How a Times list turned four pricey meals personal

A non-New Yorker recounts dining at four spots from The New York Times’ “The 100 Best Restaurants in NYC/2026,” including a Chinatown yakitori experience tied to a family drive to Washington, D.C., a vegetarian restaurant tucked inside a major carpet and home

He doesn’t live in New York City, he’s not rich, and he doesn’t claim to be a foodie. Still, over the course of family life and other people’s plans, he found himself at four restaurants from The New York Times’ “The 100 Best Restaurants in NYC/2026,” a list published Sunday.

He says he hopes it’s not just vanity. For him. there’s a different appeal: the chance to have “enriching life experiences. ” even if he doesn’t go hunting for high-end dining on purpose. The restaurant experiences. he adds. mostly don’t feel reachable—especially to most readers outside Manhattan and beyond New York’s wealthiest circles.

The most striking circumstances didn’t happen at the table so much as they led to it. He ended up at No. 14. Kono. in Chinatown. because his son wanted to thank him for being “such a great dad.” The gesture was tied to real life logistics: helping pack up his son’s apartment and driving his son’s wife and newborn to Washington. D.C. The dinner itself. described by the Times in language that reads like a

dark movie set—“Fire in darkness”—centered on yakitori omakase. where chicken is the focus. The meal moved from “soul-cleansing broth” to bronzed chicken skin. along with a parade of small dishes including pulverized livers. crunchy gizzards. and creamy testicles—details the writer admits he doesn’t remember seeing. adding a quiet note of skepticism about what may or may not have arrived. He describes the whole experience as small, theatrical foods brought out like close-up magic tricks, “where

you eat the props.”.

The idea of omakase itself comes with a built-in promise the writer leans into: “Omakase” means “you-eat-what-you-get,” not ordering from a menu.

The second place, No. 48. abcV. came with a setting that sounded. to him. like the kind of misfit world New York interior designers love—except this time it’s grounded inside a real retail space. He points to abcV being located in ABC Carpet & Home on East 19th Street. and he recalls describing it in 2020 as Jean-Georges’ vegetarian restaurant inside that store. He credits the interior for its “sprawling pillow and silverware emporium” feel and paints the room as a large. white space packed with beautiful people. The service is described as friendly and attentive, with none of the pretension aimed at the writer’s nerves.

He also includes the mission statement the Times quoted him hearing. centered on plant-based eating: “Plant based. non GMO. sustainable. artisanal and organic whenever possible. Locally and globally from small & family farms.” The line he shares continues with a goal to “serve. inform and inspire a cultural shift towards plant based intelligence. through creativity and deliciousness.” He doesn’t hide his skepticism about one of the Times’ claims—that “every piece of lettuce is flawless”—wondering how anyone would know for sure. and remarking on the price tag for “crunchy gem lettuce” at $20.

Rezdora, listed as No. 63. is where the writer says he took his son and his son’s fiance to celebrate their graduation from law school. Here, the bill is part of the memory: they ordered the $100 pasta tasting menu, at $100 apiece. The pasta. he says. matched the Times description about being “given the briefest boil.” The writer calls what Italians refer to as “molto al dente” “hard. ” making clear the moment left him more aware of how culinary terms can miss the mark for the diner in front of the plate.

The most human moment arrives after the meal, during the walk home. He remembers turning to his wife while they tried to absorb the check and offering a joke that landed with a sting of truth. “You know the drawback of telling someone you’ll take them to any restaurant they want. right?” he says he told her. When she raised an eyebrow, he didn’t soften it. “You have to then take them to any restaurant they want.”.

The fourth restaurant, No. 92. Barney Greengrass. is the one he calls the cheapest—and. in a way. the one that makes his point the cleanest. He says it’s not coincidentally the place his wife and he went to on their own without kids. reflecting what he describes as their shared cultural aversion to wild expense when eating. His argument is framed plainly: if they spent the day watching a Bears game. it wouldn’t raise much of a question. But $300 a head at a restaurant?. The writer puts the comparison in that blunt language. not to shame anyone. but to show how different kinds of spending get judged.

He also says he doesn’t understand why Barney Greengrass belongs on the Times list. He points to what he considers its more familiar character: a satisfying plate of lox. onions and eggs eaten outside. watching Upper East Side stroll past on a spring day. plus a deli that he calls small and “clangorous.” Calling it one of the best restaurants in New York. he says. is like calling New York Bagel & Bialy on Dempster in Chicago one of the best restaurants in Chicago—adding that it isn’t in Chicago at all but in Skokie. “close enough for baseball.”.

Yet the writer ends where the skepticism softens into something personal. He says the warm New York Bagel & Bialy bagel is the single most delicious thing he ever put in his mouth. pulled out of its brown paper bag in the car and split with his younger son. Everything he’s eaten since, he says, has landed in second place.

In the end, the story isn’t really about a ranking. It’s about how other people’s plans—sons. fiancés. graduations. and babies headed to Washington. D.C.—can drag a person into high-end dining. and how the experience lingers. equal parts wonder. discomfort. and the stubborn memory of something simple that still feels unbeatable.

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