The Citiblog
Cititour.com’s Top 45 NYC Restaurants of 2021
December 24, 2021, 12:59.53 pm ET
Le Pavillon/Thomas Shauer
Even while in the grips of a pandemic, New York City restaurants opened up in force in 2021 and managed to wow us in the process. The list we’ve compiled includes not only restaurants that opened amid all of the uncertainty, they thrived, earning more than 4 stars from at least two of the following at the time of this writing: Yelp, Google, Resy or OpenTable.
They includ high-end places such as Chef Daniel Boulud’s Le Pavillon which opened with plenty of fanfare at One Vanderbilt in eyeshot of the Chrysler Building and relying on a bounty of local vegetables and New England seafood.
Photo: Gage & Tollner
Gage and Tollner, the beautifully restored oyster house in Downtown Brooklyn whose opening was delayed by the pandemic, delighted us with old school dishes like Oysters Rockefeller, Pork Pot Pie and Baked Alaska.
Photo: Jibs/Cititour.com
Little did we know that a year-round fish shack would be reeling them in. But Jibs Fish Shack at Hudson Yards managed to do it with its bustling bar, river views and dishes like Baked Clams, Grilled Lobster and a Blueberry Buckle dessert.
Photo: Hawksmoor
There were crowning achievements likes Hawksmoor Steakhouse and Cocktail Bar, a British import housed in the landmarked United Charities Building where civic pioneers such as Jane Addams once delivered speeches. The British invasion continued with Dame, which got its start as a pop-up only to return as a full-fledged restaurant with its signature Fish & Chips and Head-On Prawns with chili-butter.
Photo: Zou Zou's/Melissa Hom
Other well thought out and stylish restaurants included Zou Zou’s, which had a solid opening toward the end of the year, Sweetbriar, The Mary Lane, Momofuko Ssam Bar, Benno and Jack & Charlie’s No. 118. We were also enamored with delicious bites at Evil Katsu with its classic Katsu sandwiches, Xilonen’s lively Mexican and we were lining up for burgers at Smashed.
Below we wanted to give a shout out to all 45 restaurants that made this year’s list. We wish them well and hope they will continue to prosper in 2022!
-The Cititour Team
1) Bar Benno
2) Bar Blondeau
3) Casa Limone
4) Coby Club
5) Contento
6) Dame
7) Dowling’s at The Carlyle
8) Brooklyn Dumpling Shop
10) Evil Katsu
11) Gage & Tollner
12) Hawksmoor
13) Howm Cocina
14) Jack & Charlie’s No. 118
15) Jib’s Fish Shack
16) Joe’s Home of the Soup Dumpling
17) Kuxé
18) La Devozione
19) Le Pavillon
20) LittleMad
23) Mother Duck
24) Native Noodles
25) Noi Due Cafe
26) One White Street
27) Panorama Room
28) Rolo’s
29) Saint Theo’s
30) Sami + Susu
31) Sarashina Horii
32) Sereneco
34) Skorpios
35) Smashed
36) Sweetbriar
37) Tagmo
38) Tiny’s Cantina
39) The Mary Lane
40) Unregular Pizza
41) Victor
42) Willow
43) Xilonen
44) Yuco
45) Zou Zou’s
Keep up with New York at Cititour.com
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