NYC food obsessives will do a double-take when they see the lineup at the new Time Out Market. Heck, you don’t even have to be too in-the-know to recognize some of the names at this stellar new food hall in Union Square.
“Top Chef” competitor Kwame Onwuachi, who you may know from the impossibly hip Tatiana at Lincoln Center, has a kiosk. Then there’s Chintan Pandya and his Unapologetic Foods team, which is also behind the forward-thinking Indian spot Semma.
The other concepts read like an NYC foodie dream team: Taqueria El Chato, one of the city’s newest and fiercest taco spots, has a second location here. There are beefy burgers from Lori Jayne out of Bushwick (which turned out to be solid, but not a top pick). There’s also pizza from Fornino, a pioneer in the NYC artisan pizza space.
Time Out Market food hall has gone into the space that recently held Urbanspace Union Square. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
This is the second NYC location for Time Out Market, which also boasts food halls in Barcelona, Montreal, Dubai and more. The magazine already runs a food hall in Brooklyn, and opened the Union Square branch in the former home of Urbanspace food hall this September. The spacious room boasts seven restaurant vendors, with ample seating in the middle.
Warning: You should check the restaurant’s Instagram page before making the trek on the LIRR to 14th St. Union Square subway station. During my visit at around 1 p.m., the food hall unexpectedly closed several hours early, and my most-hyped pick, Kebabwala, was already closed for the day. I was still able to try something from most of the other stalls, so here are the four best things I ate.
Curry chicken patty from Kwame Onwuachi’s Patty Palace
The curry chicken patty from Patty Palace. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
The curry chicken patty ($15) is the most interesting and flavorful dish I tried. It helps to be into carb-on-carb action, because this Jamaican specialty is definitely bread-forward. The chicken curry barely stands up to the hearty patty sandwiched in fluffy coco bread, steaming hot. But that’s OK because this luscious loaf is all about the sauce. The thing is liberally splattered with a green aioli that tasted like creamy tartar, as well as a tangy jerk barbecue sauce. If I’d eaten the whole thing, I would have been out for the count.
Al pastor taco from Taqueria El Chato
Al pastor, tripas and campechano tacos from Taqueria El Chato. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
This tiny Mexico City-inspired taqueria opened a few months back in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and quickly became a destination spot for this Mexican food purist. The fiery salsas here do not mess around. This is one of the few New York City spots to have a real al pastor spinning trompo of achiote glazed pork meat. At the time, the tripas taco reigned supreme. But on this latest visit this Union Square satellite location, the al pastor ($5) is the one that hit. This spicy crispy pork is frankly, better than any pastor I’ve found on Long Island because it’s freshly shaved from the trompo, and topped with a whisper thin pineapple slice. You’ll taste the difference.
Hat Yai fried chicken from Kam Rai
Fried chicken from Kam Rai Thai. Credit: Newsday/Andi Berlin
In this day and age, a food hall is not worth its salt if it doesn’t have a killer Thai spot. And Kam Rai from Astoria, Queens fits the bill here, judging by this piping hot fried chicken ($16). Seriously, I had to wait a couple minutes for it to cool down because it burned my fingers when I tried to rip the leg off the thigh. But in the end it was worth it because the skin was so crispy and the meat so soft and juicy. Piled atop a mound of sticky rice and topped with crispy shallots, it’s perfection.
Lombardi pizza from Fornino
Long Island is full of delicious, artisanal Italian style pizzas. But even so, this pie still held up. Michael Ayoub has been experimenting with neo-Neapolitan pies in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since 2004, heading up the current boom. Although his oven here is gas rather than wood-fired, it still put out a fluffy charred pizza with a floppy delicious fermented dough crust. It was a bold move to go with the Lombardi ($23) because it lacks tomato sauce. But the fatty prosciutto and salty flecks of cheese make it all better.
Time Out Market Union Square, 124 E. 14th St., New York, timeout.com/time-out-market-union-square. Open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.
Dining and Cooking