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An employee works behind the light wooden bar of a restaurant in a Manhattan restaurant, Hav & Mar.
Marcus Samuelsson opened Hav & Mar on 11th Avenue last fall.
Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet/Eater NY

25 Essential Places to Eat in Chelsea

The Manhattan neighborhood is bursting with Dominican, Italian, Japanese, Basque, and Ethiopian Swedish flavor

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Marcus Samuelsson opened Hav & Mar on 11th Avenue last fall.
| Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet/Eater NY

In the latter half of the 19th century, Chelsea went from being a bucolic suburb to an industrialized city neighborhood, with smoke-belching factories lining the Hudson River, including a former Nabisco production facility, now Chelsea Market. Today, its attractions remain numerous, including bustling 14th Street to the south, the twisting elevated path of the High Line running like the neighborhood’s backbone, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and the boutique hotels and art galleries serving as a buffer between residential Chelsea and the Hudson River. The precise borders are controversial, but for the purposes of this map, the neighborhood runs from around Sixth Avenue on the east to the Hudson River on the west and from 14th Street on the south to 30th Street on the north.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it also poses a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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Hav & Mar

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On the western edge of Chelsea, find Hav & Mar, a new restaurant from Marcus Samuelsson. Handily merging the food of Sweden, Ethiopia, and New York, the celebrity chef presents an array of unlikely dishes, including Addis York, his version of the Ethiopian stew doro wat, featuring glazed chicken drumsticks triumphantly pointing skyward. The bread basket alone, containing fried injera, is worth visiting the restaurant for, and the best dish on the menu is the cavatelli with seafood in a creamy uni sauce.

Red glazed chicken legs point skyward with a boiled egg on the side.
Addis York, a playful take on the national dish of Ethiopia.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Ovest Pizzoteca

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This decade-old pizza pioneer opened in Chelsea’s gallery district way before most other restaurants appeared there, with the exception of the Red Cat and a couple of other old-timers, most now long gone. The space is warehouse-like, the bar provides cocktails in addition to beer and wine, and the exemplary pizzas fly from a wood oven that casts flickering shadows on the brick walls — a perfect date spot.

A red and deeply browned margherita pizza with white pools of cheese and a basil leaf.
A wood-oven pizza from Ovest.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Salumeria Biellese

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Before the current mania for Italian authenticity swept over the city, many cured pork products such as guanciale and lardo were tough to find unless you dropped by Salumeria Biellese. These ingredients are still for sale in glass cases, even though manufacturing has since shifted to Hackensack, New Jersey. These days, this 90-year-old pork store mounts a steam table full of red-sauce pastas at lunchtime, plus a menu of giant hero sandwiches. Order one that’s made with the shop’s distinguished charcuterie. 

An Italian deli interior with red checked tablecloths and guys standing behind a counter with glass cases.
Glass cases display the lunch options at Salumeria Biellese.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Not to be confused with a more ambitious and expensive restaurant of the same name on the Upper West Side, Chelsea’s Swagat is a steam-table establishment, though a really exceptional one. (A quick glance at the pristine quality of the Indian offerings on display is enough evidence.) The all-day special includes one meat and one vegetable dish, plus dal, rice, and a naan; lamb curry is often one of the possible choices.

Vegetables, meat in brown gravy, yellow split peas, and rice on a white plate.
Lamb curry with two vegetable sides at Swagat.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jun-Men Ramen

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When it opened in 2015, in the culinary dead zone that is Ninth Avenue in upper Chelsea, Jun-Men seemed to be part of the race among ramen-yas to see who could make the richest tonkotsu, a milky, pork-bone broth. The noodles themselves are above average, with plenty of spicy options, and the short list of appetizers is worth ordering from as well, especially the crunchy chicken wings and the stylish kale salad. But avoid the house mazemen, which wastes some perfectly good sea urchin in a wash of warm noodles.

A milky beige broth with oil droplets on its surface, with noodles and boiled eggs to be seen.
Tonkotsu ramen at Jun-Men.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Txikito

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After a several-year hiatus, Txikito has returned to Chelsea with a bang, peddling Basque small plates of octopus, poached cod, beef cheek and jowl, and king oyster mushroom carpaccio. The chefs are the wife-and-husband team of Alex Raij and Eder Montero, and the premises recall a Spanish tapas bar in style, intimacy, and good smells.

Many small plates with Spanish food on them.
A spread of Txikito tapas.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Sullivan Street Bakery

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A branch of the prized bakery that opened in Greenwich Village in 1994, this handsome and trim lunchroom serves pastries and egg breakfasts in the mornings before switching to sandwiches and Roman pizzas until closing. The custard-squirting bomboloni, either vanilla or chocolate, is worth seeking out, as are the loaves of bread and square slices of focaccia topped with ingredients like potatoes and zucchini, available all day.

A rectangular slice of pizza with potatoes and rosemary on top.
Potato focaccia at Sullivan Street.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hey Yuet

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While the Chinese restaurants in this neighborhood once offered almost exclusively Chinese American fare, many have become more sophisticated, including the outstanding Hey Yuet. It’s one of the city’s better restaurants serving Cantonese dim sum and dishes from Hong Kong. From classic har gow to newfangled black bao adorned with a gold leaf, some of the best dim sum in town is to be found here all day and into the night.

Two hands hold up a steamer with three round black steamed buns inside.
This dark color is achieved with powdered charcoal.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pepe Giallo

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This homey Italian restaurant on the edge of Chelsea’s gallery district makes a nice refuge after an afternoon of art-hopping. Founded in 1997, it used to be part of a great chain specializing in discount pastas whipped up on the spot, and part of that aura remains, though the menu now concentrates on antipasti, panini, and pizzas, with the occasional risotto or lasagna thrown in for good measure.

A crumbed and browned chicken cutlet under a nest of arugula and tomatoes.
Chicken milanesa makes a nice shared secondo.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Cookshop

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Located in one of Chelsea’s quieter sections surrounded by distinguished older buildings, Cookshop was founded with a farm-to-table ethos in 2005 and has gradually grown to be a favorite spot for a tumultuous brunch or a quieter dinner. Vegetables are emphasized — even in its inventive pizzas — and there’s a substantial commitment to seafood, while many appetizers and entrees are prepared in a wood-fired oven.

People sitting at the corner or a bar with a bartender with blue hair and a very old building out the window.
Cookshop is one of the city’s best brunch options.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Occupying an elegant townhouse in western Chelsea, Qanoon slings distinguished Palestinian food. Many of the short dishes called mezze have rarely been produced so well in this area, including muhammara, hummus, baba ghanoush, and labneh configured as orbs for dipping. Main dishes are complete dinners, best of which is makloubeh, a lamb and eggplant casserole.

A basket of cut pitas in the upper left, plus a plate of hummus and chickpeas and three green orbs in a separate bowl.
Labneh balls and hummus are among Qanoon’s mezze highlights.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

El Quijote

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El Quijote, founded in 1930, ranks among the city’s oldest Spanish restaurants. Located in the fabled Hotel Chelsea, it was sold and then closed for renovations, only to reopen last year. The premises are smaller than before, but the dining room is still charmingly decorated with elaborate murals, and a stop at the bar for a drink and some tapas remains one of Chelsea’s quintessential experiences.

El Quijote dining room with an orange mural covering the wall.
What was once the colorfully decorated barroom is now the entire restaurant.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Johny's Luncheonette

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When it opened in 1994, Johny’s was located in Chelsea’s warehouse district between Sixth and Seventh avenues, an area also famed for its flea markets, now mainly gone. Johny’s was and still is just a tiny lunch counter serving eggs, pancakes, hamburgers, and sandwiches, but it has adapted to more modern times with a longer menu of invented heroes with names like Sloppy Johny and Curious George. Some sandwiches even have french fries tucked inside.

A hero sandwich with eggs, ham, and french fries tumbling out.
Here’s a hero you could eat for breakfast or lunch.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pisillo Italian Panini

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Call them heroes, panini, or just Italian sandwiches, but Pisillo, which also has an outpost in the Financial District, excels at them. The menu is long, with Italian ingredients painstakingly listed for each of the various options, but this simple sandwich piled with mortadella, arugula, and squeakingly fresh mozzarella might be best of all.

A very long luncheon meat and fresh mutz sandwich, cut in half with the halves lying across each other like two legs.
Many heros incorporate fresh mozzarella.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Latin American

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Once largely a Latin American neighborhood, most of Chelsea’s Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban restaurants are now long gone. And after the tragic closing of Milanes on West 25th Street, only Latin American remains, peddling pernil, Cuban sandwiches, chicken fricassee, liver and onions, and other dishes, many rotating on a weekly basis.

Red beans, yellow rice, stewed chicken.
Chicken fricassee at Latin American.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Memo Shish Kebab

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It’s rare that a well-regarded Maritime Brooklyn restaurant hastens into Manhattan, but that’s what happened with Memo. In this case, the restaurant is a Kings Highway Turkish establishment founded in 2000, which popped up here at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street, one of Chelsea’s busiest corners. The doner kebab is fantastic (and quickly served); pick lamb and be assured you’re getting lamb and not the unsatisfying lamb-beef hybrid currently being peddled elsewhere. Plenty of salads, bread dips, pastries, and other kebabs are also worth trying.

At Chelsea’s Memo Shish Kebab, doner is queen.
Two twirling doner cylinders.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Rangoon

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Chef Myo Moe introduced the city to Burmese food seven years ago with pop-ups in Bushwick bars, then opened her own place in Prospect Heights. Now there’s a branch in Chelsea, brightly decorated with white tiles and walls, and big windows that create a sense of airiness. For an introduction to the food of Myanmar, consider the mohinga, a noodle soup made with a strong broth flavored with crushed fish.

A nest of noodles with crunchy shallots and fried shrimp on top.
Garlic noodles with fried chicken.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Peter McManus Cafe

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Dating to 1936, Peter McManus is one of the city’s oldest Irish bars, with the antique barroom and rear dining room to prove it, frequently featured in TV shows like Broad City, Law and Order, and Seinfeld. It’s known for its pints of Guinness, of course, but also for its burgers and other pub fare. Pick the classic burger, served with steak fries or tots, or go all the way with the deluxe “Pop Pop’s top-shelf cheeseburger,” featuring a mix of multiple forms of beef in the patty. Deli sandwiches, including rare roast beef, are good, too.

A chalkboard sign reads Best Burger In Town.
A sign makes extravagant claims for the burger at this old Irish bar.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hao Noodle

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While the original branch of Hao Noodle in the Village skewed toward Sichuan food and tea, this magnificent location in Chelsea strays toward Shanghai. Yes, there are gravy-squirting soup dumplings, but also find delicate little charcoal kebabs of meat and offal, smoked and then fried filet of sole, and slabs of hawthorn jelly interspersed with avocado for what is certainly a surprising Chinese dish. You can’t go wrong with the noodles, either.

Stacked planks of red jelly lined with avocado.
Hawthorn jelly and avocado at Hao Noodle is almost sushi.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Portale

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This restaurant, named for its chef Alfred Portale, offers a menu of Italian classic dishes in a fine dining vein, with the conventional three courses plus pizzas and desserts. The antipasti are particularly fine, including a perfect seafood salad of lobster, scallops, octopus, shrimp, and avocado. The menu also lists a handful of pasta and secondi, and the one labeled “maiale” (Italian for “pig”) combines hunks of pork with polenta cake and a zingy orange mostarda.

A clump of seafood salad with a sprig of frisee on top.
A dressed up seafood salad at Portale.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tangy Noodle

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Founded by a son of legendary Taiwanese chef Shorty Tang, who was partly responsible for introducing Sichuan food to Chinatown , this Chelsea restaurant was called Shorty Tang Noodles when it opened in 2017. The place closed for a few months, then re-emerged with this shortened name and an expanded selection of dim sum, soups, and noodle stir-fries made with homemade noodles, some of them spicy. The cold sesame noodles remain a signature, but there’s also a fine Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

A white bowl of white dumplings in gritty red sauce.
Wontons in hot oil at Tangy Noodle.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Coppelia

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What if a Greek diner had a Latin menu instead? That was the premise behind Coppelia when it opened roughly a decade ago on bustling West 14th Street. The menu has evolved over the years, so that it now skews mainly Cuban and Mexican, with oxtail empanadas, ropa vieja, and, of course, huevos rancheros. Open 24/7, the restaurant remains one of the city’s best late-night options.

Runny eggs exceedingly yellow and bright white broken up on tortillas.
Huevos rancheros at Coppelia.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hollywood Diner

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Sometimes you need a good, greasy breakfast for dinner and Chelsea is one of the few neighborhoods with streets are still lined with old-school Greek diners. Hollywood is one of them, striving to give itself a touch of glamour with the name. In addition to all-day breakfasts, Hollywood does great burgers.

Two fried eggs, two plump sausages, to slice of toast, and a humongous pile of fried potatoes.
A classic diner breakfast at Hollywood.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Chama Mama

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As Georgian restaurants in the city have moved into Manhattan and become more sophisticated, they’ve added impressive wine lists focusing on the grapes of the region and expanded their menus of pomegranate-strewn appetizers, herby stews, and, of course, a wide variety of khachapuris, the famous cheese-stuffed bread with an egg in the middle. Chama Mama rates as one of the city’s best Georgian spots; among its better dishes are the lamb-stuffed grape leaves and game hen in garlic broth.

An oblong bread with handles has a gooey fried egg in a lake of molten cheese.
The Georgian stuffed cheese bread known as adjaruli khachapuri.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

This quintessential sushi takeout spot moved a block up last year and got fancier in the process. Three sushi chefs are now spotlit at the counter, rapidly packaging fish for a line of delivery cyclists while the three elegant dining rooms nearby sit largely empty. The prices are better than expected for sushi of this quality, and chefs will occasionally slip customers who dine in a complimentary piece of tuna belly as part of the budget assortment.

A decorative Japanese bowl filled with sliced fish in a variety of colors.
Chirashi at Mikado.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hav & Mar

On the western edge of Chelsea, find Hav & Mar, a new restaurant from Marcus Samuelsson. Handily merging the food of Sweden, Ethiopia, and New York, the celebrity chef presents an array of unlikely dishes, including Addis York, his version of the Ethiopian stew doro wat, featuring glazed chicken drumsticks triumphantly pointing skyward. The bread basket alone, containing fried injera, is worth visiting the restaurant for, and the best dish on the menu is the cavatelli with seafood in a creamy uni sauce.

Red glazed chicken legs point skyward with a boiled egg on the side.
Addis York, a playful take on the national dish of Ethiopia.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Ovest Pizzoteca

This decade-old pizza pioneer opened in Chelsea’s gallery district way before most other restaurants appeared there, with the exception of the Red Cat and a couple of other old-timers, most now long gone. The space is warehouse-like, the bar provides cocktails in addition to beer and wine, and the exemplary pizzas fly from a wood oven that casts flickering shadows on the brick walls — a perfect date spot.

A red and deeply browned margherita pizza with white pools of cheese and a basil leaf.
A wood-oven pizza from Ovest.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Salumeria Biellese

Before the current mania for Italian authenticity swept over the city, many cured pork products such as guanciale and lardo were tough to find unless you dropped by Salumeria Biellese. These ingredients are still for sale in glass cases, even though manufacturing has since shifted to Hackensack, New Jersey. These days, this 90-year-old pork store mounts a steam table full of red-sauce pastas at lunchtime, plus a menu of giant hero sandwiches. Order one that’s made with the shop’s distinguished charcuterie. 

An Italian deli interior with red checked tablecloths and guys standing behind a counter with glass cases.
Glass cases display the lunch options at Salumeria Biellese.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Swagat

Not to be confused with a more ambitious and expensive restaurant of the same name on the Upper West Side, Chelsea’s Swagat is a steam-table establishment, though a really exceptional one. (A quick glance at the pristine quality of the Indian offerings on display is enough evidence.) The all-day special includes one meat and one vegetable dish, plus dal, rice, and a naan; lamb curry is often one of the possible choices.

Vegetables, meat in brown gravy, yellow split peas, and rice on a white plate.
Lamb curry with two vegetable sides at Swagat.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jun-Men Ramen

When it opened in 2015, in the culinary dead zone that is Ninth Avenue in upper Chelsea, Jun-Men seemed to be part of the race among ramen-yas to see who could make the richest tonkotsu, a milky, pork-bone broth. The noodles themselves are above average, with plenty of spicy options, and the short list of appetizers is worth ordering from as well, especially the crunchy chicken wings and the stylish kale salad. But avoid the house mazemen, which wastes some perfectly good sea urchin in a wash of warm noodles.

A milky beige broth with oil droplets on its surface, with noodles and boiled eggs to be seen.
Tonkotsu ramen at Jun-Men.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Txikito

After a several-year hiatus, Txikito has returned to Chelsea with a bang, peddling Basque small plates of octopus, poached cod, beef cheek and jowl, and king oyster mushroom carpaccio. The chefs are the wife-and-husband team of Alex Raij and Eder Montero, and the premises recall a Spanish tapas bar in style, intimacy, and good smells.

Many small plates with Spanish food on them.
A spread of Txikito tapas.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Sullivan Street Bakery

A branch of the prized bakery that opened in Greenwich Village in 1994, this handsome and trim lunchroom serves pastries and egg breakfasts in the mornings before switching to sandwiches and Roman pizzas until closing. The custard-squirting bomboloni, either vanilla or chocolate, is worth seeking out, as are the loaves of bread and square slices of focaccia topped with ingredients like potatoes and zucchini, available all day.

A rectangular slice of pizza with potatoes and rosemary on top.
Potato focaccia at Sullivan Street.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hey Yuet

While the Chinese restaurants in this neighborhood once offered almost exclusively Chinese American fare, many have become more sophisticated, including the outstanding Hey Yuet. It’s one of the city’s better restaurants serving Cantonese dim sum and dishes from Hong Kong. From classic har gow to newfangled black bao adorned with a gold leaf, some of the best dim sum in town is to be found here all day and into the night.

Two hands hold up a steamer with three round black steamed buns inside.
This dark color is achieved with powdered charcoal.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pepe Giallo

This homey Italian restaurant on the edge of Chelsea’s gallery district makes a nice refuge after an afternoon of art-hopping. Founded in 1997, it used to be part of a great chain specializing in discount pastas whipped up on the spot, and part of that aura remains, though the menu now concentrates on antipasti, panini, and pizzas, with the occasional risotto or lasagna thrown in for good measure.

A crumbed and browned chicken cutlet under a nest of arugula and tomatoes.
Chicken milanesa makes a nice shared secondo.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Cookshop

Located in one of Chelsea’s quieter sections surrounded by distinguished older buildings, Cookshop was founded with a farm-to-table ethos in 2005 and has gradually grown to be a favorite spot for a tumultuous brunch or a quieter dinner. Vegetables are emphasized — even in its inventive pizzas — and there’s a substantial commitment to seafood, while many appetizers and entrees are prepared in a wood-fired oven.

People sitting at the corner or a bar with a bartender with blue hair and a very old building out the window.
Cookshop is one of the city’s best brunch options.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Qanoon

Occupying an elegant townhouse in western Chelsea, Qanoon slings distinguished Palestinian food. Many of the short dishes called mezze have rarely been produced so well in this area, including muhammara, hummus, baba ghanoush, and labneh configured as orbs for dipping. Main dishes are complete dinners, best of which is makloubeh, a lamb and eggplant casserole.

A basket of cut pitas in the upper left, plus a plate of hummus and chickpeas and three green orbs in a separate bowl.
Labneh balls and hummus are among Qanoon’s mezze highlights.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

El Quijote

El Quijote, founded in 1930, ranks among the city’s oldest Spanish restaurants. Located in the fabled Hotel Chelsea, it was sold and then closed for renovations, only to reopen last year. The premises are smaller than before, but the dining room is still charmingly decorated with elaborate murals, and a stop at the bar for a drink and some tapas remains one of Chelsea’s quintessential experiences.

El Quijote dining room with an orange mural covering the wall.
What was once the colorfully decorated barroom is now the entire restaurant.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Johny's Luncheonette

When it opened in 1994, Johny’s was located in Chelsea’s warehouse district between Sixth and Seventh avenues, an area also famed for its flea markets, now mainly gone. Johny’s was and still is just a tiny lunch counter serving eggs, pancakes, hamburgers, and sandwiches, but it has adapted to more modern times with a longer menu of invented heroes with names like Sloppy Johny and Curious George. Some sandwiches even have french fries tucked inside.

A hero sandwich with eggs, ham, and french fries tumbling out.
Here’s a hero you could eat for breakfast or lunch.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pisillo Italian Panini

Call them heroes, panini, or just Italian sandwiches, but Pisillo, which also has an outpost in the Financial District, excels at them. The menu is long, with Italian ingredients painstakingly listed for each of the various options, but this simple sandwich piled with mortadella, arugula, and squeakingly fresh mozzarella might be best of all.

A very long luncheon meat and fresh mutz sandwich, cut in half with the halves lying across each other like two legs.
Many heros incorporate fresh mozzarella.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Latin American

Once largely a Latin American neighborhood, most of Chelsea’s Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban restaurants are now long gone. And after the tragic closing of Milanes on West 25th Street, only Latin American remains, peddling pernil, Cuban sandwiches, chicken fricassee, liver and onions, and other dishes, many rotating on a weekly basis.