The Neighborhoods Dominating NYC’s Restaurant Scene This Year

Welcome to Year in Eater 2017, Eater’s annual ritual of eulogizing the past 12 months through input from the city’s top food writers. For 2017’s final week, Eater NY will be posting questions daily about New York City’s restaurant scene in the past year, with answers from those who know it best: Eater editors and friends of Eater. Today’s topic: What was the best dining neighborhood of 2017?

Devra Ferst, Eater contributor: Flatiron, Williamsburg

Mayukh Sen, Munchies staff writer: Good old Williamsburg, Brooklyn, thriving in spite of the looming L train shutdown.

Amanda Kludt, Eater editor-in-chief: Maybe a cheat, but I’m going to give it to LES/Nolita/Chinatown environs for being the place I still find myself dining. Pasquale Jones, Contra, Wildair, Russ and Daughters, Spicy Village, De Maria, Le Coucou. It’s a lot of action in a 20-block zone.

Robert Sietsema, Eater NY senior critic: As a crucible of cheap eats and restaurant innovation Bushwick and Ridgewood stood out, from earthy taquerias to innovative pizzerias, from multiple forms of pho to cocktail lounges with outlandish menus, from wine bars that gave beer equal billing to frosting dripping bakeries, from ancient German butchers and beer halls to bouncing Himalayan dumplings.

Kevin Nguyen, GQ senior editor: Uh... Brooklyn.

Serena Dai, Eater NY editor: Noho

Daniela Galarza, Eater senior editor: Nolita

Sonia Chopra, Eater director of editorial strategy: I moved this year from the Lower East Side to Park Slope and I very much miss the dining on the Lower East Side.

Nick Solares/Eater

Ryan Sutton, Eater NY chief critic: Midtown West and Hell’s Kitchen. We have Cuban restaurants, a killer Bolivian spot, great Mexican restaurants, two of the best pizza places in the city (Corner Slice, Sullivan Street Bakery), a Michelin-starred yakitori joint, tons of solid ramen spots, Rum House, a little restaurant called Le Bernardin, a little restaurant called Gloria where an ex-Le Bernardin guy cooks ... I could go on.

Now do I truly believe this is objectively the finest neighborhood in all of New York, a quarter of town where I’d send tourists above all others? Of course not. For that I’d pick the East Village or South Brooklyn. But I live just south of Columbus Circle and I like to show a little hometown pride.

Patty Diez, Eater editorial coordinator: A lot of restaurants seemed to open in Midtown this year, and Nomad/Flatiron, but I maintain that the best dining neighborhood is my own.

Stefanie Tuder, Eater NY senior editor: Flatiron/Gramercy/Nomad (Nur, Daily Provisions, Union Square Cafe, Cote, Caffe Marchio and Vini e Fritti, Fusco, Sugarfish)