December is drawing to a close, and–no surprise–we've been thinking a lot about eating. More precisely, food that we've eaten in 2006. We've had some wonderful nosh in restaurants, cooked up several new recipes, and have of course mourned the loss of a few of our old favorite eateries in NYC.
Just as we did last year, we took part in Eater's annual Year in Eater poll, and we've reprinted our responses–complete with links to our reviews, so that you can see why we loved…and sometimes loathed what we did this year.
1. TOP 3 RESTAURANT NEWCOMERS OF THE YEAR?
Our top restaurant newcomers are Kyotofu, Bocca Lupo, and Prosperity Dumpling.
2. TOP 3 RESTAURANT STANDBYS OF THE YEAR?
This year's standbys are Gennaro, Mary's Fish Camp–we think that in 2006, it has finally started to outpace its mother restaurant on a consistent basis, and Via Emilia (although considering its newly re-opened status, it could also count as a newcomer).
3. NYC MEAL OF THE YEAR (GOOD OR BAD) FOR 2006?
We've got two meals of the year, one high-church, one low-church: the first is our recent autumn dinner at Cru, if only for the rock shrimp salad and the saffron cioppino pasta; the second happened after a spur-of-the-moment decision to detour our taxi from JFK to swing by the East Village so that we could make a visit to Otafuku after being okonomiyaki-less in Egypt for a week. Bonito and shredded yam have never tasted so good.
4. BIGGEST NYC DINING SURPRISE IN 2006?
Our biggest shock? That Bamn! could garner so much positive buzz while managing to serve some insufferably awful food.
5. IF YOU COULD ONLY HAVE EATEN IN ONE NYC NEIGHBORHOOD IN 2006, WHICH ONE WOULD IT HAVE BEEN? ANY GUESSES WHICH ONE IT WILL BE FOR 2007?
It's a toss-up, but we'll go with our home turf this year: The H.K. (Hell's Kitchen, of course) With the opening of Whym, Roberto Passon, and Kyotofu, there's even more high-quality nosh here than ever before. We'd like to think this is the beginning of a trend that will continue well into 2007.
