The FINANCIAL — The New York Times’ annual list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City is not the same thing as the newspaper’s star-rating system. The Times separately rates individual restaurant reviews from zero to four stars — from “poor, fair or satisfactory” at zero to “extraordinary” at four — while the annual 100 Best list is a curated ranking of restaurants that its critics consider particularly significant or compelling.
The list has also changed considerably over the past three years. In 2024, critic Pete Wells ranked all 100 restaurants. In 2025, interim critics Priya Krishna and Melissa Clark ranked only the top 10 and placed the other 90 in alphabetical order. In 2026, chief critic Ligaya Mishan returned to a full 1-to-100 ranking.
The three No. 1 restaurants were Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi in 2024, Semma in 2025 and Kabawa in 2026.
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How The New York Times organizes its restaurant rankings
The Times does not describe the list as a mechanical scoring system. Instead, it is the product of restaurant reporting and repeated dining by its critics.
For the 2024 list, Wells said he was looking for restaurants that stood apart and sought a mix of locations, cuisines, prices and sensibilities. He said he generally ate at a restaurant three times before writing a review and tried to experience it as an ordinary customer.
The 2024 list was designed as a tour through New York’s five boroughs. Wells wrote that he wanted the 100 restaurants to represent the city’s neighborhoods, people and different styles of cooking and service. The resulting list included everything from elite tasting-menu restaurants to inexpensive neighborhood establishments.
The Times’ methodology became particularly explicit in 2025. Krishna and Clark said they began with Wells’s 2024 list and added about 100 additional restaurants for consideration. They then spent months eating around the city, narrowing the selection to 100 across boroughs, cuisines, price levels and styles. The critics said they paid for their meals, visited unannounced, used ordinary reservation systems or walked in, and did not seek special treatment.
In 2026, Mishan spent more than 10 months scouting restaurants across all five boroughs. Her evaluation included imagination, ambience, service, technique, passion, commitment and sheer deliciousness, along with what she described as a quality of “New York-iness.”
That approach helps explain why the Times’ list is not simply a list of the city’s most expensive or most heavily decorated restaurants.
2024: Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi
No. 1 — Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi
Lincoln Center, Upper West Side
Cuisine: American, Caribbean, Creole
Tatiana was the Times’ No. 1 restaurant for the second consecutive year in 2024. Wells had also placed it first in 2023.
The restaurant, opened by chef Kwame Onwuachi in 2022, draws heavily on the food and cultures associated with his Bronx upbringing and New York’s African American, Caribbean and Creole communities. The menu brings together influences from places including the Caribbean, West Africa and New York neighborhood food culture.
What distinguished Tatiana in the Times’ assessment was not simply technical cooking. Wells emphasized the restaurant’s distinctive identity and its ability to turn familiar New York foods into elaborate dishes while retaining a sense of informality.
Among the dishes discussed in coverage of the Times ranking was its truffled chopped cheese, a more elaborate interpretation of the New York sandwich. Wells also noted that the restaurant’s service could sometimes feel under-rehearsed, but praised the warmth and enthusiasm of its staff.
The restaurant’s popularity was also reflected in its reservation demand. Eater, reporting on Wells’s 2024 list, noted that Tatiana remained among the few New York restaurants where reservations were genuinely difficult to obtain.
Why it stood out: Tatiana combined high-end cooking with distinctly New York references and a strong personal connection to Onwuachi’s background, rather than presenting itself as a conventional luxury restaurant.
2025: Semma
No. 1 — Semma
Greenwich Village
Cuisine: South Indian
Semma represented a significant change in the Times’ ranking. It became the first Indian restaurant to reach No. 1 on the publication’s New York City list. It had ranked No. 7 in 2024.
The restaurant is led by chef Vijay Kumar, who grew up in Tamil Nadu in southern India. Semma opened in Greenwich Village in 2021 and focuses on regional South Indian cooking rather than adapting its food to conventional American expectations.
The food is characterized by strong use of ingredients such as coconut, curry leaves and dried red chiles. Dishes associated with Semma include dosa, tamarind-glazed snails, banana-leaf-wrapped branzino and Goan-style oxtail.
Semma’s significance in the 2025 list was also connected to the Times’ revised format. Krishna and Clark ranked only the top 10. Semma was followed by Atomix, Le Bernardin, Kabawa, Ha’s Snack Bar, King, Penny, Sushi Sho, Szechuan Mountain House and Tatiana. The remaining 90 restaurants were listed alphabetically rather than ranked from 11 through 100.
That made the No. 1 position more explicitly visible than in previous years, while also acknowledging that a precise ranking of restaurants 11 through 100 was difficult to justify.
Why it stood out: Semma’s cooking is closely tied to a particular regional tradition — Tamil and South Indian food — rather than a generalized version of Indian cuisine. Its rise from No. 7 to No. 1 also reflected the increasing prominence of regional Indian cooking in New York’s restaurant scene.
2026: Kabawa
No. 1 — Kabawa
East Village
Cuisine: Caribbean, tasting menu
Chef: Paul Carmichael
Kabawa took the No. 1 position in the Times’ 2026 list, replacing Semma at the top. It was also a return to a fully ranked list: this time the Times ranked all 100 restaurants from No. 1 through No. 100.
Chef Paul Carmichael’s cooking is rooted in Caribbean food and his own culinary background. The Times’ coverage describes Kabawa as a restaurant that applies the discipline and precision associated with fine dining without adopting the stiffness traditionally associated with it.
A current Times description of Kabawa and its adjacent Bar Kabawa gives a sense of the restaurant’s style: the tasting menu can transform traditional Caribbean dishes, including pepper shrimp, while retaining recognizable flavors. Another example is goat shoulder served with a sauce incorporating dried scallops and rum.
The atmosphere is also part of the experience. The Times describes Kabawa as breezy and exuberant rather than formal. Its sibling Bar Kabawa has daiquiris served over shaved ice, patties and a more informal atmosphere with music, cards and dominoes.
The 2026 ranking was Mishan’s first annual 100 Best list as the Times’ chief restaurant critic. She spent roughly 10 months visiting restaurants across the city and considered not only food but also service, atmosphere, technique and the distinctive character of New York dining.
Why it stood out: Kabawa combines Caribbean culinary traditions with the precision of a contemporary tasting-menu restaurant, while maintaining an unusually relaxed and celebratory atmosphere.
The three winners at a glance
Year
No. 1 restaurant
Cuisine
What distinguishes it
2024
Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi
American, Caribbean, Creole
Personal New York identity, Caribbean and African American influences, ambitious reinterpretations of familiar foods
2025
Semma
South Indian
Regional Tamil/South Indian cooking, bold spices and ingredients, strong connection to chef Vijay Kumar’s background
2026
Kabawa
Caribbean
Refined Caribbean tasting menu, highly personal cooking by Paul Carmichael and relaxed, exuberant hospitality
What changed from 2024 to 2026?
The most important change is that the Times’ idea of what belongs at the top has become broader than traditional fine dining.
Tatiana, Semma and Kabawa are very different restaurants. Tatiana draws on Black and Caribbean New York; Semma concentrates on South Indian regional cooking; Kabawa brings Caribbean cuisine into a highly refined tasting-menu format.
At the same time, established fine-dining institutions remain present. Le Bernardin ranked No. 3 in 2024 and No. 3 again in 2025; in 2026 it was outside the top 10, while Jean-Georges, Atomix and Aquavit occupied prominent positions.
The geographic spread has also remained important. The 2024 list contained restaurants from all five boroughs, including 63 in Manhattan, 18 in Brooklyn, 14 in Queens, three in the Bronx and two on Staten Island.
The broader point is that the Times’ annual list is not a simple measure of luxury, Michelin stars or price. Its own methodology puts considerable weight on the character of the restaurant and the experience it provides. In 2025, the critics explicitly asked which restaurants they would recommend to friends, which were worth a splurge and which were worth traveling an hour by subway to visit.
That helps explain why a neighborhood restaurant, a Caribbean tasting-menu destination and a South Indian restaurant can occupy the same No. 1 position in successive years.
Dining and Cooking