NYC Restaurants To Try This Weekend

NEW YORK, NY – Eating out in New York City can be a daunting prospect. With new restaurants opening virtually every day, keeping up with the best spots to try isn't easy — but Patch is here to help. Every week, we’ll showcase recently opened places in your neighborhood. (Keep up with news in your area by signing up for Patch's daily newsletters.)

While in Kathmandu

Neighborhood: Ridgewood

Address: 758 Seneca Ave.

While in Kathmandu is Ridgewood’s newest Nepali spot, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as smaller plates. Come for the “naanwiches” and roti wraps. Stay for the hot cups of chiya tea. While in Kathmandu opened in April, and while the restaurant doesn’t yet have a website, its Facebook page offers an illustrative peek at what all the restaurant offers, from chicken choila (grilled jerk-style chicken, marinated in fresh, ground spices) to sel roti (crispy rice doughnuts).

Malai

Neighborhood: Fort Greene

Address: 590 Fulton St.

Like spicy? Like ice cream? A newly opened, artisanal ice cream company doesn’t make its customers choose. Malai got its start at Smorgasburg and has opened up an ice cream counter in the Gotham Market at the Ashland. The outpost offers more than 14 aromatic flavors, such as a rose with cinnamon-roasted almonds and golden turmeric with palm sugar and tamarind caramel.

VHH Foods

Neighborhood: DUMBO

Address: 55 Water St.

VHH Foods, an offshoot of Vinegar Hill House, opened in June with an especially minimalist website. To find out what’s in store at the new DUMBO cafe, a self-described “neighborhood original” by the water, prospective customers will have to explore VHH Foods’ colorful Instagram feed. The new eatery serves American cuisine with a Blue Bottle-influenced coffee program and, according to Eater, treats coffee drinks like “fancy, booze-free cocktails.” Note the Mai Tai iced latte, for example.

Butcher Bar

Neighborhood: Lower East Side

Address: 146 Ochard St.

An Astoria, Queens native, Butcher Bar opened its first Manhattan location back in May. The restaurant serves locally sourced, hormone-free meat and prides itself on connecting its diners to the source of its food, according to the Butcher Bar website. Butcher Bar’s LES location takes reservations and has since evolved from an “old-school butcher shop” to a barbecue smokehouse restaurant.

The Sosta

Neighborhood: Nolita

Address: 186 Mott St.

Sosta is a brand-new, fast-casual pasta spot that opened July 13 by the founder of SoHo’s By Chloe. The new location also serves focaccia sandwiches and antipasto boards, according to a recent Eater review. Pastas are made fresh each morning and come in five selections, including spaghetti, pomodoro and campanelle pesto, and each one can be replaced with zucchini noodles or gluten-free pasta for an additional charge.

Lead image via Malai Facebook page