The List
On the NYT 100, the spirit of Gold, and why the best meals rarely come to you
Let’s start with my own self-inflicted wound.
Three months ago, I had a reservation at Kabawa. I cancelled it. In my defense: I cancelled it for Claud, one of my favorite restaurants in New York, also in the East Village, also steps from my front door. I knew about Kabawa before the doors even opened. Paul Carmichael’s own outpost in the EV, I had that special feeling about it immediately. I simply chose one neighbor over the other that night and assumed I’d easily rebook. I was wrong.
Kabawa is now the number one restaurant in New York City, per the New York Times 2026 list, and the next available reservation is sometime in the fall. So. That’s where we are.
Consider this piece partially written in penance.
The NYT 100 Best Restaurants list dropped this week, and this year it felt worth actually writing about, not just because of what’s on it, but because of how it was made.
For 2026, the list belongs entirely to one person: Ligaya Mishan, the Times’ new co-chief critic, who spent ten months eating across all five boroughs before committing to a single ranking. That matters.
A committee produces consensus. One person produces a perspective. And perspective, when it’s earned, is the only thing that makes a list worth reading.
Growing up in LA, my father and I treated the late and great Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list for the LA Times the way some families treat a travel bible. Gold could put a no-signage Sichuan spot in the SGV next to a mid-Wilshire prix fixe and make the case for both on their own terms. The Kobe Factory in the Valley. A Syrian restaurant with mujaddara worth a purposeful journey. Places you’d pass without stopping unless someone you trusted told you to stop. What made his list irreplaceable was the singularity of his palate. Earned opinions, shining light on corners that deserved it.
That’s the energy I feel in Mishan’s 2026 edition. The Queens inclusions alone - Kabab King at 100, Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile at 99, Dar Lbahja at 78, read like someone actually went looking, not someone who accepted the submissions that arrived in their inbox. Thirty-three new restaurants. That’s not a refresh. That’s a point of view.
Now for my issue.
Wild Cherry is not on this list. I’ve already said my piece on this … loudly, and on the record:
This is exactly the kind of restaurant a list built around “New York-iness” should be surfacing. Its absence is one of the omissions I’d push back on most directly, but not the only one.
Because I have to ask: how is Theodora not on this list? One of the best meals I’ve had in this city. The Josper oven; The dry-aged fish!?
What about, I SODI, Rosella, Bangkok Supper Club? Or THE GRILL which completely screams New York full stop. And arguably maybe even Rolo’s in Ridgewood, which would have been a welcome nod to exactly the kind of outer borough discovery this list claims to champion.
I haven’t hit even half the list, but of the spots I have frequented or eaten well at: Claud, Torrisi, Estela, Thai Diner, Corima, Borgo, Cho Dang Gol, Lei and so on. A range I’m proud of. And then there’s Four Horsemen and Ha’s Snack bar which I am genuinely embarrassed to admit I still haven’t been to. I’ll take my lumps publicly.
The ones I’m most eager to remedy: Kabawa, obviously. Yamada. Atomix. Hellbender. Bahn Anh Em. And then there’s the group that has me particularly intrigued: Trinciti Roti Shop, Meju, Taiwanese Gourmet - none of which are in Manhattan.
Which brings me to the thing this list is quietly doing that I want to name.
I’ve let myself get lazy about traveling for a meal in this city. The outer boroughs are right there, and I treat them like they require a passport. I’ve been talking about getting to Mariscos el Submarino, Bong and Border Town for almost 6 months now. What’s my excuse?! Ive been to Pastis probably 5+ times in this stretch.
That’s not how I was raised to eat, and this list is a challenge I’m accepting: further out, more often, with the same appetite I’d bring to anywhere in a 25 minute walking radius from my apartment. The boroughs deserve it.
J Lee put the nature of this list perfectly in last week’s Expense Account - and it’s what sent me to the page:
“This list makes you question: What is a restaurant, anyway? There are some food trucks on this list. Personally I don’t think a food truck counts as a restaurant. (Is a food truck a better restaurant than LVD?) Is a bar a restaurant? Is a bakery a restaurant? Is a sandwich shop a restaurant?”
Which brings me to my own issue with the format.
The return to numbered rankings this year was a deliberate choice. Last year the list ranked only the top 10 numerically and listed the remaining 90 alphabetically. This year, Mishan went back to 1 through 100, all the way down.
Great for engagement. Genuinely terrible as a framework.
Ranking Kabab King at 100 against Torrisi at 3 implies a comparison that isn’t real. They don’t serve the same hunger, the same occasion, the same version of what a great meal can be. It creates an artificial hierarchy between things that are each excellent on entirely different terms.
Jonathan Gold understood this. His rankings were always secondary to the argument he was making about each individual place. The number was a hook. The entry was the point.
What I’d rather see is groupings. Categories. Occasions. A list organized around what kind of night you’re having, not a scale that implies Kabab King is 97 places worse than Kabawa. It isn’t. It’s just different.
But hey. What do I know? I’m just a Foodbitch who cancelled a reservation and is now waiting until fall.
Cheers. xx
The irony of canceling your Kabawa reservation just adds to your lore! Also I imagine nyt includes food trucks so they don’t seem pretentious, but they should just lean into it—restaurant reviewing is inherently pretentious
Four Horseman is to DIE for