NYC Restaurants To Try This Weekend

NEW YORK, NY – Eating out in New York City can be a daunting prospect. With new restaurants opening virtually every day, keeping up with the best spots to try isn't easy — but Patch is here to help. Every week, we’ll showcase recently opened places in your neighborhood.

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Yellow Magnolia Café

Neighborhood: Crown Heights

Address: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1010 Washington Ave.

Open since April, Yellow Magnolia lies inside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden amid a sunny, polished greenhouse setting. Admission to the garden is required in order to access the cafe. Named for “the collection of distinctive yellow-flowered magnolias introduced by Brooklyn Botanic Garden,” the cafe is headed by chef and restauranteur Rob Newton, with a light menu that includes soups, chicken with ramp dumplings, fish tacos and other “plant-forward” options.

Hanoi House

Neighborhood: East Village

Address: 119 St. Mark’s Pl.

Hanoi House brings Vietnamese cuisine to St. Mark’s, and Yelp reviews laud the new restaurant, open since February, for its hip atmosphere and design, great service, bubbly servers, wine selection, its “unbelievable” shaking beef and the restaurant’s iced coffee with coconut gelato. Hanoi House serves crispy spring rolls, grilled octopus, spicy frog legs, clams, pho and other dishes as well as draft beer, Vietnamese coffees and wine by the glass.

Karu Café

Neighborhood: Long Island City

Address: 31-00 47th Ave.

The flavors of Paraguay and Venezuela merge at Queens’ Karu Café. Airy Venezuelan arepas mingle with dense curls of cassava flour and cornmeal fattened by cheese, milk and egg — known in Paraguay as chipas. Other dishes include tostones (fried plantains), with a motley of options to add on top, as well as sandwiches, empanadas, breaded beef, skirt steak and grilled chicken. There is also a children’s menu and an extensive selection of beverages and desserts.

Baby Brasa

Neighborhood: West Village

Address: 173 Seventh Ave. S

Underwear model-turned-chef Franco Noriega has opened his second restaurant in the West Village. Baby Brasa, open since May 12, has moved into a space previously occupied by Empire Szechuan Village and models itself after Peruvian pollerías, or poultry shops, while focusing on healthy and responsibly sourced meals, with rotisserie chicken as its signature dish. Somewhere between modeling and becoming a New York City restaurateur, Noriega found a happy medium creating online cooking tutorials as the “naked chef” while wearing little more an apron and a smile.

Miss Ada

Neighborhood: Fort Greene

Address: 184 Dekalb Ave.

A new Mediterranean restaurant has opened near Fort Greene Park as of May 11. The restaurant is the brainchild of Israeli-born chef Tomer Blechman, who has previously worked in the kitchens of Gramcery Tavern and Maialino. A play on the Hebrew word for restaurant, “misada,” Miss Ada offers modern Mediterranean fare with locally sourced ingredients such as herbs and vegetables grown in the restaurant’s own backyard. Patch first discovered the new restaurant when two wanted ads for bartenders and cooks emerged on Craigslist in early April.

Allora Italian Kitchen & Bar

Neighborhood: Bayside

Address: 210-35 26th Ave.

Detroit has arrived in Queens with a new family-style restaurant serving deep dish pizza. Allora Italian Kitchen and Bar has found its home in Bayside amid a 6,500-square-foot space with a high ceiling and enough room for 240 diners, including 12 at the pizza bar, 12 at the regular bar and another 65 in the restaurant’s private dining room. Allora’s menu features charcuterie, brick oven pizzas, pastas and an extensive wine and cocktail selection.

But even more interesting are the dessert options, which include a s’mores pizza, nutella tart and the colorfully creative milkshakes. Spoil yourself with Candy Land — strawberry ice cream, cotton candy pixy sticks, gummy poppers and Nerds — or treat yourself to Mars Attacks — caramel ice cream, Milky Way, chopped Snickers, Twix and chocolate pretzels.

Coffeemania

Neighborhood: Midtown

Address: 1065 Avenue of the Americas

Coffeemania’s website sets the record straight at the commencement: “Don’t let the name fool you — Coffeemania is much more than a coffee shop.” And, indeed, it is. Serving breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, Coffeemania opened in January and offers avocado toast, eggs benedict, a lamb burger, lobster rolls, scallops, chorizo sausages, steak, soups and more. The menus are extensive and the drinks are ample.

Food Stalls at Canal Street Market

Neighborhood: SoHo

Address: 265 Canal St.

The long-awaited food stalls at the Canal Street Market opened May 15, five months after the market’s debut this past December. The food stalls offer a bounty of options including Davey’s Ice Cream, miso soup at Izakaya & Samurice, Korean barbecue at Oppa and Boba milk tea from Boba Guys. There’s also a rotating pop-up shop in the food hall, currently occupied by beloved pie shop Petee’s Pie Company.

Photo credit: Pixabay