a quick lunch

Solid · Restaurant · Manhattan · $

walk-in

Carnitas Ramirez scoops every cut of one pig out of bubbling fat behind a pea-green counter, chops it to order and puts it in a corn tortilla: shank, snout, tongue, skin, ribs, rump, ear and brain among them.

Solid · Restaurant · Manhattan · $

book ahead

Scarr Pimentel has sold slices on the Chinatown line since 2016, and the Orchard Street move finally gave the room a back you can sit in with a whole pie.

Solid · Restaurant · Manhattan · $

walk-in

Joe Pozzuoli opened this in 1975 and still runs it at 75. Four dollars, a paper plate, and a tip that never droops.

Solid · Bakery · Manhattan · $

walk-in

Bánh bò nướng, the bright green pandan honeycomb cake, out of a Market Street counter that started as an Instagram pop-up in the pandemic.

Listed · Restaurant · Manhattan · $$

book aheadthe room’s own account

Isan cooking over charcoal on West 14th Street, ping-yang skewers first, and a kitchen that says outright it is not making your pad thai.

Listed · Restaurant · Manhattan · $

walk-in

The chef came off the L'Industrie pass in Williamsburg, and the slice shows it: around $4, light in the hand, charred underneath.

Listed · Bakery · Manhattan · $

walk-inthe room’s own account

The Chan family have baked the same char siu bao since 1968, and the counter is now at 41 Mott Street after more than fifty years on Bayard.