FOUND's restaurant issue
Kabawa, best new guard lunch, Mitsuru, Lucciola, Hellbender, Ha’s Snack Bar, Leon's, King, Lei, MORE
ABOUT FOUND • Restaurants
Where should you eat right now
At FOUND, we capture the restaurant scene via three primary lenses — short narrative pieces relaying our experiences dining in the field (First Person, First Word & FOUND Table), distilled lists of recommendations (The Nines), and interviews with the city’s movers, shakers, and industry insiders of taste (Routines).
FOUND is fascinated with what’s new, reporting regularly on just-opened spots before the rush. Just as interesting to us: those places that haven’t received their just acclaim, and old favorites that reward return visits. And while we will spend $350 per person for an extraordinary experience, we are equally at home at an exemplary neighborhood bistro.
Across the breadth of our coverage, we’re as focused on the room and the vibe — the way the restaurant makes you feel — as we are the food. We’re also obsessed with the movements and trends shaping the dining scene, from the evolving reservations game (and challenges of getting a table) to the shifting parameters of what constitutes a power lunch. And finally, our coverage reaches beyond the city, into the suburbs and weekend getaway markets (i.e., “surrounds”).
Here now, a sampler of FOUND pieces from the year in restaurants for your late-August enjoyment.
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Paul’s Boutique
Kabawa isn’t just serving some of the most delicious food in New York City right now, it’s doing so in a particularly joyful way, launching New York’s dining scene into the future, while at the same time staying very true to the Momofuku brand.
Like the bar next door, Kabawa’s helmed by chef Paul Carmichael, who ran the excellent, dearly departed Momofuku joint Má Pêche in Midtown before decamping to Australia to oversee the extremely elevated tasting menu at the group’s also-shuttered Sydney restaurant Seiōbo. Having dined at both those restaurants, we knew Carmichael’s cooking to be technically incredible, and of a piece with Momofuku founder Dave Chang’s culinary philosophy of serving dishes that surprise but also supremely delight.
Now, the Barbados-born Carmichael has been given the green light by Chang & Co. to cook Caribbean food his way at Kabawa, remixing all the influences that comprise the region’s melting pot of culinary traditions. The three-course prix fixe ($145 per) features seven or eight starter options, around half a dozen entrees, and five desserts. A few of them have supplemental charges and/or bolt-ons (which are fun, but also okay to skip).
Everyone’s seated at the horseshoe counter framing an open kitchen in the middle of the room, a holdover from the space’s past life as Momofuku Ko. Interaction (and an occasional fist bump) with the chefs is inevitable, very much part of the show. Caribbean music blasts from speakers in the ceiling as the opening bread course — hot, buttery, griddled roti, served with four chutneys and relishes — sets a ridiculously high bar for what’s to come. The sauces are citrusy, acidic, sweet, and hot, sometimes all at once. The roti tastes as though it was genetically modified to perfection, and not just plain evidence of Carmichael’s flawless grasp of the fundamentals (which it is).
With the appetizers, it’s hard to see any way to go wrong except with the pepper shrimp, the only dull dish we’ve sampled at Kabawa. The cassava dumplings bear special notice, the Caribbean root vegetable fashioned into small, silky smooth balls stewed with creole sauce — a truly ethereal offering.
The mains are all terrific. Carmichael’s beloved scotch bonnet fried chicken has sadly disappeared from an early menu — if you see it, get it — but you’ll be more than fine without it. A hunk of goat served under a spicy scallop creole has immediately earned a place in the firmament the city’s great dishes, a slightly oceanic funk from the scallops emerging from a dollop of curry unlike any other you’ve had, permeating meat that barely needs a fork (let alone a knife) to cut through.
It wouldn’t be a Momofuku restaurant without some sort of large-format selection, and here, it’s chuletas can can, a pork chop roasted and deep fried, served with the fat very much still on it (and, at the tips, crisped into phenomenal crackling). Like all the mains, it’s accompanied by a green salad, plus bowls of rice and beans, as well as two slices of Asian pear. Those seemingly innocent beans are revelatory — tender, and as though they have access to an extra dimension of flavor that Carmichael had to cut a Faustian bargain to access.
Does a palate cleanser of untouched fruit have any right (or need) to be a meal highlight? Not until a chilled bowl of tamarind shows up, in its whole form, one per diner, with instructions on how to eat it. Beyond being delicious and fun, it’s a thing so many restaurants don’t (or simply can’t) aspire to: enlightening.
Many desserts involve coconut — a turnover with cream cheese for two seems to be a big hit; one night also offered a coconut sorbet, a fixture that will rotate flavors — but whatever you do, elect the birthday flan, a custardy delight covered in a featherweight caramel and rainbow sprinkles. It is, after all, cause for a party. Momofuku and Carmichael’s don’t-call-it-a-comeback banger speaks to a burgeoning rearrangement of New York restaurant map, as flavors and cuisines that have yet to find themselves dutifully represented in the city’s dining scene are now being beautifully stood up in its highest echelons. What isn’t there to celebrate? –Foster Kamer & Lockhart Steele
→ Kabawa (East Village) • 8 Extra Pl • Tue-Sat 530-10p • 3-course prix fixe $145 per • Reserve.
–06/10/25
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Lunch, new guard
Cafe Commerce (Upper East Side), chef Harold Moore restarts Village favorite uptown, T-F from 1145a
Café Carmellini (Nomad), fine dining w/ 2- or 3-course pre-fixe options, intel, M-F 1145a-2p
Leon’s (Union Square), Italian dishes for business-forward crowd from team behind Anton’s, intel below, M-F, 8a-10p
Sappe (Meatpacking), Thai lunch sets featuring small selection of menu plus Thai tea or coffee, intel, M-F 12-330p
San Sabino (West Village), seafood forward Italian menu from Don Angie team, M-F 1130a-230p
Manuela (Soho), LA transplant featuring loud artistic interior and large lunch menu of American seasonal fare, M-F 1130a-230p
Kisa (Lower East Side), Korean style diner with three lunch specials plus banchan, T-Sun 11-230p
Strange Delight (Fort Greene), selection of menu favorites, plus ‘seafood and three’ for $25 per, intel, F-Sun 1130-330p
Cafe Mado (Prospect Heights), cafe-style menu featuring sandwiches on bread from sibling bakery, M, W-Sun 12-330p
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
–02/25/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Village center
Some deserving restaurants open to immediate acclaim. Others, for whatever reason, take a minute to heat up. But rarely does a great new restaurant fly under the radar, smack in the middle of Greenwich Village.
Here’s one that does — for now. And given how excellent it really is, likely not much longer.
Mitsuru, on a downtrodden stretch of West 4th Street not far from Washington Square Park, opened its doors in November. Its chef Mitsuru Tamura cut his teeth at Naomichi Yasuda’s pioneering Sushi Yashuda in Midtown East, before being anointed by the master as his replacement when Yasuda moved back to Japan in 2010.
Now very much in the prime of his career, Tamura stands alone behind the eight-seat sushi counter at his namesake restaurant. In contrast to many of Manhattan’s austere counters set in their own throne rooms, Mitsuru’s shares space with an appealing dining room. A mod pale green sofa curves from the entryway into the brick-walled room filled with tables, chairs, and a L-shaped green banquette leading to the counter at the back of the room.
On my first visit in April, in search of a quick dinner before a friend’s book party, we tucked into a table along the banquette and dug into the menus. The first, titled Today’s Fish, shows a tally of à la carte raw fish offerings; the second includes a mix of additional handroll offerings and an appealing selection of Japanese dishes from the kitchen.
We started with two very good tuna handrolls, which arrived at the table do-it-yourself style. But where things got exciting was the cooked dishes. The unagi don (eel served over rice with cucumbers) delighted us with its elevated comfort, and the sea bass tempura — three pieces with a crisp crust and fish inside as light as the upper atmosphere — amazed with its texture and delicate taste. We were in and out in 60 minutes. And hooked.
When I returned to Mitsuru last week, it was to put myself in the hands of Tamura himself. Guests at his counter choose between two omakases, $175 and $275 per. We went big, and laughed out loud when the chef presented our first dish: three tiny, fried saltwater crabs from Japan, which we squeezed with lemon and popped into our mouths whole. Equally unforgettable was the striped jack, served warm in scallion broth, dazzling with grated radish on top. (This first portion of the omakase also included a six-piece sashimi course and several torched fish courses.)
The nigiri procession (14 in all) started with sea bream, and made its way through spot prawn, Hokkaido uni, and otoro (both raw and seared), before closing out with an eel double-dip (one served with salt, the other with eel sauce). We thought a toro handroll and tamago would finish our meal, but then came the final flourish, a luscious slice of crown melon. (The restaurant told me that the $175 omakase drops the sashimi, uni, tamago, and melon — leaving plenty of the good stuff at a very good price point.)
Throughout our 90-minute meal, we chatted easily with the chef, the vibe as light and enjoyable as I’ve ever experienced at a sushi counter, the atmosphere further aided by the sounds of Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan wafting throughout the room. Wonderfully, this is a counter and dining room bereft of the bromakase crowd, at least on the nights we were there.
Let’s hope it stays that way. I mentioned Mitsuru to a friend who lives in the West Village and knows her way around an omakase to see if it was on her radar. “Oh, we love Mitsuru — we’ve been five or six times,” she responded. As it inevitably happens in New York City, the word is getting out. –Lockhart Steele
→ Mitsuru (Greenwich Village) • 149 W 4th St • Tue-Sat 5-10p, omakase seatings at 530, 730, 930p • Reserve.
–05/20/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Hidden in plain sight
When I arrived for dinner late last month on Amsterdam near 90th St., I wasn’t sure I was in the right place. Aside from a softly glowing sign, the restaurant looked completely closed, its windows veiled behind a table-less al fresco patio.
I had come uptown on the recommendation of a cousin, who’d heard from someone high up at New York’s Italian consulate that this was the best pasta restaurant in New York. Despite opening eight years ago — and despite thinking of myself as someone generally tapped into the New York restaurant scene — it was completely new to me.
That’s because those in the know keep it under wraps. The 20 seats are routinely filled almost exclusively by regulars. And now, having experienced the place, I’m tempted to gatekeep it myself.
Led by chef Michele Casadei Massari, Lucciola is essentially a glorified closet, inlaid head-to-toe in wine — roughly 1,600 bottles, most of which is Italian — with just a handful of tables tucked in between. It instantly reminded me of the original Torrisi.
In an industry where success is typically fashioned by following well-worn formulas, Lucciola is an anomaly. There are no traditional menus, nor wines by the glass (although there might be something open when you pop in). There isn’t even a walk-in fridge.
“We don’t freeze. We don’t store. We don’t reheat,” the chef told me.
Every morning, the team decides what they’ll serve that day based on seasonality and instinct. The resulting five-, seven-, or nine-course tasting features rustic yet modern cooking, rooted in the traditions of Bologna where Casadei Massari grew up. (Despite the no-menu mantra, Lucciola does also offer guests the option to choose a three-course tasting from the restaurant’s past hits, or a six-course menu wed to dishes from Emilia-Romagna.)
Here’s how my meal unfolded: To kick off, a few small bites included sautéed porcini in a porcini béchamel atop house-baked pinsa flatbread, finished with Umbrinan truffles. Next, an oversized tortelloni stuffed with ricotta and Parmigiano Reggiano, served in a light sage foam, finished by an oversized coin of house-churned butter. Then, a puck-sized portion of lobster pasticcio made with maltagliati (“badly cut” in Italian) pasta, layered in a lobster bisque, flashed in the oven with a bit of Parmigiano Reggiano, and finished with Adamas Baerii caviar.
Even more, there’s a sweet and salty risotto carbonara crowned with a custardy confit duck yolk, glossy ribbons of guanciale, and more fresh truffle. Despite what looks like a single layer of rice pooled in the center of a Ginori 1735 porcelain bowl, the dish is too rich for just one person (though I’d go back just for a single bite of it). Protein courses and dessert follow, but the highlights here are those pastas and rice.
In the last decade of covering restaurants and dining out multiple times a week, Lucciola is one of the most memorable meals I’ve had in New York City. It has that rare magic, the kind that’s almost impossible to find anymore. I just hope I’ll still be able to get in. –Kat Odell
→ Lucciola (Upper West Side) • 621 Amsterdam Ave • Mon-Thu 6-10p, Fri-Sun 5-10 • tasting menus from $189 • Reserve.
–05/13/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Hell’s belles
I took my 16-year-old son with me to a Sunday evening dinner at Hellbender. He had just come from a session at the batting cages and was dressed casually. I hoped that having a tall, athletic teenager as an accessory might make up for my own resolutely casual baseball mom look while going to a bar in the depths of Queens’ nightlife epicenter, Ridgewood. Yet while the music is just-right, there’s no dress code and no bouncer at Hellbender, which occupies a charming corner of Forest Avenue, and turns a year old next week.
Hellbender is the third venture from the partners behind Ridgewood’s gold dining standard Rolo’s and Greenpoint’s perpetually buzzy Radio Bakery. Chef-partner Yarra Herrera is an alum of Spago in Los Angeles and Momofuku Ko in New York.
From our table, I had a clear view of an attractive taxidermied jaguar mounted on one of the art-filled walls. I drank Topo Chico in an elegant tumbler, inside which were stacked three very attractive clear ice cubes, and the kid had a blender drink — strawberry, coconut, pineapple, and lime juice, served in a tall glass full of (also gorgeous) ice nuggets. This attention to the aesthetics of ice is a tip-off that the place originally opened as a bar (they called it a “nighttime café”), with just enough good food to keep hungry drinkers upright. The other tell is the smart-but-not-too-smart cocktail list, featuring a bitter mai tai, and a rum and amaro-laced carajillo that, in a better world, would shut down the espresso martini industrial complex, forever.
I let my son order and he went for a straight line of legible pleasure, starting with guacamole and freshly fried tortilla chips, followed by a taco course: crisp, sweet, and piquant lamb topped with salsa roja, and juicy roasted oyster mushrooms with black beans and a citrusy tahini. He devoured the al pastor ribs, poblano and cilantro-inflected rice, and a jammy bowl of refried black beans. He also swiped a hefty sample of my arctic char, served with crisp ribbons of jicama and fennel, dressed in a mildly smoky chile vinaigrette.
For dessert, we had the key lime jello, a molded visual throwback with propulsively right-now flavor, and a squiggle of chocolate custard with whipped cream and pleasingly salty candied Rice Krispies bits. After dinner, getting into an Uber with my kid and his baseball equipment, both of us well-fed and satisfied, I felt like a cool mom. –Laurie Woolever
→ Hellbender (Ridgewood) • 68-22 Forest Ave • Wed-Thur 5-10p, Fri 5-11p, Sat 11a-3p & 5-11p, Sun 11a-3p & 5-10p • Reserve.
–02/21/25
RESTAURANTS • First Person
High bar
“Now, or nine?” Front of the line, Friday, 530p, right as they opened, and my second shot at a walk-in two-top at newly debuted Ha’s Snack Bar wasn’t going much better than my first (at 6p on a Wednesday, I was offered a 9p that I had to decline). This time, I took the 9, called a friend, and told him to meet me in 3.5 hours. I wasn’t totally surprised: Ha’s is the long-awaited, first true brick-and-mortar space from Sadie May Burns and Anthony Ha, the couple behind beloved pop-up Ha’s Đặc Biệt.
Since 2019, Ha’s showed up in increasingly popular stints at some of New York’s most beloved spots (and also, some in LA, SF, Montreal, London, and Paris). I’d been to two: one at East Village tex-mex spot Yellow Rose and the other, a collaboration dinner with perennial Paris favorite Bistrot Paul Bert, at Williamsburg pizza destination Leo. Both were booked solid, buzzy, and fun. Both had brilliantly conceived dishes punchily underlining inventive touchpoints between Vietnamese flavors and (respectively) tex-mex, bistro fare, and pizza.
So some trouble getting in to their new spot was expected. Which is to say nothing of how small the space on Broome Street actually is: 24 seats. Ha’s kitchen, open in the back of the restaurant, can barely fit two people. It feels less New York in 2025 than it does Paris, where tiny spaces with intimate dining environs deliver inversely proportional impact to the city’s culinary landscape. But such is Ha’s Snack Bar, in New York, in 2025: exceptional food, a killer wine list, and impeccable vibes, which were evident as soon as I got back to the restaurant. Buzzing and nearing the end of a turn, the staff was warmly welcoming, effusive that we’d followed through with the commitment to the late table.
Robyn, Solange, and Alice Deejay floated out of two beautiful, vintage Klipsch hi-fi speakers in wood cabinets hung over the room, which is otherwise appointed discerningly and warmly. Striking paper lighting fixtures by designer James Cherry cast amber glows over the room, while a floral arrangement via Burns’s mother frames the bar, next to which sits a French bistro style chalkboard menu.
That chalkboard is key to understanding Ha’s heart, which could be summed up as French classics freaked by fish sauce. We started with oeufs mayonnaise, two halves topped with anchovy and chilis. Heat also shows up on a slice of french baguette topped with chicken liver pate, adorned with cilantro and bird’s eye chilis. A carrot salad with rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) and Asian pear was sunshine bright with vinegary sweetness, and a dish of shelled escargot with garlic and tamarind butter was a great excuse to ask for more baguette.
But the star of the show (and nearly every table there) was a vol au vent of curried lamb. The intricate, rich French puff pastry classic isn’t something you see often in New York — at Ha’s, we had it in what appeared to be its second iteration (the first involved lobster). On a freezing winter night, it was hearty, warming, and redolent with wow factor.
We couldn’t resist ordering all three desserts: breaded coconut pudding, a poached pear tartlet with caramel sauce, and our favorite, a citrus dreamsicle of sorbet, grapefruit slices, and whipped panna topped with passion fruit. The wine list, entirely French and Italian, read like a who’s who of cool-kid natural vintners.
We left just after 1030p, out into the freezing January night, pondering the value of a restaurant that will probably stay very, very hard to get into — a reservation system that’s hard to game (“released every three weeks,” per an Instagram), and walk-in availability that requires, above all else, commitment to the bit. I’m not mad at these barriers — far from it. Not since the original iteration of Momofuku Ko has there been a smaller space in such high demand, and there maybe hasn’t been a restaurant in New York as stunningly au currant and forward-facing as it, either. Like so many great things, Ha’s was — and is — worth the wait. –Foster Kamer
→ Ha’s Snack Bar (Lower East Side) • 297 Broome St • Wed-Sat 530-1030p • Reserve.
–02/04/25
RESTAURANTS & WORK • First Person
Union Square venture
Finally, in the waning daylight of 2024, comes a restaurant that lives at the intersection of two FOUND obsessions — ambitious new dining ventures and the modern workplace. Behold, Leon’s, a new all-day upscale Italian canteen just south of Union Square from the team behind the seductive West Village spot Anton’s.
Last month, when Leon’s swung open its doors on 12th Street, venture capitalist (and friend of FOUND) Fred Wilson declared his intention to take as many meetings there as possible. At last, a post-pandemic successor to fill the void left by Coffee Shop and Maialino, which served as magnets for the city’s VC and tech scene in the aughts and ’10s, respectively.
“I hope… we can recreate the vibe we had going at those spots before the pandemic came along and messed things up,” blogged Wilson, who also wrote that he helped convince Anton’s partners, Nick Anderer and Natalie Johnson, to set up shop here.
My first trip to Leon’s was an early Friday evening in November. When I met my companions at the bar, I spied a NYC tech founder on a stool to our left. He was back for dinner with his wife after lunch earlier in the day with another NYC tech founder. “You just missed Fred Wilson,” he said.
Anton’s is a personal favorite, and Leon’s menu certainly shares a lot of Anton’s DNA, albeit with an Egyptian twist — at dinner, for instance, whole fish can be prepared “Italian or Egyptian.” But Leon’s high ceilings, generous banquettes, and massive columns make for a markedly different experience. Where Anton’s is all warmth, Leon’s was giving off straight cool.
As at Anton’s, there are ample, warming rewards on the edges of Leon’s menu and in its salads and pastas, especially the escarole with sesame and anchovy and the lemon tagliolini. The latter, a lively twirl with bright accents of sea beans and fennel pollen, may win a place in my heart next to another deceptively layered, addictive pasta, Anton’s spaghetti anchoiade.
Over the course of our meal, the cool room filled with cool people, and by the time we left, it seemed like maybe Leon’s was going for something different here — darker, more scene-y.
In December, I returned, this time in the daylight and with most of the FOUND NY team for our second annual holiday lunch. Bathed by the sun, Leon’s was a totally different experience, and the room met the moment of our festive gathering. Co-owner Anderer told us how they’d been tinkering with the lighting, trying to get it right in this impressive, challenging space. Leon’s doesn’t have Anton’s inherent charms, baked in as they are on the corner of Hudson and 11th, but maybe it’s just warming up.
The FOUND crew sat at the big, round table in the middle of the dining room while it filled once again, and we passed around those pastas and salads (and the eggplant boulettes, wow) as sunshine flooded in. “I can’t believe I’m eating this food and looking out at The Strand,” remarked one of my colleagues. Two tables over, Fred Wilson was taking a meeting. –Josh Albertson
→ Leon's (Union Square) • 817 Broadway • Tues-Fri 8a-10p, Sat-Sun 10a-10p • Reserve.
–12/24/24
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
It takes two
JESS SHADBOLT & ANNIE SHI • co-founders, chef & beverage director • King
Neighborhoods you work: Soho & Rockefeller Center
Neighborhoods you live in: Fort Greene & Upper East Side
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
JS: We recently opened for lunch at King on Fridays, and it certainly kicks off the weekend feeling in the restaurant! Something about a long lunch to start the weekend feels so luxurious. Now that we’re into spring and the weather is getting good, I tend to close out the week catching up with the chefs on the terrace, talking through weekend menus, and ordering produce from the market while podding peas and fava beans.
AS: I just opened my wine bar in Chinatown, Lei. Back when we were in construction, I would plan my check-in around groceries from the neighborhood — soft tofu from Fong On, lap cheong and some zong zi from Sun Ming Jan to have for breakfast the next morning, and always the freshest greens from the street stands. If I'm feeling ambitious, I walk to Di Palo's in Little Italy, where we buy our ricotta at King, to pick up fresh mozzarella and bresaola for an aperitivo snack plate to share with my husband.
Where are you drinking or dining this weekend?
JS: Having spent most of the week in restaurants — either King, or our sister restaurant Jupiter — I tend to spend weekends at home, cooking in my kitchen. I've loved introducing my New York friends to the British tradition of Sunday lunch as a reminder of home. Usually I’ll prepare a rib of beef, yorkshire puds, horseradish cream — the works!
AS: We go to Eli's Table at least once a week — it’s our local Upper East Side spot and we couldn't be more lucky to have access to Eli's incredible cellar right underneath our apartment. Thibault is the wine director there, and is exceptionally talented — he can always meet the brief with something delicious.
Any weekend getaways?
JS: I love to visit Sara and Sohail at Brushland Eating House in Bovina whenever I’m Upstate. I stay at The Owl’s Nest, feast on one of Sohail's celebratory dinners, and bask in the warmth of this beautiful dining room amongst great people. It’s forever my favorite place outside of the city.
AS: Like everyone else in New York, we love going away Upstate too. Some hotel prices have gone through the roof in recent years, but the White Hart Inn in Salisbury, CT remains reasonable. Check out Black Squirrel Antiques if you’re in the neighborhood for some great gems.
What store or service do you always recommend?
JS: Head straight to PORTA on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn and buy everything in the store! The owners, Alice and Francesca, source beautiful heritage crafts with contemporary design from across Europe, resulting in a homeware collection like no other.
AS: On the Upper East Side, Schaller & Weber is one of our favorite old-school German delis and butchers, and a place we love bringing family and friends who come to visit. We always go for the incredibly hot mustard, bratwurst, and sauerkraut. They also have great marzipan fruits and in the wintertime, the best Haribo advent calendars.
Where are you donating your time or money?
JS: I feel so lucky to be part of the chefs committee for the childhood cancer foundation, Cookies for Kids Cancer.
AS: We have become good friends with Steve and Lisa who run The Here And There Collective, a non-profit that supports artists from the Asian diaspora. And I feel lucky to have been a part of Prep for Prep, which changed my life.
–06/13/25