FOUND favorites, spring ‘26
Plus most anticipated new restaurants
Welcome to the FOUND NY Spring Report. Ahead: our favorite NYC restaurants, cultural finds, and getaways of the first few months of 2026 — plus our most anticipated restaurants for the season ahead.
Paid subscribers, keep your eyes open for links to Spring Reports from our other cities in this week’s newsletter.
RESTAURANTS • FOUND Favorites
Favorite new restaurants we visited during winter/early spring ‘26:
→ ODO EAST VILLAGE (East Village), captures the essence of kaiseki cooking without its formality (or the price tag), in a setting that feels familiar and unpretentious, in other words, the ideal restaurant-bar for NYC in 2026, reserve
→ BISTROT HA (Lower East Side, above), intriguing Vietnamese-French bistro menu from team behind Ha’s Snack Bar around the corner, reserve
→ MUSAAFER (Tribeca), inventive Indian cooking (by way of Houston) that tests the edge of modernism, but very much works, reserve
→ CONFIDANT (Brooklyn Heights), relocated from the wilds of Industry City, this seasonal restaurant immediately felt just right in its new hood, reserve
RESTAURANTS • Recent Notables
For our ongoing Kodawari series, in which we profile sushi counters practicing the uncompromising pursuit of perfection, we paid a pre-opening visit to Kobashi, opening its doors this month. Its chef, Gang Lin, has spent the last five years as the right hand to Tadashi Yoshida at Yoshino, one of FOUND’s top-two sushi counters in the city; now, he’s stepping out on his own. We also revisited Nakaji in Chinatown, which has a particular knack for sourcing the auction-grade uni of your dreams, as well Anba Omakase on the Lower East Side, another new sushi counter worth knowing.
Two spots to keep on your Midtown radar, one old and one new: On 52nd Street, the Italian restaurant Il Gattopardo is still going strong since 2001, while in Grand Central Terminal, Palladino’s provides an appealing new perch for cocktails and steak.
Because any restaurant hidden inside an art gallery is of great interest to us, consider a visit to Frevo in Greenwich Village.
RESTAURANTS • One-Year Club
Favorite FOUND restaurants that recently turned one year old, for your perhaps easier-booking pleasure.
CAFE COMMERCE (Upper East Side, above), longtime Village spot reborn in tighter uptown digs, neighborhood hit, consider lunch, reserve
SANTI (Midtown), chef Michael White returns to the NYC dance floor, bringing his gifts for pasta and seafood with him, reserve
LEON’S (Union Square), stylish all-day Italian (by way of Egypt) cooking from the team behind Anton’s in the West Village, reserve
F&F RESTAURANT (Carroll Gardens), the Franks expand empire with pizza-centric restaurant that’s great for reasons that transcend pizza, reserve
NINE NINES • Distilled Lists of NYC’s Best
FOUND’s 9 favorite restaurants in the neighborhood: Soho, East Village, Greenwich Village, West Village, Upper West Side, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Fort Greene, & Williamsburg.
BARS • FOUND Favorites
→ STARS (East Village), the new (tiny!) wine bar from the esteemed Claud/Penny team proved well worth squeezing in for. Its most expensive snack off a short menu is a country ham served with maple blinis, $18 per, and everyone gets Marcona almonds spiced with lavender and salt, gratis. Also very reasonable are the wine offerings from the list including 88 wines under $88 off the 1000-bottle list.
→ STONE AND SOIL (Kips Bay), don’t let the slightly unexpected location fool you: serious cocktails are being made here, rivaling the city’s best. In January, the city gained this cocktail den, a rare one that truly adheres to the Japanese bartending principles of restraint, precision, and purity of flavor.
→ PEACOCK ALLEY (Midtown), beyond the recently refreshed Waldorf Astoria’s enveloping marble main entrance, Peacock Alley signals that you’ve arrived — wherever you’re coming from. Given the sumptuously appointed surroundings, it’s also surprisingly welcoming. The Cheez-Its help.
→ SAAQI (Tribeca), the subterranean bar beneath Musaafer, proved a revelation. Under barrel-valuted brick ceilings, the all-glass bar runs almost the length of the space, the bottles behind lit as theatrically as the bar itself. Early in the evening, the room was already buzzing. After pulling up two plush bar seats, we listened as the bartender explained the lavishly illustrated (and well worth a read) menu of Indian-inspired drinks.
→ GOLDEN RATIO (Clinton Hill), translates the restrained, seasonal cooking philosophy from the team behind Place des Fêtes (down the street) and Cafe Mado (in Prospect Heights) into liquid form. The result is a botanical bar built around singular ingredients, with each of its 15 drinks offered in both full-proof and non-alcoholic versions.
GOODS & SERVICES • Recent Notables
LINDQUEST OBJECT, a new label from Providence, RI, landed recently in Boerum Hill, finding itself immediately at home on Atlantic Avenue’s stretch of design stores and fashion boutiques. The leather goods company’s first brick-and-mortar store is compact, but feels bright. All bags are made by hand in Rhode Island, a rarity in these Shein-obsessed times.
There’s a certain type of person for whom a round of golf is just a good walk spoiled. GUMTREE GOLF & NATURE CLUB in Greenpoint is for them. In a world awash in high-performance golf brands, Gumtree takes a different route to the green. The products are high-quality, beautiful, and sustainable, rooted in nature.
On the bakery beat, FOUND checked out DILJAN, a newly opened Afghan bakery on the border of Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights, where standouts include the Saffron Shah, a crescent moon-shaped laminated pastry filled with butter-yellow saffron cream and half dipped in a rosy glaze. We also paid a visit to the elusive BURROW, open at odd hours in Dumbo but worth seeking out, especially for the pillowy, chewy, olive oil-rich focaccia squares that might just be the best in the city.
GETAWAYS • FOUND Favorites
Vermont was very much on our minds. We checked in at THE TILLERMAN, a relative newcomer to the area, that operates as a restaurant, inn, and wedding venue, blending small-town charm with city-quality food. Think of it as Vermont’s answer to Stissing House: a historic space with inventive, seasonal cuisine. And then we took the larger measure of the Mad River Valley, from THE PITCHER INN to THE MAD TACO.
Closer to home, we checked in for a staycation at the EQUINOX HOTEL NEW YORK in Hudson Yards in NYC. It raised the question for our correspondent: Do I want my luxury hotel to feel like a gym?
For FOUND’s first-ever Oyster Week, we voyaged to Portland, ME, to appreciate the quiet bit of genius behind the oyster program at EVENTIDE: the ices.
GETAWAYS • NYC Hotels
FOR THOSE VISITING NEW YORK or seeking a stylish staycation, may we direct you to FOUND’s New Guard NYC Hotel Nines and Classic NYC Hotel Nines.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Restaurants, most anticipated
The new NYC restaurants we’re looking forward to the most in the coming months.
Oyatte (Murray Hill), former Atomix head chef Hasung Lee flips Kajitsu space into bi-level, Upstate farm-driven fine dining concept, opening early May