188 Bakery Cuchifritos
Ligaya Mishan calls frying an art.1 She thinks it is perhaps plied nowhere with more efficiency and aplomb than at this East 188th Street lunch counter.1 She ranked it 87th of a hundred New York restaurants in the Times in May 2026, writing that
the very air seems to crackle and the scent of pork incites the blood.1
Good to know
- Booking: none. It is a lunch counter at 158 East 188th Street, in Fordham Heights.1
- Worth knowing: Mishan is the only person I have found writing about this counter, and she names no dish.
Verdict
could-visit — Go at lunch. Mishan puts this among the cheapest rooms she ranked, so the cost of guessing wrong at the counter is small.