Chef Clare de Boer’s Best New York Restaurants

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This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to New York

The right food at the right time almost always beats a “perfect” meal. When I make reservations in advance, it’s usually around 6pm and I’m craving something completely different (often including taking a shower and staying home). So my New York City restaurant recommendations reflect the rule of my appetite and not the scene; I tend to dine spontaneously at places that will serve me when I need them, without waiting too long. With one exception.

That exception is Sailor at Fort Greene. It is a silent and casual miracle. Chef April Bloomfield does the classics (Caesar salad and steak béarnaise) better than anyone. He also throws out dishes that sound familiar to an otherworldly realm: Swiss chard stuffed with sticky risotto; the half-roasted chicken, spread with yogurt, cilantro and jalapeño, has the texture of a roast bird and the flavor of a tandoor; and their ice cream-filled profiteroles are topped with a salted caramel sauce that becomes almost Twix-chewy when eaten. Set your alarm for 11am to be first in line for tables two weeks in advance, or try to get in when it opens. If you fail, Roman at the end of the street, an Italian neighborhood where you will start with fava and cicoria and finish with chocolate sorbet: it will make you forget that you ever intended to eat anywhere else.

A train trip to Flushing, Queens, may not seem like a spontaneous option, but the food court at New World Shopping Center will provide a frenzy of instant gratification in the form of stew, dumplings, and noodles. Chong Qing Noodle 19 serves one of my favorite dishes: chong qing Noodle soup with perfect proportions of broth, noodles, Szechuan chili oil, minced meat, peanuts and pickles. Every bite is electrifying. Laoma Malatang, the dry pot kiosk on the left (whose name changes frequently), lets you fill a huge bowl with any meat, seafood or vegetables by weight before sautéing them with mala, mild, medium or thick spices. I choose medium with all vegetables: lotus root, enoki and wood ear mushrooms, and broccoli.

In the Eastern Town, Sobaya specializes in homemade noodles, but everything on the menu is delicate and satisfying, from the aged tofu with marinated spinach. It’s a wonderful place for a quiet lunch alone and is coincidentally close to tea kettle on the Bowery. Follow your soba with a matcha shake and a matcha chocolate bar with crispy toasted soba.

If you’re near Flatiron and wondering why, S&P Lunch is a quintessential New York lunch counter, filled with New York people doing New York things, like eating pastrami and tuna melts. It’s a great place to stop for matzah ball soup, theirs includes greens and dill. And although superiority burger It has a reputation for being difficult to access, so if you’re an early riser or up for a drink in the back bar, it promises something very different than its name suggests. It’s completely vegetarian, offering quirky vegetable perfection (in winter, chicories from the Campo Rosso farm, creamy little bowls of beans and roasted brassicas) and incomparable scoops: gelatos like Sicilian almond and Evercrisp apple. Food this good is not usually served in such a casual way.

In Midtown, I can head to Cho Dang Gola Korean tofu specialist in Herald Square that doesn’t look like a nutritious restaurant. From the canteen-like dining room you can see wooden barrels of tofu steaming in the kitchen, and the endless stream of nutritious unordered dishes makes you feel like you’re in someone’s home. Each meal begins with a spoonful of hot tofu and banchan (Korean side dishes). Everything you order comes with a wooden bucket of chewy rice that doubles as a teapot for making roasted rice tea. Drink this after you’ve eaten your stew for something better than a spa day. There are no reservations, so show up 15 minutes before it opens.

Back in Brooklyn, Chez Ma Tante in Greenpoint keeps its seating at the counter for walk-ins, so its crispy aioli fries are within reach. The scarcity of the room and the menu may remind you Saint Johnand their meat specialties are as good as those of the British institution. If homemade sausage is on the menu, served with just a spoonful of beans, don’t miss it. Kohlrabi salad, pork shoulder and kedgeree are main dishes, and you should get them too.

Finally, my brother-in-law from Beirut says that the food in Nabila in Brooklyn it’s the closest thing to her mother’s cooking than it is here. Of course, my bar is not as high as yours, but the fateyer, kousa and yaknet sabanegh They are some of the best I’ve ever had. This is soupy, spiced Lebanese home cooking that is simple and downright excellent.

Clare de Boer is a four-time James Beard Award-nominated chef and writer. She is chef/owner of Stisse House in Pine Plains and co-founder/owner of King in New York

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