Titán is a welcome addition to Dumbo’s tourist-driven dining scene. Illustration: Naomi Otsu
Welcome to Grub Street’s rundown of restaurant recommendations that aims to answer the endlessly recurring question: Where should we go? These are the spots our food team thinks everyone should visit for any reason (a new chef, the arrival of an exciting dish, or maybe an opening that’s flown too far under the radar). This month: a charming redo on Macdougal, a hidden cantina in Dumbo, and a brasserie that’s risen, phoenixlike, from the ashes of its wood-burning grill.
Pizza 4P’s (Greenpoint)
Japanese-influenced pizzerias are suddenly everywhere, but Pizza 4P’s — with roots in Japan and 40 outposts across Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and India — still deserves your attention. Every location is designed differently with the first NYC store drawing heavy inspiration from the calmness of the outdoors. Seasonal green salads are piled artfully with hyperlocal upstate veg and tossed in a satisfyingly oniony dressing. Then it’s onto pizza: Any option that highlights the restaurant’s fresh, homemade burrata is a winner, and if you’re feeling like trying something new, a pie with lotus root, pork salsiccia, and sesame hummus is funky in all the right ways. —Shay Cohen
Kome Nori (Park Slope)
Though it looks like a Park Slope Japanese restaurant with the same wall paneling as every podcast studio, Kome Nori punches far above its weight. The $79 Kome Kosu six-course set menu is a great value that features multiple snacks to start (I’d gladly order the crunchy, smoky octopus cucumber salad à la carte), sweet black-miso cod, a DIY hand roll, and eight pieces of fusion sushi — like branzino over rice with a dash of pesto — that felt sufficiently ambitious for a neighborhood spot. Quirks here abound, like a choose-your-own funky sake glass, and it reminded me, surprisingly, of the nearby Café Mars: just out-there enough to keep everything interesting. —Zach Schiffman
All of Our Picks, Mapped
Titán (Dumbo)
Just past the Grimaldi’s tourist crowds, 5 Front Street has long been a neighborhood Mexican spot hiding in plain sight: The lights went out at Gran Electrica at the end of 2024, but now, after a brief interlude as a Swedish restaurant, the space is Mexican again. Titán comes courtesy of Alan Delgado (who runs the much-loved Los Burritos Juárez), one of a number of places making the renewed case for excellent flour tortillas in New York. (Ivy Mix of Whoopsie Daisy handles the involved cocktails.) Everything here is a clear improvement from the area’s limited, takeout-burrito-forward options: We enjoyed a cheesy volcán, a volcano-shaped corn tortilla toasted and loaded like a single nacho, and Cheeto-orange deep-fried chile rellenos. Among the tacos, the suadero has a nice offal tang, and the flour tortillas are as good as ever, with one nice surprise: The corn ones aren’t bad, either. —Matthew Schneier
Saverne (Hudson Yards)
Wait, weren’t we talking about this place — Gabriel Kreuther’s more-approachable new brassiere with an emphasis on wood grilling — months ago? Yes, but it was only open for a handful of days before a fire put it out of commission. It has now reopened, hopefully for good this time, with just as much polish applied to its bifurcated space (a large open front bar room and a back dining room that stretches the length of the long open kitchen) as before. The food is technically precise in the usual Michelin-targeting way but hardly precious. Start with any of Kreuther’s justifiably famous tartes flambée and anything that leans meaty — truffled liverwurst or morcilla that’s fried into golden croquettes — and then get a bunch of stuff that’s flamed on the grill, like a strip loin of bison or, especially, thick slices of pork belly that will instantly remind you why it was every chef’s favorite protein back in the early 2000s. —Alan Sytsma
Somssi (Greenwich Village)
Candlelit tables behind gauzy cottage curtains make for a cozy hideout off Macdougal Street, but Somssi’s menu is not as shabby chic as its décor. (This space was previously the short-lived Acru, after all.) “Potato, potato, potato, caviar” — this summer’s most Instagrammable dish — is a $32 sourdough-dusted bar of pommes purée wound with shoestrings that fries into a crunchy nest for a quenelle of caviar. The mash is mounted with enough butter to ooze like starchy lava onto a whipped layer of miso hollandaise, all of which demands a glass of bubbles from the thoughtfully annotated wine list. Order it between courses of scallop crudo energized with celery and makrut-scented rhubarb juice and ox tongue with romesco and wasabi, which is short-rib tender beneath its heavy sear. All that richness was tempered by a pour of full-bodied sake and a side of pickle, though anyone still short on “potato” can complete the meal with an order of furikake-dusted fries. —Tammie Teclemariam
