The Best Restaurant Openings in New York – September 2026

Top Chef season 22 semifinalist Lana Lagomarsini has opened a deeply personal tasting-menu restaurant on the Upper East Side. Named for her grandmother, Creola serves a $125 five-course menu drawing on the Black culinary diaspora, the American South, and Lagomarsini’s New York upbringing. Dishes include an oxtail pâté en croûte with plantain and a turmeric crust meant to evoke a Jamaican beef patty, and head-on shrimp with red-eye gravy, benne bread, and shrimp-head butter.

Every month it seems there’s a new bakery New Yorkers can’t stop talking about. This month, it’s a SoHo shop built around a single loaf: a 3.3-pound rye sourdough that costs $60. Martin and Tim Auer come from an Austrian baking family whose business dates to 1946. Each loaf contains organic rye flour imported from Austria, water, and salt, with the dough fermented for up to 24 hours before it is baked on-site. The bread has become a viral sensation, sold from a minimalist space that looks more like a showroom than a bakery. Anyone curious but unwilling to spend $60 can order toast with spreads starting at $6, a quarter loaf for $15, or a half loaf for $30.

Many people are saying there’s never been a better time to eat Mexican food in NYC. Giovanni Cervantes and Tania Apolinar have helped make that case with Taqueria Ramirez, Carnitas Ramirez, and Socceria. The couple has now joined forces with Mexico City-born chef Carlos Barrera on a West Village seafood and natural wine bar. El Camarón Peludo translates to “the hairy shrimp,” and its namesake is both mascot and menu fixture, served in a cocktail, sliced raw as carpaccio, and butterflied and charred for camarones zarandeados. Aguachile negro and sardine tacos keep the menu rooted in Mexican seafood cooking, while tomato salad with boquerones and Basque cheesecake nod to Spain.

This red-sauce joint opened on Court Street in Cobble Hill in 1930 and remained a neighborhood mainstay until closing in 2025. After a brief hiatus, Sam’s is back under new owner Georgia Fulton, who spent 12 years at the nearby Long Island Bar before taking over the restaurant. As far as Italian restaurants go, it doesn’t get much more old-school than this. The red vinyl booths, checkered tablecloths, wood-paneled walls, and other beloved details remain, as do menu staples such as pizza, baked clams, and chicken parmigiana with spaghetti or ziti. Fulton has been bolder with the drinks, introducing a revamped cocktail program and broader wine list.

In a town full of pricey omakases and caviar bumps, the East Village has made room for something a little less buttoned-up: an old-school Southern buffet from David Yun, Steve Choi, and Yong Min Kim, the restaurateurs behind Kisa and Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient C as in Charlie. Inspired by the country buffets they visited while growing up in Georgia, Good Time Country Buffet fills its hot bar with crispy fried chicken, rib tips, Salisbury steak, collard greens, cornbread, mac and cheese, and rotating specials. Save room for banana pudding. At $26.99 for all you can eat, it might just be the best deal in town.

Inside The Public Theater, The Astor brings together the theater, the partners behind Joe’s Pub, and NoHo Hospitality Group. Chef Angel Monge works alongside chef-partner Andrew Carmellini on a menu inspired by old New York taverns and supper clubs. Wood paneling, red banquettes, playbills, photographs, and other artifacts from The Public’s history set the scene for Steak Diane made with prime filet, mushrooms, and cognac jus; Pigs in Wellington with bourbon mustard; and ice-cold martinis from the bar.

Keith McNally’s 23-year-old son, George, has officially entered the family business with Faux, a French bistro in Tribeca. McNally raised $1.5 million from investors rather than relying on his father for financing, although the restaurant’s lived-in, sceney atmosphere still carries echoes of McNally institutions such as The Odeon. Chef Kristina Ramos helms the kitchen, turning out broiled oysters, a dry-aged burger, and steak frites. Downstairs, the late-night lounge Prevz keeps the party going after dinner.

Catch Hospitality Group, whose portfolio includes The Eighty Six and celebrity magnet The Corner Store, turns to coastal French cooking at its latest West Village restaurant. Chef Jake Tyler Brodsky spent seven years at Palm Heights in the Cayman Islands after working at Eleven Madison Park, and restaurateur Eugene Remm recruited him after dining there. Back in New York, Brodsky pairs brasserie standards such as steak frites and pommes purée with raw-bar offerings and seafood dishes including grilled branzino and raw tuna belly with peppers, olives, saffron aioli, and chips. Rockwell Group designed the swanky dining room.

Named for Thailand’s fragrant jasmine rice, Hommali gives the staple grain a recurring role across its food and drinks. Chef Chattchakorn “Benz” Khajornchaisan, general manager Kritayanee “Air” Promsarin, and operations lead Pichalak “Picha” Srigungvarl, all Bangkok natives, opened the West Village restaurant as an expression of their Thai roots. Khajornchaisan’s five-spice duck comes with fermented chile and duck-fat lotus rice, while grilled prawns, scallops, squid, and crab crown the seafood fried rice. Rice also slips behind the bar in Saltfields rice lager, the Tomato cocktail made with rice wine, and the Banana, built on jasmine rice-infused whiskey.