East Village fine dining vegan restaurant Avant Garden is making its way to Williamsburg. The new Avant Garden will feature a menu helmed by chef Tony Mongeluzzi, who has been cooking at the Manhattan flagship for the past year and a half and will remain the executive chef there as well. The menu for Williamsburg will offer the same fine dining approaches to vegan food as the East Village outpost but will primarily feature dishes unique to the Williamsburg location.

As restaurant prices in New York City continue to soar, finding great inexpensive places becomes more of a priority — and if the food is not only delicious but also outside a diner’s previous experience, all the better. Eater critic Robert Sietsema regularly rounds up neighborhood spots and reviews standouts in the 5 boroughs and adjacent metropolitan areas. The listed are a choice collection of those restaurants, complete with menu recommendations.

2018-04-17:

New York City is not a cheap town. A Monday night dinner at an average bistro can easily run to at least $50 per person, weekday lunch salad rings in near $15, and the norm for cocktails is nearing $18. But that’s not to say there aren’t still deals available for varied, satisfying, and delightful fare — which is exactly what this guide aims to illuminate.

On here, find the best dollar slice in your neighborhood, elusive Korean-Uzbek dishes, century-old spaghetti and meatballs, late-night Ghanaian food, and other standout affordable fare across the 5 boroughs. Take yourself on a walking food tour of Chinatown, eat through the city’s top tacos, and gorge on rice noodles.

Is this the golden age of New York brunch? The city is filled with meals that will win over even the strongest brunch skeptics. Out with the same old eggs Benedict, and in with dishes like torta di scarola, apple-strudel sticky buns, and egg-filled Tunisian pastries brik. Here, a guide to everything that’s new and notable in New York brunch.

When E.A.K. Ramen opened, it stood out in this ramen-crazed city by serving iekei-style ramen. That style of soup — which submerges thick noodles in a creamy tonkotsu-shoyu broth blend, topped with spinach, seaweed, and chashu (roast pork belly) — was difficult, if not impossible, to previously find. “Shio ramen is often a category in Japan, but it can be boring. It’s too plain, so it needed a stronger flavor. We wanted to really differentiate our shio ramen option from the shoyu signature, since the differences are so subtle.” The team landed on the addition of butter and garlic oil, with an added aesthetic bonus of the stark broth-to-oil contrast for a “cute” visual. The body parts of a chicken (but not the wings) are added into this second-step broth pot, which also includes some previously made, fully finished broth from the day prior, kind of like the mother or starter used to make bread. “It’s not a 1-generation thing. It needs to ‘inherit’ older broth, to really change the flavor”. This 2nd, main vat of broth then cooks for 24 hours. There’s also a 3rd “sub-pot,” so when the main vat of broth gets too concentrated, some of this more-diluted broth can be poured in, typically every 30 minutes. “The broth really needs to be taken care of, almost like a baby”.