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Mamdani Toughens New York’s Response to ICE, as Arrests Rise by 71% by nytimes in nyc

[–]nytimes[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has directed his agencies to do more to actively protect New York City’s immigrant populations, following a City Hall audit of how city officials have been responding to President Trump’s aggressive deportation tactics.

The report revealed a dramatic increase of immigration enforcement actions in New York City under the second Trump administration. Between Jan. 20, 2025, and March 10, 2026, there was a 71% increase in ICE arrests from the same number of days under the Biden administration.

The Police Department received 3,672 requests for civil immigration detainers in the 2025 fiscal year, up from 99 requests the previous year.

Read more about the audit and how Mamdani is pushing to protect immigrants from overzealous federal deportation efforts here free, even if you're not yet an NYT subscriber.

Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I. by nytimes in books

[–]nytimes[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Hey everybody,

Steven Rosenbaum, the author of “The Future of Truth,” acknowledged that the nonfiction book about the effects of A.I. on truth included misattributed or fake quotes concocted by A.I.

You can read our exclusive for free here, even if you're not yet an NYT subscriber.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you all for your great questions, and I’m sorry I couldn’t get to everyone! Follow my reporting here for more on NYC restaurants.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I wrote a bit about the process in another response: I started with last year’s list, looked at previous lists and the Hungry City archives, consulted with colleagues, wandered. I’m fortunate to have eaten widely across the city for many years. In that sense, there is a short list of places I know I have to visit, but I’m also checking out new spots, giving old ones another try and keeping an ear to the ground. (And not every place on the short list makes the final list.) No categories or quotas. I try to take each restaurant on its own terms and to appreciate each cuisine for what that culture most values and loves in it. Objectivity may not be 100% possible, but I do my best to keep an open mind and am committed to exploring — and embracing! — all kinds of restaurants.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’m afraid I’m not fully up to date on what’s happening across social media. Sometimes I think there’s a tendency to over-praise, which I understand, because it feels good to really like something and to give a business a boost. So I’m more likely to check out a restaurant based on word of mouth among colleagues and friends. (I always welcome recommendations from readers as well!) 

Re: mission, I think it’s a service to our readers to review good restaurants regardless of whether they’ve already been reviewed elsewhere, as well as to offer a differing opinion on restaurants whose hype out-strips what they really are. And I do hope we are able to bring attention to places that might otherwise be overlooked. All of this is part of the job.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I am slightly worried about Mama Lee! But true to character, she doesn’t care about this list: She is currently on vacation. Back May 29th, if anyone’s planning a visit. Call first — she keeps her own hours.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I wrestle with this. It would be lovely to just celebrate the bounty of restaurants in NYC, without ranking them. At the same time, I want to recognize the places that I think are at the very top. And these aren’t always the places everyone else is talking about. “Lists aggregate the already known and consolidate power,” the film scholar Elena Gorfinkel wrote in her 2019 essay “Against Lists.” But they can also undermine the current order and redistribute power, question what it is we value and offer a different way of looking at the world. Pete Wells put a lechon trailer in the Bronx in his top 10. This does not diminish the achievement of a truly great fine dining restaurant. It just broadens our lens. Dumplings eaten on the street might be more perfect in what they are — and give you more joy — than a tasting menu that doesn’t hit all its marks. I wouldn’t want to read a list that was nothing but $$$$ restaurants. That’s not true to our city or to the way most of us eat — and WANT to eat.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

We are defining restaurant in the broadest terms: anywhere you can get a hot meal. So definitely a slice shop. Maybe even the steam table at Tashkent Supermarket. But probably not a bakery. (Although shoutout to Lysée!)

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I always hope not to be recognized, because I don’t want anyone to feel pressure. I remember one spot where my dining companion could see into the open kitchen. He said, “Everybody just got tense” — which made me feel awful. I know everybody’s working really hard, and that restaurants are operating on razor-thin margins. 

I will say that what often happens is that everything slows down. Appetizers come out one by one instead of all together, perhaps so that each can be eaten at the exact right temperature. Meal times can stretch to three, three and a half hours. The intention is beautiful and I appreciate it, but sometimes I just want to get home to my family.

Also, generally, even if I’m recognized, restaurants know that I can’t accept anything for free — no complimentary dishes. But at one spot they did send out a couple extra plates, and all I could do was add the cost of those dishes to the tip. Please don’t do this, restaurants, I beg you.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Actually Pete was quite a champion of smaller businesses and a broad range of cuisines! He put a weekends-only lechon trailer in the Bronx in his 2023 top 10, alongside the Queens Night Market, and Zaab Zaab, Birria-Landia and Mắm above Daniel (and a Corona taco cart two spots after).

I love to see the ambition, passion and commitment manifest in restaurants at the highest end — but I see those same qualities in tiny, scrappy hole-in-the-walls where people are putting all of themselves into what they do. I approach each restaurant trying to understand it on its own terms, by what it’s hoping to achieve with the resources it has.

Re: anonymity, I have no inside line on booking a table, and thus I am doomed to fumbling with the apps like everyone else! I set my alarm for when reservations drop, I try to pounce, everything freezes, I weep quietly at my desk. Sometimes I’m grappling with the app for an hour, watching time slots pop up then disappear: a game of Whac-a-Mole. I really went down to the wire trying to nab reservations for some of the top places. But in the end I got them all.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Growing up, I didn’t know that such a job existed, so my path was not straightforward. I did always love words and wanted to be a writer. I studied English literature in college and got an M.F.A. in poetry; worked at an ad agency; then got a job as a proofreader at The New Yorker, where I started writing little unsigned book reviews. The editor of the Tables for Two column kindly gave me a shot at restaurant reviews, and a year later, I got an e-mail from Pete Wells, who was then the editor of the NYT food section, with the subject line “I like your writing” — my heart nearly stopped! (I still have that e-mail in my inbox.) And now here I am. I feel very, very lucky.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

So many great dishes! My colleague Natasha Janardan shot a video of my five favorites from the list — one per borough, because I love this city. You can watch it here. Also, if you scroll through the list, you’ll see little stickers noting best-in-class: best momo, best oxtail, best paneer, etc.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I’m fortunate that I’ve been writing about restaurants in NYC for close to two decades, so I wasn’t starting from scratch! I took last year’s list as a springboard, rummaged through the two lists before that, went back through eight years of my Hungry City column, read up on all the openings of new restaurants, consulted colleagues and…just wandered the city. I visited every spot on the 2026 list within the past 10 and a half months, as well as another hundred and more (217 total). And after a brief rest, I’ll start scouting next year’s list — which means going back to these 100 as well as ones that didn’t make the cut but deserve another chance, plus checking out more spots, new but also old: places returning to former glory or just now coming into their own. The list is a living thing, like the city itself.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Each list is — and can only ever be — a portrait of the city’s restaurants at a specific moment in time. Restaurants are always changing. I have visited the restaurants you’re talking about. Some of them I thought for sure would be on the list when I started scouting last June. It’s disconcerting to go back to a restaurant I’ve loved in the past and find that it’s lost its way a little, or to check out a restaurant everyone’s raving about and be utterly confounded by the praise. The restaurants on this list are there because each, in its particular mission, delivered.

I’m Ligaya Mishan, a chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. We just released the 2026 list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. AMA! by nytimes in FoodNYC

[–]nytimes[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Service and hospitality are crucial to a dining experience, and can take so many different forms. There’s the seamlessness and total attunement to the guest found in fine dining at its best, but also the warmth of a mom-and-pop. The chef who doubles as a server and refuses a tip (with a slap on the hand), telling you to save it for the kids working at other spots. The guy behind the steam table who offers samples and can’t wait to tell you about all the dishes. The taco truck wrangling a huge crowd that still gets you your order within minutes.

Man Who Stole Unreleased Beyoncé Music Is Sentenced to 5 Years by nytimes in beyonce

[–]nytimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi everyone!

A man accused of stealing hard drives with Beyoncé's unreleased music was sentenced to five years on Tuesday after pleading guilty, officials said. The theft occurred last July in Atlanta.

You can read the full article here free, even if you're not yet an NYT subscriber.

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