Hudson Yards Restaurant Preview: Everything to Know for This Week’s Opening

After years of anticipation, one of the most ambitious development projects in New York City is ready for its public reveal. Hudson Yards — the creation of an entirely new neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan, the result of a 2005 rezoning — is bringing a slew of tall new office buildings and apartments, but food is undeniably a big focus, too. Developer Related Companies, the same company behind dining-packed mall Time Warner Center, similarly brought on Per Se chef Thomas Keller to help figure out restaurant options in the expanse.

The entire thing opens to the public on Friday, March 15. Not all of it will be fully up and running immediately — many restaurants will start with just dinner, while the hotly anticipated José Andrés Spanish market will be opening in phases — but there will be plenty to soak in and navigate next week, including tons of new restaurant concepts from chefs like Keller, Andrés, and David Chang. All in all, more than 100 shops and restaurants will flood the area in the next couple years, along with public gardens, an arts center, office spaces, a hotel, and apartments.

The biggest complex to watch is called the Shops at Hudson Yards, a seven-story retail space between 30 and 10 Hudson Yards along 10th Avenue. Anyone who’s been inside Time Warner Center will get familiar vibes immediately; the ambiance is essentially what one would expect from glitzy new multi-level shopping mall. But each individual restaurant has control over its own look and feel. This inevitably means that spaces will have varying degrees of success making diners forget they’re in a development that feels like it would be at home in the suburbs. Ambiance range from upscale continental to grab-and-go, though — the whole idea is that there’s something for a variety of needs and situations.

Below, see Eater’s guide on which restaurants to beeline for when checking out Hudson Yards. To find out more about how Related Urban’s CEO Kenneth Himmel picked the spots, check out this story.

Most Anticipated

Mercado Little Spain

Major players: José Andrés and the Adrià brothers
Location: Ground floor, corner of 10th Avenue and 30th Street
Partial opening

Billed as the Spanish version of Eataly but more like the markets of Spain, this 35,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor food hall will be manned by three of the biggest Spanish food chefs in the world. José Andrés, the main guy in this project, is a DC-based chef who owns more than a dozen restaurants as part of company Think Food Group; he’s credited with popularizing tapas and other Spanish cuisine in the U.S. and his Minibar in D.C. has two Michelin stars. For the project, he’s brought on Ferran and Albert Adrià. The brothers don’t have any restaurants in the U.S. but are considered two of the most renowned modernist chefs in the world for their work at El Bulli, a now-shuttered experimental restaurant in Spain with three Michelin stars that was a trailblazer in molecular gastronomy.

Mercado will have three full-service restaurants, plus Spanish retail, bars, and food kiosks. It’s colorful and bright, and with a huge ground floor entrance, it will likely be a major access point to the building for many people. The idea is that people can use it from morning until late night, whether stopping in for a quick bite or sitting down for a more leisurely meal. Here’s a rundown; see more photos of the space here.

Opening on March 15, starting at 5 p.m.
Bar Celona: A cocktail bar with a focus on vermouth
The Colmado: A store for Spanish goods, including canned seafood and cookbooks
Bravas: A kiosk specializing in fried potatoes and sauces
Churros: A kiosk with churros and hot chocolate

Hudson Yards New York [Official Photo]

Full-service restaurants, to open later
Leña: This restaurant will primarily cook using wood or charcoal, with special attention to grilled meats, paella, and other family-style, rice-based Spanish fare.
Mar: Seafood will be the focus here, though styles will vary. Expect stews as well as fried fish.
Spanish Diner: This all-day restaurant will be the biggest and most casual of the three, with eventual plans to be open from 7 a.m. to late night. It’s got big, garage-style walls and a bar. Food will be homestyle Spanish cooking, like egg tortillas, sandwiches, and a combination platter with rice, eggs, tomato sauce, and sausage. “We would die for this dish,” Andrés says. “If we behaved, my mom would make it twice a week.”

Remaining kiosks
Bocatas & Empanadas: Serving breads, sandwiches and tarts
Cocas: Flatbreads cooked on the spot and with lots of vegetables
Granja: Coffee and pastries
Huevos, Frituras & Pulpos: Eggs and fried seafood
Jamón & Queso: Ham, cured meats, and cheese
La Barra: The only tapas bar in the market, serving icons like patatas bravas and empanadas at a counter
Paella & Carnes: Paella and meat
Pasteles & Helados: Sweets like cakes, tarts, candy, ice cream, and xuixos, a Catalonian pastry that’s deep-fried and filled with cream
Frutas & Verduras: Soups, salads, juices, and gazpacho
Pescados: A fish market
Kiosko: A retail shop with souvenirs and books
Flower Shop: A retail shop with flowers and arrangements

Kāwi and Peach Mart

Major players: David Chang and Eunjo “Jo” Park
Location: Fifth floor at the Shops, the northeast end of the building
Opening initially just for lunch

Momofuku kingpin David Chang has taken over 5,000-square-feet on the fifth floor of the Shops building for Kāwi, a dark and wood-heavy restaurant that will feel a bit more luxe and sultry than most other Momofuku restaurants in New York. It will have a dining room, a bar, and a counter with seats looking into an open kitchen.

The chef in charge of the menu here is Eunjo “Jo” Park, a former Ko chef who’s also spent time at Daniel and Per Se. Korean fare will be “the backbone” of the offerings, but don’t expect tradition. She’s pouring her varied cooking (and life) experiences into the menu of small and shareable plates, resulting in a restaurant intended to feel distinct from any one cuisine. Lots of dishes with tableside elements are already in the works, meaning that servers will be finishing up certain options in front of diners.

Plus, next door to the restaurant will be a to-go operation called Peach Mart. There, the crew is offering sandwiches and snacks, like kimbap, the Korean dish that’s made of cooked rice and ingredients such as vegetables and meat, all rolled up in nori.

RSE Ventures, a private investment firm owned by Related, has a stake in Momofuku, and this will be one of Momofuku’s more expensive buildouts. The restaurant group’s fast-casual spicy fried chicken mini-chain Fuku will also have an outpost here, on the second floor. See more photos of Kāwi here, and see more photos of Peach Mart here.

Belcampo

Major player: Anya Fernald
Location: Fourth floor, northeast side near 10th Avenue

A more recent exciting addition to the lineup comes from northern California, a fast-casual restaurant that’s based its offerings around the ethos of ethical meat sourcing. Belcampo Meat Co. is a butcher with a farm in Shasta Valley, California, and just like it does in the Bay, co-founder and CEO Anya Fernald will be shipping whole animals to New York for its counter-service spot on the fourth floor of the Shops.

The bright restaurant is far more open into the mall, and more casual as well. It’s best known for burgers, including a 28-day dry-aged beef one with white cheddar cheese and a 100-day dry-aged beef one with raclette. Bowls and salads topped with Belcampo’s meats are also available, starting at $14, plus bone broth, sausage, and steak-frites. Though it’s counter-service, people dining inside the 80-seat space will get some service, like drink refills. A separate bar will have full-service from a bartender, and there, special menu items like carpaccio can be ordered. No butcher shop here; instead, a special case in the middle of the restaurant will feature finer cuts of meat from the farm for people seeking a spendier dinner. Find out more about Belcampo and Fernald here.

It will be the first location of the popular restaurant outside of California and is the most exciting fast-casual addition to Hudson Yards.

Wild Ink

Major players: Rhubarb, Peter Jin, Tien Ho
Location: Fifth floor, northwest side, facing the public square
Opening for lunch and dinner

London-based hospitality and catering company Rhubarb has two restaurants at Hudson Yards, the first of which is an Asian-ish restaurant called Wild Ink. It’s one of the restaurants with lots of windows, here facing the public square in the middle of the development and the railroad tracks further west. The executive chef in charge of day-to-day happenings is Peter Jin (Hotel 50 Bowery, Refinery Hotel), with a menu assist from experimental former Momofuku chef Tien Ho, who’s acting as a culinary director for Rhubarb’s American restaurants.

The 90-seat dining room at Wild Ink has curvy banquettes, an open kitchen, a big bar, and pan-Asian-inspired elements like bamboo and tables topped with Lazy Susans. Designed by British firm Robert Angell Design International (Burberry, Savoy), it’s got a bit of a clubby vibe to it.

Wild Ink [Official]

The menu, too, seems to nod to the clubby Asian fusion restaurants of New York’s past. Small plates, snacks, and dim sum dishes pulling elements from Japan, Thailand, China, Tibet, England, and Italy fill the menu. Food options include a Japanese risotto with shiitake mushroom dashi, a curried lamb momo, and a miso custard tart, while cocktails use ingredients such as a black sesame-infused gin or yuzu bitters.

It will be Rhubarb’s first entry into the New York market and will likely set the tone for how people will receive an even more high-profile project from the team: a restaurant at the top of 30 Hudson Yards. The building at the corner of 10th Avenue and 33rd Street will be the tallest in the development at 1,300 feet, and with an outdoor observation deck, it’s already destined to be a huge tourist destination. It’s not opening until later this year.

Other restaurants to watch

A luxe new location of longtime Greek restaurant Estiatorio Milos: Chef Costas Spiliadis first opened his sleek Midtown restaurant in 1997, originally debuting with a bang for its upscale, yet crowd-pleasing Greek seafood menu. It hasn’t been as well-reviewed in recent years, but it’s been popular enough to spawn outposts in Miami and Las Vegas. Over the years, the original NYC location has attracted lots of the rich and famous and powerful. Here, it will be just as posh, with marble floors, a spiral staircase to the dining room, one of the best views in the building, and the only restaurant with an outdoor terrace. Food will be similar to the other locations, but with the addition of Milos Wine Bar. It will have a yogurt bar, packaged goods, Greek wines, and small plates, plus an outdoor terrace. Fifth and sixth floors, northwest side of the building

A classic restaurant from Neiman Marcus: For more than 50 years, fancy department store Neiman Marcus’s flagship Dallas location has had a swanky restaurant called the Zodiac, and at the Shops, the company is recreating the classic restaurant as the Zodiac Room. It’s best known for being a destination for the ladies-who-lunch crowd, serving salad, sandwiches, and caviar, and the location in New York follows through with big banquettes, blue tones, and the famous popovers that the restaurant has been serving for decades in Texas. The restaurant’s hidden inside the women’s section of the store, but it happens to boast one of the better views in the building, with windows that look out onto 10th Avenue. A coffee shop and a bar will also be on-site. Seventh floor, inside Neiman Marcus, southwest side of the building

Casual American dining from chef Michael Lomanaco: The TV personality and chef behind more than decade-old Time Warner Center steakhouse Porter House Bar and Grill will be opening his second New York restaurant here, a collaboration with Boston’s Himmel Hospitality Group. The sprawling, 265-seat restaurant with an open kitchen and big bar will be called Hudson Yards Grill and will likely be the place where big groups go to get a little something for everybody. A variety of meats — from chicken and lamb legs to prime rib — will be cooked on a spit, and other American classics like fried chicken and steaks will be on the menu, plus pizza and sushi. It will be a casual affair, accompanied by a bakery. Fourth floor, northeast side of the building, opening for dinner only

Hudson Yards [Official Photo]

A brasserie with from a British “restaurant king”: One of the UK’s biggest and best known restaurant groups D&D London already has settled into New York with Bluebird in the Time Warner Center, but Des Gunewardena and David Loewi actually started talking to Keller and Himmel first for this space at Hudson Yards. Queensyard covers 11,000-square-feet of real estate and has a clear view onto the public square in the middle of the development, including the centerpiece of the space, Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel. In the UK, the prolific company owns more than 30 restaurants, including ones with Michelin stars, and is known for chic hotspots that veer on the upscale side. The company’s foray into New York hasn’t been great so far; Bluebird received zero stars from both Eater and the Times. But people will be coming here for the scene, not the food. The spacious room has cushiony banquettes, trees inside the restaurant, a solid view, and big murals on the walls. The bathroom also charmingly only plays songs by Queen. Fourth floor at the Shops, southwest side of the building

Treats from an Upper East Side icon: A Kosher bakery open since the 1940s called William Greenberg Desserts is opening another location here. The bakery is famous for its black and white cookies and brownies, and here, it will be on the third floor with 500-square-feet of space, designed to look similar to its flagship on Madison Avenue. Third floor, east side of the building

The Rest

Second floor: High-end Upper West Side grocer Citarella will have a market, plus a prepared food section with seating and a wine and liquor store. An ice cream and cereal bar from fashion brand Kith will be inside Snark Park, an immersive exhibition space. Bay Area-based company Blue Bottle Coffee has an outpost on the southwest side. And a location of David Chang’s fried chicken restaurant Fuku will be here as well.

Third floor: Australian coffee chain and cafe Bluestone Lane has an outpost, right next door to William Greenberg and Greenpoint-born ice cream shop Van Leeuwen.

Fourth floor: New York-born, global burger chain Shake Shack from Danny Meyer will have a location here. Across the hall will be Jack’s Stir Brew Coffee and an outpost of celebrity favorite chain Dylan’s Candy Bar, and around the corner, longtime chocolate maker Li-Lac Chocolates will be setting up with more than 100 handmade chocolate varieties.

Over at 10 Hudson Yards, at 30th street, salad chain Sweetgreen is already up and running., and 55 Hudson Yards will have location of bakery chain Maison Kayser.

Anticipated still-to-open restaurants

TAK Room

Major player: Thomas Keller
Location: Fifth and sixth floors, southwest side, facing the public square
Opening later in March

Bicoastal chef Thomas Keller is in charge of much of the dining options at Hudson Yards, and besides that input, he’s also opening a restaurant of his own over on the fifth and sixth floors. Called TAK Room, the 200-seater will reportedly be less pricey than his tasting menu flagships French Laundry and Per Se. Luxury, though, likely won’t be totally absent; the chef has said it will have some Mad Men-era touches, with decor “that shimmers with glamour of a bygone era” and food reflecting “a time when the fanciest food in America was called continental cuisine.” Champagne carts and live music will be among the offerings. It’s been hosting celebrity-packed private parties but won’t be opening to the public until later in March.

It’s a big deal: Keller is one of the most influential fine-dining chefs in the country, and this will be his first new restaurant in NYC about a decade. But his reputation has taken a bit of a hit in New York after Eater’s Ryan Sutton and the Times’ Pete Wells both slammed Per Se in the last couple years — expect all eyes to be on Keller to see how the icon is adapting to the times. Elsewhere on the fifth floor, he will have an outpost of his chain Bouchon Bakery.

A to-be-named Stephen Starr restaurant: The James Beard-award winning restaurateur behind critical hits like Le Coucou and crowd-pleasers like El Vez will have a restaurant inside the Equinox Hotel. Seasonality and health will be a focus, and the all-day operation is anticipated to open in June. 35 Hudson Yards

Danny Meyer at the arts center: Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group has been charged with providing food and beverage for the Shed, a nonprofit performing arts center on the development. Called Cedric’s at the Shed, it will have 121 seats and will be open from morning to late evening. Drinks will be prioritized over food, which will include snacks, sandwiches, and salads. It opens in April. The Shed

• How Hudson Yards Chose Its 25 Restaurants [ENY]

HY_Restaurants_FoodiesGuide_030419.pdf

Note: This story has been updated to reflect new information.