The Best Things I Ate in 2025

Key Highlights

• I’m thinking of places like Sunn’s, Ha’s Snack Bar, and Bong, where the relational experience of having a meal is less about being a person at a table and more about being a person in a room—being part of something, a moment, a place.
• For every timid, focus-grouped, over-designed brand expansion, there were half a dozen green shoots of passionate, community-facing, community-building dining rooms and takeout counters.
• On balance, this was an awfully good year for restaurants.
• I mean, yes, it was also a horrible one—beset by the chilling, wide-ranging effects of tariff uncertainty and vituperative ICE raids, and the rising costs of real estate, equipment, and ingredients—but the culinary world moved forward so relentlessly, so creatively nonetheless.2025 in ReviewNew Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows. But the following is a list of best dishes, not of best restaurants.
• Thinking about the year in terms of individual plates is always a challenge for me, and also a thrill.