Three restaurants where ordering the chicken is the exciting choice
We restaurant chicken lovers are natural-born optimists. No matter how many limp-skinned, dried-out birds we encounter, we keep believing the next one will be better — crispier, more juicy, less expensive — even if that’s rarely true. But when chicken is done right, it can be an experience in and of itself and all the reason you need to visit a restaurant. Over the last month, I tried as many experiential chickens as I could handle. These three are winner-winners.
Butter chicken, two waysYou’re not seeing double. Musaafer in TriBeCa is the second place in town to serve a “butter chicken experience.” At Adda, which added the dish to its menu in the spring, customers make a range of selections, such as the wood chips over which their chicken is smoked and the seasonings in their butter, then watch it come together tableside. But I prefer the butter chicken experience at Musaafer, which has been on the menu at its original location in Houston since 2020. It’s prepared out of sight — a relief once you see how much butter goes into the one at Adda — for $42. You can choose between a classic tomato-based curry, with a sweet, intensely smoky flavor that reminded me of Sweet Baby Ray’s, or a second version featuring a sauce thickened with tomatillos. It’s not much of a looker, but I loved how the tart tomatillos cut through the cream. Afterward, we wiped up both bowls with paratha, roti and naan. 133 Duane Street (Church Street), TriBeCa
Meet Chinatown’s gizzard wizardThe most fun I’ve had eating chicken was at Kono, a yakitori restaurant hiding in the dim passageway connecting the Bowery and Elizabeth Street in Chinatown. Just this month, I sat at one end of Atsushi Kono’s counter, watching him tend to a charcoal grill in chef’s whites and yellow Air Jordans while Beyoncé’s cover of “Before I Let Go” boomed over the speakers. (I could be wrong, but I think he was fanning the flames to the beat.) Mr. Kono isn’t just one of the most fashionable chefs in town; he’s also one of our finest chicken cooks, and the only person I know who can exclusively serve poultry for two hours without anyone objecting. His tasting menu ($175 per person, before drinks and tip) includes more skewers than I could count and features parts of the chicken I had never appreciated: rumpled, fried chicken skin that crunched like pork rinds; sweet ribbons of belly meat; and charred claws that I ate with my hands like no one was watching. (In fact, 13 people were — the size of the chef’s counter.) The chicken theme runs right through dessert with Mr. Kono’s eggy black sugar crème brûlée, an otherworldly pleasure. 46 Bowery (Elizabeth Street), Chinatown
Winner, winner fried chicken dinnerThis summer was a roller coaster for us fans of Peeps Kitchen. In June, the owners of the Korean fried chicken shop, Dohee and Hyun Kim, announced they would be closing at the end of their lease. Then came Peter Rose, a pinball enthusiast who had recently opened a local barcade, where the kitchen was vacant. He suggested the Kims take it over. My pinball game is awful, but it’s hard to imagine a better home for their crunchy, craggly fried chicken than Peeps Kitchen at Scrappleland. It’s made according to a recipe Mr. Kim developed while running fried chicken franchises in South Korea, and if it’s changed at all from the original restaurant, I haven’t noticed. Fried to order, it’s coated in sticky, lip-tingling sauce and tucked into sandwiches with radish and kimchi or served in cartoonishly large drums or in popcorn or wing form. Time will tell how the pinball machines handle greasy fingers — I’m just glad that Peeps is still around. 1150 Manhattan Avenue (Box Street), Greenpoint Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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