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\n New York\u00a0subscribers got exclusive early access to this story in\u00a0Eating New York<\/strong>, a newsletter featuring food news and advice straight from our critics\u2019 mouths.\u00a0Sign up here<\/strong><\/a> to get it in your inbox.\n <\/p>\n \n Dosa onion rings from Onion Tree Pizza Co. in the East Village. The details that make a great restaurant \u2014 the staff, the linens, the crowd, the ever-elusive \u201cfeel\u201d \u2014 are practically infinite in both number and variety. But six months into 2025, we asked our chief critic and our \u201cUnderground Gourmet\u201d columnist to narrow their focus a bit, to instead tell us about the individual dishes they loved and haven\u2019t stopped thinking about. They answered with this list of ten sandwiches, squab platters, fresh-baked scones, and more.<\/p>\n The Best Banh Mi<\/strong> Super-Luxe Squab<\/strong> A Puerto Rican Pork Chop<\/strong> Scones That Always Sell Out<\/strong> Game-Changing Onion Rings<\/strong> Michael White\u2019s Mushroom Pasta<\/strong> A New Favorite Butter Chicken \u2026<\/strong> \u2026 And Some New Favorite Wings<\/strong>
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\n Photo: Hugo Yu\n <\/p>\n
<\/strong>Banh Anh Em<\/a>, 99 Third Ave.
There are just two components to this sandwich, both deceptively complex. It starts with a banh mi roll, baked on the premises, as perfect as I\u2019ve ever had, with a light-brown crust crackling around a nearly weightless crumb. It\u2019s split lengthwise and smeared with a slightly coarse Vietnamese p\u00e2t\u00e9, a fine-tuned recipe of pork and chicken liver soaked overnight in heavy cream that\u2019s then slowly cooked for three hours with ground pork and crispy shallots. It\u2019s seasoned with fish sauce, peppercorns, and a fiery-red four-month-fermented hot sauce that also comes on the side. Eating this was the first time I\u2019ve wanted a glass of red wine at a Vietnamese restaurant, which thankfully they serve as well. \u2013T.T.<\/p>\n
Le Ch\u00eane<\/a>, 76 Carmine St.
It\u2019s a tall order to get New Yorkers onboard with squab \u2014\u00a0the little birds are the young, farm-raised versions of what we see on our streets every day as \u2026 pigeons. Kudos, then, to chef Alexia Duch\u00eane, who just might manage it: The tender, magical bird was the standout of our recent meal at the restaurant she\u2019s opened with her husband, wine director Ronan Duch\u00eane. With its perfectly red, rare breast and cognac-sticky little legs and wings, the squab left my entire table swooning. I was so enraptured I failed to notice that the cross-hatched, seared-off wedges served under it were not, in fact, mushrooms, but lobes of foie, so decadent I thought that I, like they, might melt. \u2013M.S.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Kabawa<\/a>, 8 Extra Pl.
So many things stuck with me from Paul Carmichael\u2019s Kabawa duo (fine-dining Kabawa, Bar Kabawa next door) that I was hard-pressed to pick just one. Should it be the dressed-up patties, savory with short rib, conch, and bone marrow, fried to a flaking crisp and even better when sandwiched in a marshmallow loaf of coco bread? His buss up shut, loose rags of Trini roti served with a trio of chutneys? A boudin-like duck sausage \u201cjerked\u201d into the heights of fruity-heat heaven? It could\u2019ve been any, but in the event of a six-way tie, the win goes to the biggest: an almost pornographically large scroll of sliced pork chop, chuletas can can, borrowed from Puerto Rico, fatty but not incapacitating, peppery but not scalding, all around fabulous. \u2013M.S.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Mary O\u2019s Irish Soda Bread Shop<\/a>, 93 \u00bd E. 7th St.
It was one of the coldest days in January when I first tried these, when the early-morning scent of butter and berries wafted down a relatively deserted East Village block. I still think about these scones every day. In theory, Irish soda bread is an extremely simple recipe, but anyone who has tried one of these will agree that the magic is in Mary O.\u2019s hands. Batches are baked throughout the morning, which ensures that each scone is as fresh as can be, aided by a thick slice of salted butter and a juicy, homemade blackberry preserve spread down the split middle. \u2013T.T.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Onion Tree Pizza Co.<\/a>, 214 First Ave.
Chef Jay Jadeja loves dosas but hadn\u2019t considered himself skilled enough at making the crisp pancakes to put them on the menu at his Indian pizza kitchen. Instead of making a so-so dosa, he uses the same fermented-rice batter to coat thick rings of onion. They\u2019re fried and stacked up with a duo of chutneys \u2014 one savory coconut and thick, the other a refreshing cilantro. The batter makes the rings puff up like mini-doughnuts with a properly crisp exterior, while slices of red onion provide more pronounced flavor than white onion would. It\u2019s an ingenious combination, and I\u2019m surprised I haven\u2019t (yet) seen it in more places. \u2013T.T.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Santi<\/a>, 11 E. 53rd St.
The genteel atmosphere of this Midtown East dining room \u2014 the esoteric-aristo art collection, the Important lighting fixtures, the hushed gliding of the jacketed staff \u2014\u00a0ought to inspire starchy, perfect politesse. Good luck maintaining your composure. Michael White, one of the city\u2019s elder maestri of pasta-making, has proven he\u2019s still got what it takes to more than keep up with his successor-competitors in the field. I never had a bad pasta at Santi, but the one I still think about is (unusually for me) White\u2019s vegetarian mushroom busiate. The earthy reek of truffle shows its hand a mile off,\u00a0but just as good are the ordinarily humble trumpet mushrooms he tosses with his spiraling noodles. I\u2019m not the only one who\u2019s sold on this combo: According to the staff when I reviewed it this spring, this pasta is the restaurant\u2019s best seller. \u2013M.S.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Kebab aur Sharab<\/a>, 247 W. 72nd St.
Yes, this restaurant opened in the waning days of 2022, but it\u2019s lately become somewhat fashionable for upscale Indian restaurants to serve their take on butter chicken, and this restaurant serves two. One is more similar to the standard curry, and the other is a kebab version, made to emulate a recipe from Aslam Chicken<\/a> in old Delhi. Marinated dark meat is skewered and caramelized in a tandoor and plated on a broken sauce of hot butter and cream, finished with a spice blend composed of yellow chile, chaat masala, and black salt. The best accompaniment is a neatly folded roomali roti, which gets its pliable softness from green bananas in the dough. \u2013T.T.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Samyan<\/a>, 848 Fulton St., Clinton Hill
The wings at this new Brooklyn Thai spot are the closest thing I\u2019ve found to the still-talked-about Vietnamese wings served at the long-gone Pok Pok on the Columbia waterfront. And if you want to know the truth, these are better. The deliciousness comes from the technique: Using only the flats, each wing is split into two single-boned \u201cwinglets,\u201d effectively doubling the surface area for crunch and flavor. Once breaded and fried with a crust that doesn\u2019t fall off, they are glazed with a concentrated lacquer of sweet and salty caramelized fish sauce. \u2013T.T.<\/p>\n