In one of the most highly anticipated 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.

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.

The first step in the next chapter at 85 10th Avenue — the former home of lauded-yet-troubled Italian destination Del Posto — is an upscale pizza parlor that bills itself as the more relaxed counterpart to next-door fine-dining newcomer Al Coro. Executive chef Melissa Rodriguez is running the show at Mel’s, a weeknight hangout with wood-fired pizza, grilled steaks, and some outstanding sundaes.

Add Oiji Mi to the running list of restaurants offering tasting menus for around $100. The one served here — priced at $135 for five courses — highlights modern Korean inventions like foie gras with bokbunja (a Korean fruit wine) and deconstructed bo ssam with oysters and pork belly. Despite the early buzz, there’s plenty of reservations at this 80-seat Flatiron restaurant, which comes from the team behind acclaimed modern Korean restaurant Oiji, in the East Village.

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 crunchy, spicy fried chicken commonly seen in Indian street stalls 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.

Middle Eastern, Danish, and New York influences have converged at Librae, a bakery and coffee shop that opened in May with espresso-glazed croissants and sourdough breads made with fermented Bahrani dates. Owner Dona Murad runs the shop with her husband Andre Gerschel, and her mother helps out with some of the baking, she says. Murad also runs a bakery and coffee roastery in Bahrain, and Gerschel has opened restaurants around the Middle East and U.K. “We’ve lived around the world and we wanted to bring that energy to this space,” Murad says.

A trio of Momofuku alums — Jeff Kim, Matthew Lee, and Victor Xia — started Nudibranch as a pop-up, a place where they could cook dishes that drew upon their collective experiences working at the David Chang restaurant group and other restaurants across town. Last month, they found a permanent home for their cooking in the East Village, where the $75 prix fixe menu leans heavily on traditional Asian ingredients in dishes like soba showered with shavings of bottarga; cauliflower paired with a Vietnamese dipping sauce and Chinese sausage; and fried frog legs topped with a medley of herbs like lemongrass and galangal.

Manhattan’s Chinatown recently gained an exciting new dining destination in Mott Street Eatery, a bustling 10-stall food court similar to those found in Flushing, Sunset Park, and Elmhurst. During an early visit, Eater critic Robert Sietsema found an impressive array of roasted meats, well-executed hand rolls from a sushi chef known as Jiro, and duck and lobster pizza, among other offerings.

Located in the recently opened Nine Orchard Hotel, Corner Bar is the new restaurant from Ignacio Mattos. Ignore the divey name — stools march along a marble bar and booths look out upon Allen Street, for a little Lower East Side flavor. Hot as it may be outside, the food is cool, fresh, and delicate, from the pristine oyster service to the heirloom tomato salad, which is irresistible. The menu is simple, running to entrees you don’t have to think about too much — spaghetti pomodoro, moules frites, and roast chicken. This is hotel food at its best, unfussy yet elegant, just the thing for a weary traveler.

The name’s kind of a joke, right? But Jon Neidich’s new establishment, a compact corner spot radiating lively tables outdoors, is diehard French: from the winelist, full of Gallic vintages (no Finger Lakes here) to menu classics like an entire artichoke steamed and drizzled with olive oil and sea salt, a steak tartare with capers and cornichons, and a tuna Nicoise with spuds and haricots vert in an acidic shallot vinaigrette. The French fries are perfect, shoestrings to be poked in a dense aioli, which guests demolish as their heads swivel to check out the other patrons as they arrive.