It took me a while to warm up to DBGB’s room: It can feel a bit cavernous and cold. But once you start in on chef Daniel Boulud’s reengineered burgers and sausages and assorted versions of bistro/American greatest hits—and get absorbed in all the celebrity-chef-donated copper cookware lining the walls—suddenly all is warm and luscious and [...]

Sometimes the only thing that will do is a griddled Venezuelan corn cake smeared with salty white cheese, or with sweet plantains and avocado, or with grilled chorizo and jalapenos. These aren’t those flabby street-fest arepas. At Caracas Arepa Bar, they’re expertly [...]

A pizza and a glass of wine at Lil’ Frankie’s bar is the definition of low-maintenance East Village dining, if “dining” is the right word for this kind of easy, visceral wish fulfillment. The pizzas here aren’t making grand claims to Neapolitan authenticity or oldest-coal-oven-in-New-York or whatever, but they’re satisfyingly bubbling, charred pies with substance and style and [...]

Catch Il Buco on the right night, and it’s as close to a bull’s eye as you’ll get in NYC dining. Of course, saying that any restaurant hits the bull’s-eye is asking for trouble. No, Bond Street’s stalwart Italian restaurant Il Buco isn’t perfect—meaning you’re not going to have flawless food every single time you go, and your server won’t always win your undying love, and on busy nights you might even have to wait a tad bit past the point where you’re ready to walk. But very few other restaurants (in the neighborhood, in America, in existence) nail so brilliantly [...]

Is it because it’s tough these days to pick a name that isn’t already taken? Or because The Smile is simply the best name ever for a café? No matter. Swing by for a couple of exquisite espresso shots in one of the coziest, most beautifully furnished little rooms in [...]