In one of the most highly anticipated early debuts of the year, Charles Gabriel’s legendary fried chicken is back. The decades-old Harlem icon — which also opened a location on the Upper West Side in February — is known for its lesser-seen approach to frying chicken, crisping the bird in a giant skillet instead of vats of bubbling oil. The impressive, flavorful result has gained the restaurant legions of followers. Customers line up for Charles’ crunchy chicken, creamy mac and cheese, and lima beans that Eater critic Robert Sietsema says will convert even the staunchest lima bean doubter. Barbecued ribs, pulled pork, and smothered chicken are also on the menu.

At Kochi, chef Sungchul Shim won over customers with a tasting menu of Korean-style skewers that earned a Michelin star last year. Now, he’s focusing on Korean hand rolls — similar in shape to Japanese temaki; and anchored with some familiar kimbap ingredients — at a new restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen that opened in the final weeks of 2021. Like Kochi, Mari is also a tasting menu spot. The lineup includes 11 courses for $125 and features hand rolls packed with ingredients like king oyster mushrooms, mackerel, and shrimp.

Crowds of customers swarmed Italian import All’antico Vinaio from the minute it opened its doors near Times Square, and for good reason: The famed Florentine shop’s square, stuffed sandwiches are creamy, cheesy, meaty delights. Follow Eater critic Robert Sietsema’s recommendation and order the messy triumph known as la favolosa, featuring pungent Tuscan salami, spicy eggplant, and both pecorino and artichoke creams.

Cafe China — an acclaimed Sichuan restaurant that held a Michelin star for seven years — temporarily shuttered for five months in 2021, and now has been reborn in a three-story brick building in Midtown. The chic restaurant, run by Xian Zhang and Yiming Wang, marries old menu favorites like cumin lamb and tea-smoked duck with new-guard entries like a whole steamed fish with cayenne and tabasco peppers, plus dim sum and other regional Chinese dishes.

El Quijote’s return has been four years in the making, ever since the Hotel Chelsea shut down the storied spot for renovations in 2018. The Spanish restaurant has now been polished and revamped by the hip team behind Sunday in Brooklyn and partner Charles Seich. Seafood is the highlight here, from lobster grilled on a plancha and slicked in butter and sherry, to the restaurant’s impressive paella, now studded with squid, cockles, mussels, blue prawns, and rabbit.

This stretch of Third Avenue in Gramercy may not historically be known as a destination for its Chinese fare, but So Do Fun is looking to change that perception. Inside the red-hued restaurant, diners gather over tables crammed with plates of grilled and boiled fish in chile oil and sauces, heated bowls of mapo tofu, and creamy steamed eggs with shrimp and broccoli. The spot is the first U.S. outpost of a popular Chinese chain, according to an employee at the shop.

One of the West Village’s most prominent dining duos, Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, have unexpectedly torn a page from the playbook of the Shakers — a religious group rooted in Christianity and founded in upstate New York in the 1770s — for their follow-up act to neighborhood favorites Via Carota and Bar Pisellino. At the Commerce Inn, the menu takes its cues from century-old rural American recipes, honing in on simple plates like beans and pork belly, spoon bread, and a particularly good roast chicken. In the adjoining tavern, find milk punches, whiskey coffees, and wines from upstate New York purveyors.

The hotshots behind one of America’s best new restaurants of 2021 are not slowing down. In their latest debut, restaurateur Roni Mazumdar and chef Chintan Pandya are frying up ultra-crispy, crunchy, spicy fried chicken familiar in India and transplanting it to the East Village. The tiny shop is churning out fried chicken at three different spice levels, plus chicken sandwiches with scallion yogurt and mint chutney, and sides including crispy eggplant or potato pakoras, masala corn, and tomato rice. For vegetarians, the snack-sized vado pao — a spiced potato patty with mint and tamarind chutney on a buttered pao roll — is an equally spicy hit.

Justin Bazdarich, the chef and owner behind Oxomoco, trendy pizza spot Speedy Romeo, and the short-lived vegan Mexican spot Xilonen, has partnered with veteran restaurateur John McDonald to open Bar Tulix, a Mexican-leaning seafood restaurant in Soho. The bar program nods heavily to tequila and mezcal, while the upscale menu ranges from shrimp cocktail tostadas to patatas bravas with pickled chiles and black sea bass crusted in masa.

Chef Mitsunobu Nagae, a Joël Robuchon veteran, has stepped out on his own at L’Abeille, a French fine dining spot that Nagae threads together with a few Japanese touches. The $180, six-course tasting menu includes red miso-glazed squab and a pan-fried tile fish with fennel puree. (An a la carte menu is available at the bar.) The refined, jewel-toned Tribeca space was built around the concept of “bistronomy,” where fine dining and bistro sensibilities meet.

Chef Victoria Blamey attracted plenty of headlines during high-profile tenures at storied pub Chumley’s and Manhattan fine dining institution Gotham Bar and Grill. Now, she is stepping outside of any well-known restaurant’s shadow. Mena, named after Blamey’s great aunt, highlights the chef’s Chilean roots with a seafood and vegetable-heavy menu that is threaded with some hits from Blamey’s recent pop-up residences, including cholgas secas, featuring smoke-dried mussels coated with an onion glaze.