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The 38 Essential New York Restaurants, July '14

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It's time to update the Eater 38, your answer and ours to any question that begins, "Can you recommend a restaurant?" This highly elite group covers the entire city, spans myriad cuisines, and collectively satisfies all of your restaurant needs, save for those occasions when you absolutely must spend half a paycheck. Every couple of months, we'll be adding pertinent restaurants that were omitted, have newly become eligible (restaurants must be open at least six months), or have stepped up their game.

This time around, after much reflecting and poring over reader emails and comments, Gabe Stulman's Italian charmer Perla is getting replaced by Danny Bowien's constantly evolving Mexican restaurant Mission Cantina. Up in Harlem, Red Rooster is getting swapped for critical darling/all-around fun restaurant The Cecil. And a bit further downtown, Hooni Kim's terrific Korean restaurant Hanjan is getting traded for Hell's Kitchen's blockbuster food hall Gotham West Market. Check out the revamped Eater 38:

Rather than a stage-4 meltdown over our having excluded your favorite restaurant from the list, wouldn't it be more productive to just nominate it for inclusion?

Note: Restaurants are listed based on geography, starting with lower Manhattan.

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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process. If you buy something or book a reservation from an Eater link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics policy.

Royal Seafood Restaurant

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[Foursquare]

Tamarind TriBeCa

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[Sam Horine]

Mission Cantina

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[Daniel Krieger]

Peasant

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[Foursquare]

Balthazar Restaurant

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[Photo: Krieger]

Rubirosa

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[Krieger]
[Krieger]
[Krieger]

The Dutch

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[Krieger]

Ushiwakamaru

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[Photo: Foursquare]

Charlie Bird

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[Photo: Bess Adler]

Momofuku Ssäm Bar

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[Photo: Facebook]
[Krieger]

The Spotted Pig

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[Photo: Krieger]

ABC Kitchen

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[Photo: Krieger]

Gramercy Tavern

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[Photo: Krieger]

The Cannibal Beer & Butcher

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[ Krieger]

Szechuan Gourmet

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[Photo: Yelp]

Keens Steakhouse

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[Keens]

Gotham West Market

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[Daniel Krieger]

Katsu-Hama

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[Foursquare]
[Krieger]
[Amali]

Bar Boulud

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[Photo: Noah Kalina]

The Cecil

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[Krieger]

This comfortable aerie above a hair salon offers some of the finest Tibetan food you’ve ever tasted, representative of the flock of Himalayan restaurants that have taken over the Jackson Heights dining scene. There’s blood sausage, meaty curries, the ragged noodles called thenthuk, and don’t miss the wiggly mung-bean jelly laphing, carpeted with Sichuan peppercorns. -- Robert Sietsema

Gregory's 26 Corner Taverna

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Tucked away on a side street, this may be the rustic Greek taverna you’ve dreamed about, offering steaming plates of zucchini fritters, fried salt-cod with garlicky skordalia, and fresh fish brought right to the restaurant by Long Island fishermen who are friends of the owner and left swimming on the porch in buckets. -- Robert Sietsema.

Bella Puebla

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[Photo: Paul Crispin Quitoriano]

M. Wells Dinette

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Maybe the art at the attached the museum ain’t always so good, but you can depend on this Motrealithic café to turn out food stunningly beautiful and stunningly delicious, with colorful flourishes worthy of a Mondrian or Kandinsky, via chef Hugue Dufour. Open only in the afternoons till 6 p.m. -- Robert Sietsema.

Reynard

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[Krieger]

St. Anselm

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[Photo: Facebook]

Roberta's Pizza

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[Photo: Facebook]

La Vara

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[Photo: La Vara]

Mile End Delicatessen

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[Photo:Facebook]

Littleneck

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[Krieger]