Where Colin Ate: Chez Fifi, La Tête d'Or, San Sabino
For his new column, our resident restaurant pro—a man who dines out seven nights a week—shares his latest finds
Colin Camac is officially our “Strategic Sales Lead,” and unofficially is our resident insider’s insider. He is out, on the town seven nights a week, sniffing out the city’s best joints, skateboard in one hand, martini in the other. Colin, aka @resyguynyc, loves restaurants, full stop, and it’s a calling that’s seen him touch nearly every facet of this sweet little industry of ours, from culinary school, to being a managing partner at legendary restaurant group Fatty Crew (in whose Fatty Crab I spent many a night during my Eater tenure). Colin and I got to work together at Resy and when I started Blackbird, I knew I had to bring him over here, too. Since nobody in the city has a better sense of what’s what in the restaurant scene, we figured it was time for him to share some of that knowledge with you all. Enjoy!
-Ben
Greetings, all. Colin, here. I’m going to kick off 2025 by taking a look back at what restaurants I hit just before the holidays. The silver lining to January is that it’s a great month for restaurant heads because it’s slow by NYC standards, meaning there’s no better time to secure tables or roll the dice with a walk-in. Consider visiting any (or all) of these standouts. One note: this list is a bit UES-heavy; not my typical terrain, but maybe there’s some credence to what the critics have recently been saying about the hood’s revived dining scene.
Chez Fifi
📍Upper East Side
🍽️ French
Chez Fifi is a brand new restaurant on UES. I hit just before the holidays wanting to get in before the hype train made it too tough. The place was opened by the group behind Sushi Noz and it’s built in a townhouse with a really great looking bar upstairs for either before or after dinner. Fifi is definitely one of the sexiest new restaurants to open in a while. Food is very European, with touches from places like l’Ami Louis (Paris) and Etxebarri (San Sebastien). Definitely don’t skip the chicken, steak frites, or foie. The fried potatoes made in the style of the owner's mom were also killer. New restaurants are always a crapshoot, even the ones that end up being incredible, but this place hit, even early on. If it were downtown, I would already be a regular…
La Tête d'Or
📍Flatiron
🍽️ Steakhouse
La Tête d'Or is the new high profile steakhouse by Daniel (no last name necessary). The occasion was the monthly meeting of our Steak Club (the first rule of Steak Club is that nobody reveals our rating system, but let it be known that we know the real deal from the pretenders and that a place needs to hit on all points to be in the running as the top spot). Ok, back to the actual meal … this place is incredible! It didn’t hurt that Chef Daniel spent some extra time at the table and actually took our order himself. The man is a machine, working that dining room like nobody else. The room is really sleek with a huge live fire open kitchen as the centerpiece. Prime Rib cut tableside was the best I’ve had, and the rest of the meal was filled with bangers. The raw bar was also a real highlight. I will be back ASAP the next time anyone asks me to join them for a steak.
Moody Tongue Pizza
📍East Village
🍽️ Pizza + Beer
Moody Tongue Pizza is the newest restaurant in the East Village from the people behind the Michelin starred brewery of the same name in Chicago. Moody Tongue made their entrance into NYC (and soon Florida) with Moody Tongue Sushi in the West Village about a year ago. The pizza shop is a quick follow on that early success and pairs incredible and unique beers with “Tokyo-Neapolitan” style pizza and small snacks. I am not a beer person unless the situation calls for it, and here it pairs perfectly with the pizza (duh). They have a ton of options and have something for every flavor profile. I went with the Sudachi Rice Lager and it was perfect. Standouts for me were the margherita pizza, fried mozzarella, and the fish and chips which is found on the menu with particular Japanese flair as Fish Karaage. Sunday salad was also a really solid way to start the meal. Bonus: you can hit neighboring Romeo’s and/or PDT for a nightcap.
Le Veau d’Or
📍Upper East Side
🍽️ French
Of course you’ve read all the gushing reviews of this reopened spot already, and perhaps have gone yourself, but I have to add my voice to the chorus: I can say with absolute certainty that Le Veau d’Or is one of my favorite places to open in 2024 in NYC. Walking in feels like a time warp in the best way possible. The menu is a 3-course prix fixe with tons of throwback old school dishes like frogs legs, pâté croûte, and a plate of offal called Les Delices “Veau d’Or.” There was even a special of cervelle de veau (beef brain) that was a standout. This is legit OG cooking at its finest from the best in the game — the incredible group behind Frenchette, Le Rock etc. Wine is natural and amazing and the team makes it a conversation rather than just handing you a menu, which I really dig. Cocktails are also best in class with the house martini including a sidecar of your vermouth mixed with soda to wash it all down. As I said, the UES is not my area of choice, but if places like this (and Chez Fifi) keep opening, I may have to reconsider.
San Sabino
📍West Village
🍽️ Italian-American Seafood
San Sabino is the much anticipated follow up to neighbor restaurant, the perennially packed Don Angie. Both of these spots are great at putting their own spin on Italian. I love when I see people cooking from a unique point of view, and that’s what owners Scott and Angie do best. San Sabino is mostly seafood focused but I think some of the meat dishes may even be my favorite. I met up with a buddy down the block for a quick drink (martini) at Ye Olde Waverly Inn and rolled up to San Sabino right as the dining room was buzzing. It has a really great energy in a tight little space that I love. Cocktails are fun and inventive much like the food. Reservations while tough to come by at a normal time are possible. I tend to hit places like this as a walk-in more often than not and just come either solo or with one other person early in the week. As long as you’re flexible on time and down to wait a bit you can really get in anywhere in the city if you try. The other cool thing about San Sabino is they also do lunch with a pretty similar menu. Ok, the food: my highlights here are definitely the mussels, which come open faced and stuffed, spicy tuna broken arancini, cheese frittelle (insane), and the manicotti della casa, which I think is one of the most comforting bites of food around. The shrimp parm, just like its heavily Instagrammed counterpoint at Don Angie (the lasagna) also lives up to the hype. I do have a nostalgic soft spot for shrimp parm in general, originally being introduced to it as a hero from a close friend’s late father growing up in Long Beach, NY. Love seeing it on a menu!
Kaew Jao Jorm
📍Williamsburg
🍽️ Thai
Was planning on taking it easy, but last minute decided to meet up with two of my closest friends who also happen to be industry veterans who had tipped me off to an under the radar new Thai spot in their hood. I hadn’t previously heard anything about this new place so was happy to come along. First though, I was given a task. Kaew Jao Jorm is BYOB, and my friends were bringing Champagne (not really my favorite as I don’t love bubbles). I needed to pick up a bottle of something to drink as well. As my go to party trick I usually bring reasonably priced bottles of mezcal to any event and then drink it neat. Today’s choice was a bottle of Rey Campero Espadin which is usually about $50, which in mezcal is cheap. It’s really solid stuff and was great to drink after a small glass of bubbles to get started. I asked about the regional style of the food and was informed that the food that they serve is “royal” Thai food, meaning it was—allegedly—the kind served to the royal family. I’m still not fully sure what that means, and honestly didn’t bother to research it, but the food was damn good. The restaurant seats maybe 20 people, so it really is a hidden gem. The highlights for me were the crab fried rice, Tung Thong (fried mini wontons with chicken and shrimp), La Tiang (shrimp and pork wrapped in a thin omelet) and the Tod Mun Poo, which was a fish paste and crab meat cake that I thought was spectacular. Definitely going to come back here again and check out some more of the menu. Don’t tell too many of your friends though, the place is small.
Kanoyama
📍East Village
🍽️ Sushi
My friend and I go for Omakase as a Christmas Eve tradition. This year, we decided to go back to one of the more old school sushi spots in NYC, Kanoyama, home to one of the most underrated and under the radar omakase’s in town. Having held a Michelin star for many years, it still is a standout and one of the best bang for your buck meals (at this level) running under $200 per person. The thing I like most is on my last few visits to the normal omakase counter, the chef stayed away from what I call “rich people sushi,” which is when a place tries to justify their pricing by using a lot of high end ingredients and boring fish. This is highly subjective, but I prefer a lot of unique fish that you don’t see at every shop and other more challenging bites to be included like Shirako (cod milt), Ankimo (monkfish liver) and lots of Hikarimono (silverfish). This is what stands out and makes me want to go back to a sushi restaurant again and again. I don’t really care if you have A5 Wagyu, truffles, eight cuts of tuna and six types of uni. Don’t get me wrong, that stuff is all delicious, but I’d rather have more variety and would be happy with just one or two bites of uni and toro and honestly don’t need wagyu as part of my experience at all. Anyway, Kanoyama does this and puts on a great experience, holiday or not. If you’re looking to try a high-end omakase at a fraction of the price, I’d check this place out. Pro tip: make sure you book the omakase counter as the dining room is more neighborhood style sushi spot. They only do two turns a night of omakase, and only Wednesday through Saturday.
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