The team behind 886 in the East Village opened this second restaurant earlier this year, a neighborhood hangout that’s billed as “more grown up” — even if it still sells baijiu shots. Eric Sze, a 2021 Eater New Guard, turned to his native Taiwan for this menu of “numbing” celtuce salad, pork belly with cuttlefish, and a whole fried chicken that he only makes five orders of each night. 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 that’s since closed, is giving it another go in New York City with this Israeli grill house atop the Hoxton hotel in Williamsburg. Dessert comes with every meal, and the thick-cut french fries shouldn't be missed.

If fighting over lobster french fries to the tune of karaoke sounds like a night well spent, Chino Grande might just be for you. This Williamsburg restaurant from a co-owner of Win Son bills itself as a “karaoke saloon” — and even though singing is only permitted from 10 p.m. to midnight on weekdays, and an hour later on weekends, the bar is buzzing here most hours of the day. Look out for a short menu of finger foods like swordfish skewers, five-spice pork ribs, and an order of $65 french fries topped with a whole lobster.

Iranian small plates and wood-fired cooking are the focus at this Persian restaurant from Ali Saboor, who previously ran the kitchen at Prospect Heights’s acclaimed Sofreh. Now in Bushwick, the chef is serving barbari bread with borani (a mix of potatoes, saffron yogurt, and pickled red peppers) and an impressive lineup of kebabs — octopus, chicken thigh, trumpet mushroom, and more — that are “delicious in a fussier way,” says Eater critic Ryan Sutton. The lively but casual vibe here also makes Eyval one of the best places for a solo meal.

A rotating cast of guest chefs is the calling card at this wine bar in the northern reaches of Bed-Stuy, where you can usually count on something new. A portion of the menu changes from month to month, as resident chefs and pop-ups takeover Ostudio’s small kitchen in temporary stints: Dinner might consist of sweet corn baked Alaska one week and chicken pho the next. A portion of the menu is permanent, anchored by small plates of produce and seafood. Don’t miss the maitake mushroom with seaweed butter and horseradish.

This restaurant in Bed-Stuy is serving what’s likely the city’s only tasting menu to highlight regional Nigerian cooking, where three courses and a dessert might include dishes like fiery fish pepper soup and suya octopus ($75 per person). Tasting menus often come with rules — dress requirements, white tablecloths — but here dinner is served at a 12-seat communal table, usually with a heavy-handed pour of wine and a story from owner Ayo Balogun.

It’s not every month that Fort Greene winds up on this map — not for lack of love, just mostly for a lack of new exciting restaurant openings. Oma Grassa brings something genuinely exciting to the neighborhood, serving charred sourdough pies that might remind you of Ops in Bushwick. The eight or so pizzas on the menu rotate out from time to time but count on pies loaded with generous handfuls of pepperoni cups and farmers market vegetables. It’s walk-in only but never hard to find a seat.

The front counter of this Lebanese restaurant is crowded with baking trays and cast-iron pans of prepared foods, making it feel something like a cross between a Sweetgreen and mom's home kitchen. There’s a laminated menu listing the restaurant's pastries, mezze, and larger entrees, but honestly, a meal here is probably better assembled by getting in line and talking with owner Mike Farah about what's available — or about to be. Look out for the garlicky stuffed cabbage and the sheesh barak, baked beef dumplings served in a yogurt sauce.

Could Cafe Spaghetti be the restaurant of the summer? Eater critic Robert Sietsema wondered as much, lounging in the backyard of this new Carroll Gardens restaurant with some of the best pastas he’s had this year. The new-school red sauce restaurant opened in May, and its Italian classics — spaghetti pomodoro, eggplant parm — and boozy spritzes have pretty much been turning heads ever since. Pastas priced around $18 and $27 each.

The Good Fork Pub, while technically a bar, more than holds its own on this list of newly opened restaurants. For one, this revamped Red Hook hangout comes from a team that knows food: Its owners are also behind Insa, a Korean restaurant in Gowanus, and the revamped Gage & Tollner in Downtown Brooklyn. But this bar also wins points for its creative menu of bar snacks, with enough bigger options and table seating to have a full meal. Look out for the “Korean, by way of Philly” cheesesteak — gochujang short rib, American cheese, and kimchi mayo on a hero — and the veggie smash burger, whose patties are made in-house. Walk-in only.

Gloria’s, a Caribbean institution in Crown Heights, closed following a decades-long legal battle that came to a head in 2020. Months later, a manager of the establishment for 22 years banded together with former employees to open this takeout joint a few doors over, where versions of the restaurant’s famed 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.