A hype restaurant actually worth the hype, soufflé heaven and the ultimate book club restaurant
Welcome back to the little corner of your inbox where I regularly moonlight as a restaurant consultant. This time, we’ve got prompts from three people I deeply relate to: One is jaded by the cycle of social media virality, another wants to know the best place to talk about books over long meals with her friends, and one reader just wants an excellent soufflé. They are me, I am them. Let’s do this! And if you want to play in the next round, send your questions over email to wheretoeat@nytimes.com, as submissions to this form, and on my Instagram, where I’ll regularly post story prompts for you.
The naanini is worth the hypeMy 16-year-old son and I are on a mission to find restaurants that actually live up to their hype. The TikTok spots keep letting us down. They’re flashy, but without much flavor. — Shawn B. This one really resonates with me because I’ll basically eat anything that appears on my TikTok feed — in fact, it is often a requirement of the job — and I’ve been let down more than I’ve been wowed. The restaurant I’m seeing on every platform right now is Fonty’s Deli + Dukaan in the West Village, and I visited to test the waters for you. The pressed, grill-marked chicken tikka naanini is a panini sandwich made with naan, and a word I can’t stop muttering under my breath over and over. It seems to be the deli’s most hyped dish (red flag, I know), but this time it really is excellent. While you’re there, you should also try the cheese chutney sandwich, dripping with hot, melted amul cheese and punchy cilantro-mint chutney; and the hefty lamb meatball sub with tomato butter sauce and burrata. Braving the lines on Saturday or Sunday is untenable, but you’ll breeze right in for a weekday lunch. 20 Christopher Street (Gay Street), West Village
Soufflés for daysWhere can I find a great chocolate or raspberry soufflé? La Grenouille is gone. The Four Seasons is gone. And I love soufflé. Even a lobster soufflé would be nice, but alas no cheese please — my G.I. tract would rebel, thank you. — Randy S. A lactose-intolerant man after my own heart! I’ll start by saying that the chocolate soufflé at Minetta Tavern is the best in class — I might go as far as to call it the paramount New York dessert. But, for you, I wanted to think beyond chocolate. Consider Twin Tails in Midtown, one of the newer restaurants from the same group as Bad Roman. (It’s also located, strangely, in the The Shops at Columbus Circle.) They serve four Southeast Asian-influenced soufflés every night, none of them concerned with being classic: The two most inventive, to my mind, are the coconut soufflé with a showy tableside pour of spicy red curry crème Anglaise, and the pistachio soufflé finished with a floral stream of chartreuse-green pandan coconut crème Anglaise. 10 Columbus Circle (West 60th Street), Columbus Circle
The girls’ night of my dreamsOK Becky, I need a place for book club slash girls’ night. Good wine, good food, not super loud or scene-y (we’re over that). Also, some place we can go on a Friday or Saturday night and not get hustled out — we like to talk, A LOT. Brooklyn, please! — Erin Sounds like you’re looking for a quintessentially hospitable Neighborhood Restaurant. Locanda Vini e Olii in Clinton Hill isn’t my neighborhood restaurant, but it is a perfect one that strikes the elusive easygoing-to-special ratio. The moody dining room is a former pharmacy (which operated from 1894 to 2000!), and you can see whispers of that in the tile floor, glass display cases and painted tin ceilings. The kitchen turns out lovely pasta dishes like pappardelle with porcini ragù and hand-rolled pici with pork sausage and popping fennel seeds. It’s a meal you don’t have to think too hard about, ambrosial without distracting from your discussion of plot devices and literary tropes. 129 Gates Avenue (Cambridge Place), Clinton Hill ICYMIYou still have one week to book your restaurant Thanksgiving! Florence Fabricant did the hard work and hunted down some of the best options, so get to booking if you haven’t yet. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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