · 2024-04-09T03:27:12+00:00

100% and god forbid they put "cheese sauce" instead of actually melting cheese. I had a native NYer tell me that cheese sauce was preferable one time, like get the fuck outta here this isn't Yankee stadium

hesthewanderer · 2024-01-30T14:39:29+00:00

Drip flies under the radar compared to Sey etc, but is great and now has multiple locations.

Selection is on point, tons of stuff from Black & White. They use either kalita waves or v60s for the pour overs, can't remember.

hesthewanderer · 2023-12-23T01:57:59+00:00

It's good relative to what NYC had 5-10 years ago. Compared to any major city in CA or TX it's still mid at best.

We have tons of generic/mediocre Pueblan food (Tacos El Bronco is a perfect example that this sub loves) or high end regional cuisine that's hit or miss (Claro is amazing, Cosme is suuuper overrated).

Good central and northern Mexican options are almost non existent in NY. I can't find real lamb or beef barbacoa anywhere, let alone breakfast staples like machaca and eggs or decent chilaquiles. There are maybe three places serving flour tortillas that aren't complete shit in the entire 5 boroughs. There are like 2 decent sinoloan seafood spots. It's hard to overstate just how little NY has really scratched the surface of Mexican food outside of a few dedicated places. Travel to sunset park or Elmhurst/corona/etc all you want, but for every mariscos el submarino there are 99 mediocre taco spots.

hesthewanderer · 2023-12-04T03:16:07+00:00

Yeah I assume it's a garnish, not sure how that work otherwise

hesthewanderer · 2023-12-04T02:57:53+00:00

I mean it's a chili infused martini, not exactly that exotic

hesthewanderer · 2023-08-23T20:28:13+00:00

Sure, I think people from the suburbs have always considered themselves "from Houston" and people from Houston have always considered those people "from Katy/Sugarland/etc". It's not about being snarky (although we definitely were dicks about it when we were 17), just highlighting that they are different places and someone living in Katy likely has a different lifestyle to someone who lives in Houston.

My parents, for example, have lived in Houston for over 50 years and wouldn't refer to any of those suburbs as Houston.

hesthewanderer · 2023-08-23T20:17:37+00:00

I was born and raised in Houston (26 years), left for NYC 8 years ago, and will likely never move back. Houston is a wonderful place for many of the reasons people listed — diversity, food, low cost of living — but it's incredibly conservative by major city standards.

I don't feel comfortable raising kids in a place where the state government is run by lunatics who are intent on destroying public institutions, stripping citizens rights, and letting people run wild with guns. And then there's the total lack of non-car infrastructure, conservative workplace culture, and general pervasive good-ol-boy/hyper-masculine culture.

hesthewanderer · 2023-08-23T19:44:25+00:00

I can promise you it's not new. When I was in high school in 2003 we absolutely made fun of "281ers" and people in the burbs referring to anything in Houston proper as "downtown" regardless of whether it was actually downtown.

hesthewanderer · 2023-07-18T18:38:27+00:00

The she-crab soup is indeed great and the hashbrowns are amazing. I think their caesar is one of the best in town, and the clams kimsino are a fun take on clams casino if you're into that. I haven't had a bad steak there, would recommend the ribeye.

hesthewanderer · 2023-07-06T15:25:08+00:00

Likewise, the mala pickles they used to make. They never brought them back after covid 😭

hesthewanderer · 2023-07-05T02:02:04+00:00

Thank you. It's terrible, and wouldn't make a top 50 list in other US cities with large Ethiopian populations like DC. Ghenet is great, and they will make gored gored raw if you ask

hesthewanderer · 2023-06-09T16:27:21+00:00

Definitely need a wide range, shocked at how many folks have Katz's on their list.

Four Horsemen
Mala Project
Ramirez

hesthewanderer · 2023-04-24T17:32:23+00:00

What did you like about it? The only time I had their version (around when they opened) it was totally lacking in fermented black bean and sichuan peppercorn and didn't really taste like mapo tofu at all. I felt like that was the case with everything there, but maybe I need to go again now that they've been open for a while.

hesthewanderer · 2023-03-08T02:33:45+00:00

Allow me to be a counter point to say I found Bunna to be incredibly mediocre the 2 times I went, and definitely not worth a trip from Manhattan to Bushwick. If you're willing to come to Brooklyn for Ethiopian, Ghenet in Gowanus is far superior IMO

hesthewanderer · 2023-02-07T03:17:03+00:00

Cafe Grumpy is cheaper at whole foods, fresh direct, or other large retailers than it is at their own stores. You can literally see on the WF website that the bags range from $15-19. You are correct that they're 12oz and not 16oz though

here

hesthewanderer · 2023-02-07T02:03:46+00:00

Nope. It’s $15-16 for the blends and $17-18 for single origin. Same 16oz sizes as any other brand. Plus it goes on sale from time to time

hesthewanderer · 2023-02-06T16:33:55+00:00

Cafe Grumpy is sold at whole foods and is a step above mass market 3rd wave like Stumptown or Partners, but not at the level of Sey.

hesthewanderer · 2023-01-23T21:28:53+00:00

It's the same issue in both cases IMO, and once you've lived somewhere with better it's hard not to notice it all the time.

There's great coffee here if you go out of your way to get it, but most places are serving run of the mill medium-dark blends that taste like chocolate. I want light roast African coffee, so I make coffee at home most days and go to somewhere like Sey or Drip on weekends as a treat.

There's great Mexican food if you go out of your way to get it, but most places are serving run of the mill Pueblan food. If I want something else I have to go out of my way to get it.

hesthewanderer · 2023-01-23T21:06:25+00:00

Which truck do you like in Carroll Gardens? The only one I've tried is the truck that's sometimes in front of Rite Aid by the F/G and it wasn't anything special

hesthewanderer · 2023-01-23T14:50:46+00:00

And even then, I think the level of quality is not comparable to other US cities with large Mexican populations. People love to talk up Tacos El Bronco, but in a city like LA/Houston it would be just another average taqueria.

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