The team behind the East Village’s rowdy Taiwanese hangout 886 opened Wenwen earlier this year, a grown-up Greenpoint restaurant where it’s okay to order a round of baijiu shots. Eric Sze, a 2021 Eater New Guard, is turning to his native Taiwan for a menu with “numbing” celtuce salad, pork belly with cuttlefish, and a whole fried chicken that he makes five orders of each night. (They often sell out within minutes.) The chef has left the drinking challenges of his first restaurant behind, but he’s keeping things light with shot roulettes and a Long Island Iced tea for four that comes topped with a flaming piece of youtiao.

Expect to “sweat and eat meat” at the Brooklyn location of this famed Philadelphia restaurant, says Michael Solomonov, the chef and owner behind Laser Wolf. Solomonov, who used to run a hummus counter out of Chelsea Market, is giving it another go in New York City, this time atop the Hoxton hotel in Williamsburg, with his take on an Israeli grill house. Dessert comes free with every meal, and the thick-cut french fries are not to be missed.

After months of serving green chile cheese burgers and chewy breakfast burritos for takeout, Santa Fe BK opened for sit-down service this spring. The New Mexican spot from couple co-owners Melissa Klein and John Watterberg now serves green chile chicken enchiladas, pork adovada smothered burritos, queso, and other southwestern delights. Fans of the morning breakfast don’t have to fret: Those breakfast burritos aren’t going anywhere.

Mariscos are finally getting their due in New York City, with help from Mexican seafood counter Mariscos El Submarino in Jackson Heights. There, pieces of octopus and fish bob around in fiery baths of lime and Maggi like Loch Ness mariscos. At Ensenada, those same dishes get the Williamsburg treatment: The prices are higher, the portions are smaller, and the vibes are vibier, but if all of that sounds okay, some of the city’s best ceviches and aguachiles await.

Eyval, from a co-owner of Sofreh Cafe, opened next door to the Bushwick bakery earlier this year. The Iranian small plates spot is serving up barbari bread with borani (a mix of potatoes, saffron yogurt, and pickled red peppers) and a few entrees that are large enough to share, including a standout eggplant and lamb stew with fries. The lively, casual bar environment here also makes Eyval one of the best places to grab a solo meal.

The restaurant scenes of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene may finally be getting their due, with recent additions like Brooklyn Hots, Place des Fêtes, Fradei Bistro, and others. Saraghina, Bed-Stuy’s popular pizzeria, is the latest to open in the neighborhood, bringing a swanky Italian restaurant that’s about much more than wood-fired pies. Head here for an extensive aperitivo list, a crudo bar seafood towers, and a full menu of pizzas and pastas priced around $20 to $40 each.

Brooklyn is now home to a version of Rochester’s famed “Garbage Plate,” the piles of hamburger patty, macaroni salad, and other picnic items usually served with a squiggle of hot sauce or mustard. The heaping plates of food are designed to be shared — along with smash burgers and pizza logs — and a generous BYOB policy is meant to draw customers to next-door wine shop Radicle Wine, from the same team.

This restaurant in Bed-Stuy is serving one of the city’s only tasting menus to highlight regional Nigerian cooking, where three courses and a dessert (around $75) might include dishes like fiery fish pepper soup and spicy suya octopus. The sometimes-stuffy tasting menu format is often reserved for finer dining establishments, but here dinner is served at a 12-seat communal table, usually with a generous pour of wine and a story from owner Ayo Balogun.

Could Cafe Spaghetti be the restaurant of the summer? Eater critic Robert Sietsema wondered as much, sitting in the backyard of this new Carroll Gardens restaurant eating some of the best pastas he’s had this year. Granted it’s only June, but it’s clear that the red sauce Italian classics here — spaghetti pomodoro, eggplant parm — are already turning heads. Pastas priced between $16 and $24 each.

Gloria’s, a Caribbean institution in Crown Heights, closed following a decades-long legal battle in 2020. Months later, Wayne Smith, a manager of the establishment for 22 years, banded together with former employees to open this restaurant a few doors over, where versions of its oxtail and curried goat live on. Lines can stretch toward the door around lunchtime, but things move quick at this casual counter-service spot with a few seats.

Agi’s Counter is the kind of place where egg creams are reinvented (with condensed milk and instant espresso) and sandwiches come with whistful names like the Ritzy Titzy (a riff on the Waldorf Salad). And while it’s true that owner Jeremy Salamon is having fun here, his dinner menu of schnitzel with peach mostarda, hailbut collar in dill sauce, and other Jewish American inventions stacks up to most new restaurants in the borough.