NYC outdoor dining recs from urs truly xo
Where to eat outside in New York this summer!
My first food article, way back in 2019, was actually a travel article. I was working as an intern for Frommers, a travel site; after a while of performing brunt work, they told me I could pitch something, so I called my first article “Brooklyn al fresco” and wrote about the best places to eat outdoors in the best borough in the best city. Now, it’s 2023, I’m officially all in on food writing and back in BK, and lo and behold: the same exact assignment falls in my lap.
This time around, I had to expand my outreach to the other boroughs of New York as well, so there was more research to be done. I had already been to most of the places on my list but ended up with a few that I had to try after consulting my most dear resource (my Instagram followers). Here’s what they were:
Chama Mama (149 W 14th St)
Chama Mama’s Chelsea location has a glass-roofed garden that’s filled with leafy, lovely greens. This Georgian restaurant is most famous for the Adjaruli khachapuri, above, a dish made with blended cheese and a raw egg yolk that gets mixed in by your server tableside. The bread is great, slightly sweet, with a good crunch. It was definitely the best version of this dish that I’ve ever had (take that, Compass Rose).
I also got the machkati, a Georgian-style pancake, which was crispy, not too sweet, and served in a still-hot skillet. The cream inside was custardy and delicious. I wish I could have this for dessert every night—if you go for it, you should definitely lean into the dessert angle and get this dish with chocolate rather than berries, which makes it feel like a crispier, more-indulgent Boston cream donut.
Grand Banks (Hudson River)
I flew Delta four times recently (meh) and on each flight, I snuck in an episode of Below Deck, a reality TV show that follows the workers on a private yacht that people rent out for a week at a time to party. When I arrived at Grand Banks after all my journeys, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this restaurant gives off the same vibes as Below Deck, mostly because it’s a literal schooner (?) tethered to Pier 25 on the West side.
On board, the waiters are all wearing dinky little navy-blue-and-white striped shirts, and all the food is delivered from the chef’s quarters via dumbwaiter. It’s incredibly pleasant, even if you visit right as a climate catastrophe rolls into town, like me. I scarfed down the lobster roll above so quickly. My waiter came over to ask if I was done eating and I said I was still working and he said, very solemnly, “Slay.”
Caliza NYC (378 Greenwich St)
Caliza NYC is a Mexican restaurant in Tribeca with a sweet elevated patio that recently opened up for outdoor dining. I thought the Vuelve a la vida was to die for: in Spanish, that means something like “bring back to life,” and it’s a seafood cocktail intended for the end of night out, containing raw fish—striped bass, here—along with bits of octopus and shrimp, all swimming in clamato and lime juice. This dish has a lovely heat coming from some chile serranos, which you can counteract by biting into one of the sweet grape tomatoes or a slice of avocado. I have been thinking about this dish ever since.
Bonus info that didn’t make it to the official article: my date to this place insisted on ordering the chocolate cake above when I was very ready to leave, so I made a timelapse of him eating the whole thing all by himself, like that character in Matilda. Hit me up if you’re interested in seeing it—but be warned, it’s a difficult watch.
Book Club (197 E 3rd St)
My new friend/eternal friend crush Tara (do you follow her art Substack yet? Weird if not…) recently introduced me to Book Club, a bookstore/bar that is host to book club meetings in the East Village. They have a lovely (if small) garden and they also just got their liquor license and I’m obsessed with the literature-inspired cocktail drinks. I will officially be going back and ordering a Murder on the Orient Espresso Martini ASAP, even though drinking coffee post-11am means I may never sleep again. The things I do for my love of Agatha…
Antidote (66 S 2nd St)
Okay, technically this one is a stretch in terms of having a cool outdoor space, but I’m still throwing it in because the food was so great. Antidote is a Williamsburg spot serving Sichuan and Shanghai-style Chinese food. We ended up ordering mostly from the Sichuan side of the menu: we got the Dan Dan noodles, tea-smoked duck, mapo tofu, and Sichuan chili fried chicken. Everything was amazing, but I loved the tea-smoked duck in particular; it had this insanely decadent layer of fat, and the meat was infused with that smoky, BBQ taste. This is a radical statement, but I maybe even liked it more than most Peking duck? (My family might disown me for that.) Also, Antidote just recently started doing Jazz Wednesdays—so if you snag a reservation for tonight, you’ll get to hear some live music.
Masalawala & Sons (365 5th Ave)
The backyard patio at Park Slope’s Masalawala & Sons got finished about a week ago, and right now word on the street is that you don’t need a reservation to eat in the backyard, which is every bit as colorful and exciting as indoors. When I went, I ordered poorly—I got the Bhapa Ilish, a bone-in fish entree topped with mustard, poppy seeds, and yogurt served in a tiny petri dish. The waiter laid down the tiny dish and announced that there were “60–70 bones” inside and we immediately knew it was the wrong call. The Sabudana Vada (potato pancakes made with tapioca and peanuts) and the Morog Boti (bone-in chicken with this killer red chili rub and mint chutney for dipping) were both much better.
I haven’t been spending ALL my time writing about outdoor restaurants—this past month, I’ve been doing more writing than ever before. For more Hannah, check out my recent article for NYN Media about Bronx Fashion Week, my shoutout to my favorite donut in the US for Tasting Table, and my roundup of the best freezer gelato brands. Also, keep your eyes peeled for my first few articles for the Brooklyn Eagle, which should be coming out soon, and my ranking of all the pasta sauces you can possibly buy at Trader Joe’s (lol).
Til next time…
Hannah
eating bones at masalawala may be in my bottom 5 restaurant experiences
Didn’t take my suggestion fr 😒