The Best Dishes Eater Editors Ate This Week

With Eater editors dining out sometimes several times a day, we come across lots of standout dishes, and we don’t want to keep any secrets. Check back weekly for the best things we ate this week.

November 27

Pomegranate walnut cake at Nazli & Co.

I’m not the first and won’t be the last to say that the pop-up bakery scene in New York is incredibly strong right now. The latest to enter the ring is Nazli & Co., a temporary South Asian bakery that’s been operating out of a Lower East Side events space and coffee shop for the past couple of months. It was hard to choose my slice, but I ultimately went with the pomegranate and walnut cake, which wasn’t too sweet and felt especially holiday-appropriate with studs of seeds. At $12 per slice, it’s definitely a specialty occasion treat; in my case, that meant snarfing half at the park across the street and saving the other half for breakfast the next day. Founder Khadeeja Ibrahim will run Nazli & Co. from the space until December 30. She takes orders for full cakes by request. 15 Essex Street, near Hester Street, Lower East Side — Emma Orlow, reporter

Luke Fortney/Eater NY

General Tso’s chicken at Supreme Restaurant

I have a confession: Until last week, I had never had General Tso’s chicken. I’m not sure why it took me almost three decades to try one of the most popular Chinese American takeout dishes in the world. I don’t order delivery very often and sesame chicken always seemed good enough. That all changed last week at Supreme Restaurant, which opened in Manhattan’s Chinatown two years ago. We ordered tiny buns, soup dumplings, walnut shrimp, lo mein, and a bowl of General Tso’s ($17). I now confess that the world was right and I was wrong: This plate of saucy, spicy chicken is a masterpiece. 100 Mott Street, near Canal Street, Chinatown — Luke Fortney, reporter

Beef wrap in scallion pancake at Steam

Steam is a Shanghai restaurant found in the northern reaches of Greenwich Village on Sixth Avenue. The slender Shanghai menu presents several of the cuisine’s cold appetizing dishes, including chicken marinated in rice wine, jellyfish salad, and aromatic beef, and the last is also deployed in a more uncommon way: by wrapping it in a scallion pancake to make a rolled sandwich. Also added are slivered leeks, cucumber julienne, and hoisin sauce to give a slightly sweet flavor, while the scallion pancake is squishy and crunchy, This wrap ($10.75) could be your whole lunch. 470 Sixth Avenue, near 12th Street, Greenwich Village — Robert Sietsema, senior critic

Nat Belkov/Eater

Hot bean dip at Achilles Heel

My favorite little bar near the tip of Greenpoint is best when temps dip just low enough to warrant the use of the wood-burning fireplace. And a few months ago, when Sunny Lee of Banchan by Sunny took over the bar’s tiny kitchen, Achilles Heel got even better. After a morning on the water, I warmed up at the bar and enjoyed Lee’s hot bean dip ($19), the kind of comforting, stick-to-your-ribs sort of meal my chilly bones needed. ‘Nduja and kimchi are folded into the tender stewed cannellini beans. The funky, bright dip lands on the table still bubbling in its ttukbaegi, a black earthenware pot, with hunks of She Wolf sourdough on the side. 180 West Street, Greenpoint — Nat Belkov, design director

Stephanie Wu/Eater

Takeout omakase at Sushi 35 West

Sushi 35 West is a Midtown sushi spot that only does takeout and delivery — and is some of the absolute best takeout sushi you can find in Manhattan. The fish is always fresh and varied, and the rice is flavorful and textured. We ordered the chef’s choice omakase ($130), which came with 10 different types of sushi and easily fed three, to detox after a heavy Friendsgiving meal. They also serve rolls and rice bowls, all of which highlight the exceedingly fresh fish and careful technique. 224 W. 35th Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues — Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief

Vic’s

Pizza at Vic’s Italian Restaurant

For people who venture down the Shore to visit family during the holidays and happen to have allegiances to old-school pizzerias, there are two camps: Pete and Elda’s in Neptune and Vic’s in Bradley Beach. Open since 1961, Pete and Elda’s, my childhood pizzeria, is a dive bar that’s mobbed even for lunch, serving giant pizzas with super thin, Saltine-white crusts, and a whisper of sauce and toppings; it’s the kind of place that offers a kooky limited-edition free t-shirt if you finish a whole pie on your own. I’d never been to Vic’s — until two New Yorker transplants invited me to join them. Open since 1947, the restaurant feels like a version of a Wisconsin supper club inside, with cushy booths, carpeting, and a bar tucked in the back serving up-to-the-rim wine pours while you wait. The pizza ($14 to $16) is made with a lace of cornmeal, and it’s dressed with a blanket of cheese as well as generous toppings. It’s a different thing than my childhood pie, but I liked it nevertheless, especially paired with a dirty gin martini. 60 Main Street, at Evergreen Avenue, Bradley Beach, New Jersey — Melissa McCart, editor

November 20

Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Chicken katsu sandwich at Taku Sando

A new restaurant row is taking shape on the cul-de-sac near Greenpoint’s Transmitter Park. There are a half-dozen new sit-down restaurants on the block, but it felt like a takeout option, for the park nearby, was missing from the mix. Taku Sando, a Japanese sandwich shop, might be what it needed. The restaurant opened at noon on Friday. When I arrived a half-hour later, there were more than a dozen people in line. Sandwiches are all that’s on the menu: They come on milk bread with egg salad, pork or chicken cutlet, and fried potato, a vegan option. I tried the one with chicken katsu ($16). It’s breaded in milk bread scraps, then squashed onto a sandwich with slaw, mustard, and pickles. More pickles might be nice, but otherwise nothing to complain about. A good sandwich. 29 Greenpoint Avenue, near West Street, Greenpoint — Luke Fortney, reporter

Tomato salad at Addey Ababa

Sometimes the simplest dishes are the best. The so-called tomato salad — a rather uninspiring name, one of only two starters at this new and rare Ethiopian restaurant in Washington Heights — is perfect in every way, and vegan, too. Ripe plum tomatoes at the end of their season, sweeter than most, are diced with minced garlic and jalapenos, lightly dressed, and funneled into a piece of the restaurant’s freshly made injera ($10). Call it an Ethiopian pita sandwich, in which sharp and earthy flavors are perfectly melded. 736 West 181st Street, near Broadway, Washington Heights — Robert Sietsema, senior critic

Sizzling black pepper beef short ribs at Uncle Lou

There’s just something about a sizzling platter that’s going to turn heads at a restaurant. Sure, sometimes it’s just a towering plate of fajitas from Chili’s, but other times it’s something like the black pepper beef short ribs ($26), a superstar dish from Chinatown mainstay Uncle Lou. The dish was supremely saucy and perfectly savory, with a generous portion of steak and still-crisp peppers and onions. I ordered it since I’m a sucker for any Chinese dish that mentions black pepper on the menu, but when I noticed later that practically every table in the house had an order on their table, I had to figure at least some of them had been seduced by the sizzle. 73 Mulberry Street, near Bayard Street, Chinatown — Missy Frederick, cities director

November 13

Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Pizza at LTD Pizza

A great new pizzeria opened this spring in the western reaches of Soho. Reaching LTD Pizza is somewhat death-defying — first, you have to cross the four-lane entrance to Holland Tunnel — but the reward is a thin, expertly made slice that rivals L’Industrie and Scarr’s. The “pizza bar” has a couple of tables for dining in, plus wine and beer, alongside a long list of slices for takeout: They come with vodka sauce and pesto or pepperoni and burrata. I tried two and will be back for more soon. Just like last week’s column, the plain was supreme. 225 Hudson Street, near Canal Street, Soho — Luke Fortney, reporter

Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Milagaipodi masala dosa at Saravanaa Bhavan

Saravanaa Bhavan is a worldwide chain offering southern Indian-style vegetarian cuisine, for which the dosa is the signature dish. Of the two dozen offered, I picked this one ($14), which boasts a “gunpowder” mixture of ground cayenne and other spices liberally sprinkled on the inside of the wrapper. The result is incendiary, with each bite made only slightly less spicy by being dipped in one of three chutneys made on the premises (peanut, tomato, and coconut) or in the thick sambar, a type of soup. 413 Amsterdam Avenue, at 80th Street, Upper West Side — Robert Sietsema, senior critic

Emma Orlow/Eater NY

Beef roll at Kolachi

When a new business opens with just three menu items, plus fries, in an all-white space, I can’t help but wonder if they’re boxing themself in with such a minuscule menu. But Kolachi, the new Pakistani takeout spot in the East Village, doesn’t need to hide behind a bigger menu — the three paratha rolls it serves (beef, chicken, vegetarian) are more than plenty. I was blown away by the well-spiced beef roll ($6.50) and know that it will be in regular rotation for me as a snack when I’m in the neighborhood. As the owners told Eater, they have ambitions to open multiple locations, and I hope to see more of their late-night paratha roll stands soon. 130 First Avenue, near St. Marks Place, East Village — Emma Orlow, reporter

Anchovy butter toast at Carlotto

We went to Carlotto for drinks, planning to grab cocktails and a bite or two before dinner. But after seeing the menu, we couldn’t help but order a few extra things. My favorite was the Cantabrian anchovy garlic toast ($14). Each bite was an umami-packed sliver of anchovy, layered on top of a hefty squiggle of butter and grilled toast. It’s an absolute steal when it’s marked down to $10 during happy hour, which runs from 5 p.m. until close on Sunday and Monday and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on other nights. 100 E. 19th Street, at Park Avenue South, Flatiron — Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief

November 6

Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Slices from L’Industrie

The new L’Industrie Pizza in West Village is every bit as good as the original in Brooklyn. I lined up twice in the first week, once for a plain slice and later for one with pepperoni. Pizzas are sold with all kinds of toppings — burrata, fig jam, truffle, and more — but my favorites stick to the basics. It’s the best way to see why this pizzeria stands out in a crowded field (one reason: the thin, naturally leavened crusts with a nice char). In one regard, the new location may be better than the original: The lines are long, but they seem better than in Williamsburg so far. 104 Christopher Street, near Bleecker Street, West Village — Luke Fortney, reporter

Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tum strawberry at Rynn

The East Village’s latest addition to its vast collection of Thai restaurants is Rynn from two natives of Bangkok. There are dishes from all over Thailand but several show the Japanese influence on the cooking of the capital, including kanom jeeb, which are shumai stuffed with pork and prawns. My favorite dish on my first visit was the tum strawberry ($12), a salad of sweet red fruit with a tart lime dressing, tomatoes, and fresh bird chiles. Few Thai combos are as satisfying as ripe fruit and fiery chiles. 309 East 5th Street, near 1st Avenue, East Village — Robert Sietsema, senior critic

Melissa McCart/Eater NY

Veal tongue Castelluccio at Cafe Carmellini

I’ve written about the opening of Cafe Carmellini in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and still, a weekend has gone by and I can’t stop thinking about the veal tongue with lentils. Listed on the menu as a Castelluccio preparation, it’s tender and savory, and not too heavy for an autumnal dish. (It was $31 when I visited, but it’s now listed as $23 since prices have been added to the menu online.) It’s a dish I can imagine stopping in again to order as a main at the bar. 250 Fifth Avenue, near East 28th Street, Nomad — Melissa McCart, editor

Cha kway with tom yum butter at Lula Mae

Lula Mae opened in early 2023 and immediately had all the makings of a good neighborhood spot: comforting food, a casual atmosphere, and a dining room you can actually get into as a walk-in. The cha kway (you might also know it as youtiao) is always the way to start the meal. The long fry bread ($14) is served with tom yum butter and a side of pickled peppers — it’ll have you and your dining companion fighting for last dips. It’s one of several reasons the restaurant is one of Clinton Hill’s most exciting restaurants. 472 Myrtle Avenue, between Washington Avenue and Hall Street, Clinton Hill — Emma Orlow, reporter