The 7 restaurants I have on repeat

A rotating short list of where I love to eat most in New York, right now

Good morning, angels! We’re kicking off another new franchise today. Every other month or so, I’ll share the seven restaurants in my current lineup: a mix of compelling new spots and reliable favorites. These are the places I’m regularly hitting, and/or can’t wait to get back to soon, and why.

For the first two weeks of January, The Angel is free. After that, all editions of On Repeat and most of our reporting will be behind a paywall.

Owner Chase Sinzer and wine director Julia Schwartz from the outside of their new wine bar.

1. Stars East Village
   I love wine, I really do. I don’t drink much these days, but when I do, I get so much more out of a glass of wine than a cocktail—it’s agricultural, a natural vehicle for storytelling, and an ideal partner to food. That’s why I was so excited for Stars to open, where wine is the main event, and food stays in snack territory. It’s the closest thing New York has to Paris’ Septime La Cave, but it’s very much its own place: sophisticated, intensely warm, and both distinctive and inventive in the way you expect from a vanguard hospitality group. Every server on the floor is a somm, and even though Stars is brand-new, there’s already a familial feeling, owing to how the entire staff migrated from Claud and Penny, their sibling restaurants just down the street. There’s Jura Chardonnay by the glass (my favorite), and deviled eggs (also my favorite) decorated with puffed, spiced, fried stars. The must-order dish is the potato frico: pillowy carbs encased in cheese, griddled to a pliant char.
   
   

2. Borgo NoMad
   The best time to eat at Borgo is at 12:30 p.m. Honestly, the best time to eat at most restaurants that offer lunch is during the day, when the sun is pouring through the windows, the energy is calmer, and the room is full of people who are properly caffeinated. Borgo is beautiful and run by pros, and dining there in the daylight is a luxury I can’t quit. Did you know there’s spaghetti pomodoro? It’s tangy, buttery, and properly rustic—and only available at lunch.
   
   

3. Smithereens East Village

   I was late to Smithereens, visiting for the first time last month, and I went without much expectation. Some people I know love it, others less so. Cuisine-wise, it’s hard to categorize, loosely tied to New England in theory, but if I can say one thing for sure, it’s that chef Nick Tamburo is a genius with seafood. Abalone is one of the few foods I don’t tend to like. And yet his abalone skewers, sliced paper-thin and folded over, were one of my favorite dishes in recent memory—like shiitake, but chewier and brinier, with a more nuanced umami. Mackerel is also hit or miss for me, and I couldn’t stop eating Smithereens’ whole, crispy-skinned barbecue fish, which tasted like it had been smothered in jerk sauce, minus the heat.
   
   

4. Mariscos El Submarino Clinton Hill (also Jackson Heights, Greenpoint, Jersey City)
   I miss Holbox, arguably the best restaurant in Los Angeles on food alone, which serves slightly cheffy, miraculously fresh mariscos from a mercado stall in Historic South-Central. So I’ve been very pleased to find that Mariscos El Submarino is a fine stand-in. The Mexican food scene in New York has exploded over the last several years, and it’s cool to see a super solid mariscos concept succeed and expand, now with four (and a fifth on the way) locations since opening in Jackson Heights in 2020. It’s quick and casual and delicious, particularly the camarones zarandeados a la parrilla—butterflied and grilled over charcoal, and served by the half dozen—and the aguachile verde.
   
   

5. Little Egg Prospect Heights
   On hungry mornings, I crave a breakfast that’s wholly satisfying but simple: good eggs, nice bacon, excellent bread. Most of the time, I can make this at home, minus the bacon (which I rarely have in my fridge), but every so often, I want to go out. For that, there’s no restaurant more perfect than Little Egg in Prospect Heights. The sourdough comes from ACQ Bread Co., the grits are from Anson Mills, and the maple syrup is from Deep Mountain in Vermont. Best of all, a visit to Little Egg comes with a gigantic bonus: pastries from Tanya Bush. Her apple fritter, currently on the menu, is out-of-control good, with a golden-crisp glazed shell and a stunning, custardy crumb studded with soft chunks of apple. I’m genuinely surprised more people aren’t talking about it.
   
   

6. Bar Kabawa East Village
   Go to Bar Kabawa, order a daiquiri and the geera goat patty with coco bread, reach nirvana. The next-door bar to Paul Carmichael’s prix-fixe restaurant feels like an amplified version of Kabawa’s warm-hearted, energetic Caribbean vibe. Dancehall and reggae emanate from the speakers, and drinks are shaken, then poured over a melting mountain of what’s basically snow. I like the ruby-red shrimp with pikliz and the “dad’s sardines” with avocado and habanero sauce, but those patties—especially the baked ones, especially the goat, especially enjoyed in between plush coco bread—are dynamite.
   
   

7. Henry Public Cobble Hill
   Long Island Bar is my favorite bar in New York City. Unfortunately, as happens with too many good things, it’s become completely overrun. A few weeks ago, I walked in with my best friend Tabi on a Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m., and the idea of snagging two bar seats was laughable. We crossed the street to Henry Public instead, where you can get a martini just as good as Long Island Bar’s (unless Phil is making yours there; his are superior), where the deviled eggs are frankly better, the snacks are bigger—a colossal bowl of smoked almonds, a generous platter of ice-cold radishes with butter and salt, as God intended—the room is darker, and the burger and fries might win. Alexa Chung popped in fifteen minutes after we did, fwiw. It’s now my new go-to, at least after stopping by LI Bar to see if there’s a chance. Henry Public is a pub, and pubs are in.