Kabawa
Paul Carmichael cooks the Caribbean out of the room that used to be Momofuku Ko. The three-course prix fixe is $150 before supplements.11
Why go
The MICHELIN inspector calls it a deeply personal love letter to the Caribbean.
4 Roughly twenty stools face an open kitchen. The cooks wear tie-dye aprons and soca comes off the walls. Dinner opens on flaky roti with curried channa, sweet pepper jelly and a guava chutney with heat behind it.
Carmichael came from Barbados to the Culinary Institute of America, cooked at Aquavit and then at Wylie Dufresne's wd~50, opened Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney, and ran the whole group's kitchens before he took this room.5 North America's 50 Best entered it at fourteenth in 2026, its first year on that list, and the James Beard Foundation put it on the 2026 semifinalist ballot for best new restaurant.910
Order this / avoid
- Order: the braised goat as your main. The jerk duck sausage comes second to it, built from confit legs and liver. Finish on the birthday flan.
- Order: ask what else the kitchen has. Eater's line on the room is that it serves a lot more dishes than the menu lists.8
- Avoid: the chuletas can can on your own. One chop carries loin, rib, belly and skin, scored along the outer edge so the skin fries to a crisp while the belly stays fat, and it is built for two people.5 It carried a $75 supplement in November 2025.
- Avoid: the caviar on the scrambled eggs and plantains, which carried a $50 supplement of its own in April 2025.5
What locals & experts say
- Ligaya Mishan, The New York Times, ranking it first of a hundred restaurants on 11 May 2026:
There are excellent restaurants, and then there are restaurants that have the power to make us see things anew.
3 - Matthew Schneier, New York Magazine's restaurant critic, reviewing it in Grub Street on 30 April 2025:
I left Kabawa lighter in pocket and in spirit.
5 - Bryan Kim, The Infatuation (13 November 2025, 7.9), on the goat:
slow-cooked until it's ready to peel apart, then placed in a sauce creole with a touch of oceanic funk from dried scallops.
1 - Morgan Carter, reviewing it at five stars for Time Out New York on 4 December 2025, on what to drink:
coconut water martinis, sorrel-flecked daiquiris... and even a Caribbean lager made to tame any flames on the plate.
6 - Melissa McCart, who runs Eater Northeast's dining coverage, gave Kabawa and Bar Kabawa the Best New Restaurant prize in Eater NY's 2025 awards (3 December 2025).7
- Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater, filed it as "New York's Most Fun Fine Dining Experience" (21 October 2025).2
Good to know
- Timing: dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday.11
- Booking: the restaurant opens its tables fourteen days ahead and takes parties of up to eight.11
- Corkage: $50 a bottle, one bottle a person, and nothing already on their list.11
- Next door: Bar Kabawa is a separate offshoot from the same chef, for daiquiris and patties, and it is not this door. It trades at 12 Extra Place.7
Verdict
should-visit — Four people at a corner of the counter see the most of the kitchen, so bring three others if you can. The wine list came with the room and a sommelier will find you a bottle under a hundred dollars.