The 10 Best New Restaurants in America

Lincoln is the new Lincoln Center restaurant combining Chef Jonathan Benno's modern interpretation of Italian cuisine with the vision of restaurateur Nick Valenti. Their inspiration, the exquisite site beside Lincoln Center's reflecting pool and Henry Moore sculpture, is the starting point for a new dining experience. Lincoln has breathtaking panoramic views and a grass lawn roof, but its heart is the central open kitchen.
For Benno, this is a breakout role in a career highlighted by a decade of cooking at Per Se and The French Laundry. His cuisine blends precise technique with the ingredients and comforting feel of an Italian kitchen. The menu offers the chef's innovative takes on traditional preparations ranging from lasagne integrali ai funghi to maccheroni alla carbonara and raviolo d'astice. Antipasti coax rustic ingredients (oxtail, burrata, veal sweetbreads) into dishes with deep, savory flavors. Desserts, by Richard Capizzi, are beautiful renditions of Italy's classics: light, lush and irresistible

Our specialty is pasta and expressing the great regional variety that exists in Italy. Additionally we bake Neopolitan style pizza in our Italian wood-fired oven. Our wine program is almost exclusively Italian and our goal is to source esoteric, hard to find wines that reflect tradition and typicity.

Our design was the creation of Sean Quigley of Paxton Gate who is known for an accessible aesthetic based in the natural sciences, and it's cornerstone is the mantra of the triple r: refurbished, repurposed and reclaimed.

Five nights a week, chef César Ramirez offers the most outrageously fabulous meals in New York, prepared and served in a space that also acts as the prep kitchen of a grocery store on the same block. When I went early last year, the total number of seats was twelve. Recently he expanded to eighteen, and his partners have sprung for a seven-figure renovation. Yes, that's $1 million for one small room. It gleams. The food is of the moment and of the market, downtown Brooklyn's take on the chef's table. Ramirez, an ex-David Bouley protégé, is always there cooking, putting out at least twenty small courses, each a bite or three, aided by two assistants and a fellow by the name of Marcilino, the hardest-working dishwasher in New York.

The Tasting Kitchen became a less ceremonious version of L'Astrance, a Michelin three-star restaurant in Paris. The food: creamy, complex, and compelling. The wines: exquisitely matched. That waiter: suddenly transformed into a mastermind, particularly with whites. You might not have had a Listán Blanco from the Canary Islands. (Before this meal, neither had I.) Lane sent out mussels with fennel pollen in broth as rich as cream soup, tagliatelle with plum-marinated pork, butter-and-vermouth-braised halibut with chanterelles. The only break from richness was two different salads, the lettuces piled high, accented with beautifully biting vinaigrettes. The desserts, decadence from three countries: English trifle, Italian brown-sugar budino, French plum galette. This meal at the Tasting Kitchen was a tour de force. It's too decadent for the Beverly Hills crowd but ideal for Venice, where anything amazing is allowed.

Old-world comfort meets new-world sophistication at Grüner, an intimate restaurant devoted to the warm, hearty flavors of Middle Europe.

Grüner-"greener" in German-draws its culinary influences from a diverse geography, from the pristine Alps to the lower altitudes of the Danube Valley. Terrines and Alsatian flatbreads summon the mountains of France, while spätzles and calves' liver channel Bavarian spirit; farrotto with braised duck conjures Italy's northern climes, and nourishing goulash brings Hungary to mind.

An extensive wine list highlights selections from Austria, Germany, France, and Switzerland, and signature cocktails make use of distinctive spirits and herbal liqueurs.

Award winning Chef Renee Erickson (Boat Street Café/Boat Street Pickles) has partnered with Business Manager Jeremy Price and Developer Chad Dale to realize her long time vision for an Oyster Bar. It makes perfect sense then, that she would do it in her own neighborhood.
The Walrus and the Carpenter blends the elegance of France with the casual comfort of a local fishing pub. "The idea is to serve the highest quality food and drink in a space that is stripped of pretense and feels like home."

The newly restored Kolstrand building on the south end of Ballard Avenue, is the perfect home for this rustic, light-filled, oyster haven that even includes a heated outdoor space.

In addition to oysters, check out our menu that includes locally harvested clams and mussels, house smoked fish, and specialty meats. A full selection of wine, craft cocktails, and beer are also available.

philos­ophy

Uchiko will match the expe­ri­ence of food,wine and service found at its sister restau­rant Uchi; in a new setting with a Japanese farm­house aesthetic, crafted mate­rials and warm finishes to round out the dining expe­ri­ence. Uchiko's menu is a brand new selec­tion of composed dishes and sushi, taken from ideas and dishes orig­i­nally created at Uchi. Uchiko is Uchi rede­fined.
sustain­ability

Uchiko main­tains the following policy about the fish that we procure:

That we will use seafood prod­ucts that are sustain­able and respon­sibly fished when possible.

That we will work with our suppliers on sourcing fish prod­ucts that are trace­able and to obtain that infor­ma­tion when­ever possible.

Our goal at Uchiko is to main­tain the quality, creativity and fresh­ness of the food we serve while striving to main­tain a respon­sible policy towards sustain­ability, not just with our fish, but with the entire menu.

Named for a small French village a few steps away from the Italian border, Menton is located in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood.

Menton strives to create a welcoming, comfortable ambiance for guests to relax and enjoy themselves. With beautifully executed cuisine, an unparalleled wine program, gracious hospitality and a glamorous setting, we seek to excite, inspire, and transport guests for one memorable evening.

An unlikely locale for a restaurant with SoHo savoir faire: stark and simple, with opaque glass and no name on the door. Commis is a block buster, a neighborhood-changer, a primal economic and cultural force. Whether or not it's embraced by locals, it has to be admired for venturing where nobody is used to paying serious prices for food. The kitchen staff works out front, behind a tiny counter, eerily silent-as is the entire restaurant.

Longman & Eagle-the name pays tribute to a statue in nearby Logan Square-aspires to become a flophouse. You've got to admit, that's an uncommon ambition.
Longman & Eagle has two dining areas, wildly dissimilar. The back one looks like it was decorated by an 11-year-old with crayons. The front room, substantially more popular, has an unpainted plank ceiling, black tables, rusted industrial lamps, exposed pipes, a few plants, and no art except that found on the bodies of the customers, primarily unshaven hipsters lured there by a wide-ranging beer-and-booze list.