{"id":792145,"date":"2026-05-12T23:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792145\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:37:17","slug":"paul-carmichaels-caribbean-restaurant-kabawa-crowned-best-of-2026-by-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792145\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Carmichael\u2019s Caribbean Restaurant Kabawa Crowned Best of 2026 by the New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times\u00a0just debuted its annual ranking of the best 100 restaurants in NYC<\/a>, crowning Paul Carmichael\u2019s Kabawa as the top spot for 2026.<\/p>\n

The listicle, \u201cThe 100 Best Restaurants in New York City, 2026,\u201d was released in two parts, with the final unveiling of the top ten dropping today. This marks the first curated ranking from newly appointed co-chief critic Ligaya Mishan, who stepped into the role last summer. Over the course of ten months, Mishan \u201cscoured the city end to end,\u201d eating her way through hundreds of restaurants across all five boroughs in an attempt to narrow down the city\u2019s very best.<\/p>\n

Much like our own ranking of NYC\u2019s top restaurants<\/a>, the list doesn\u2019t solely prioritize tasting menus or $500-per-head experiences. Instead, Mishan focused on the diversity and personality of the city\u2019s dining scene, weighing \u201cimagination, ambience, service, technique, passion, commitment and sheer deliciousness\u201d\u2014and perhaps most importantly, \u201cNew York-iness.\u201d<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

For 2026, a whopping 33 restaurants made their debut on the list. Queens was especially well represented, with inclusions like one of Zohran Mamdani\u2019s favorite restaurants, Kabab King (100), streetside chalupa destination Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile (99) and the chicken and lamb tagines at Dar Lbahja (78). Other newcomers include Chinatown wine bar Lei (76), \u201cTop Chef\u201d winner Gregory Gourdet\u2019s Maison Passerelle (75) and Fidel Caballero\u2019s bold Mexican restaurant Corima (37), which also earned the distinction of serving the \u201cbest tortilla.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
\nPhotography courtesy of Borgo| Timballo di Anelletti <\/p>\n

Three new restaurants cracked the top ten this year: Bayside Taiwanese spot Mama Lee (10), Hooni Kim\u2019s Long Island City tasting-menu restaurant Meju (4) and the $330-per-person kaiseki experience Yamada (2). Joining them were Semma from the Unapologetic Foods team (7), Andrew Tarlow\u2019s Borgo (6) and the revived Torrisi (3). Fine-dining mainstays also rounded out the top ten, including Emma Bengtsson\u2019s Aquavit (8), Junghyun and Ellia Park\u2019s Atomix (8) and Jean-Georges Vongerichten\u2019s eponymous Jean-Georges (5).<\/p>\n

But the biggest headline belongs to Kabawa. Mishan praised Carmichael\u2019s ambitious take on Caribbean cuisine, highlighting the prix-fixe menu\u2019s \u201cgutsy pleasures\u201d and flavors of sorrel powder, tamarind, allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers. In her review last July, she specifically called out the restaurant\u2019s \u201celaborate overture of chutneys and breads,\u201d pepper shrimp (one of our own favorites from last year!<\/a>) and goat shoulder cooked with \u201can arsenal\u2019s worth of habanero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the full list\u00a0here.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Times\u00a0just debuted its annual ranking of the best 100 restaurants in NYC, crowning Paul Carmichael\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":532777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,10633,15291,10784,18625,405,403,10634,5226,5225,5228,5227,988,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-792145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-categories-restaurants","10":"tag-dating-good-for-date-night","11":"tag-good-for-good-for-going-in-a-group","12":"tag-good-for-good-for-going-with-friends","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news-eating","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-restaurants","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116564239897322728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}