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It was a year no food-lover will forget — dramatic, zany and appalling by turns. Business was robust. Confident restaurateurs launched new places almost daily.
If any one trend stood out, it was the growing dominance of the “haves” — the large restaurant companies that grew and expanded no matter what the economic trends. Quality Branded launched Mexican jumbo Limusina on Ninth Avenue, Avra Group brought another Greek seafood giant to the Moynihan building, and Mercer Street Hospitality Group opened Seahorse in Union Square. Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Lois Freedman brought ABC Kitchen to Brooklyn for the first time.
It was a different story for many smaller, more independent places. Brooklyn lost longtime favorites Colonie and Fette Sau; Rock Center’s Lodi quit after just a few years.
Meanwhile, diners, fed up with unbearable noise and cramped dining rooms, flocked to private clubs such as Margaux — if they could get in — and to public restaurants, such as Corner Store and The Eighty Six, where it was so hard to get reservations that they almost seemed private.
Here are the most memorable hits, flops and surprises from 2025.
Influencers ran amok
Posing as an influencer, Taiwanese-born beauty Pei Chung, 34, allegedly bolted from more than a dozen Brooklyn restaurants without paying the bill. She was arrested multiple times and evicted from her fancy Williamsburg apartment for non-payment of rent.
But Chung’s antics differed from those of scores of social media “influencers” only in their brazenness. Many less obvious shakedown artists who post regularly on Instagram and TikTok threaten restaurateurs with negative postings unless they get as much free caviar, foie gras and Champagne as they — and their followers — desire.
The scourge highlights the deplorable clout of influencers who boast of having millions of followers (an often spurious claim), but know nothing about food except for the whims of their own appetites. Still, they can have more impact on a restaurant’s destiny than critics who spend lifetimes studying and experiencing cuisines.
Veganism retreated
After years of flaunting its three-Michelin-star status, all-vegan Eleven Madison Park — smarting from the loss of private-party customers who wouldn’t pay $1,000 for seeds and weeds — came to its senses last summer and grudgingly put meat back on its menu.
Beef reigned
Don’t tell the environmentalists and your cardiologist: The year’s biggest Big Apple openings were steakhouses, from massive Palladino’s at Grand Central to the ultra-hot Eighty Six and the Mexican-spiced Cuerno.
Starbucks made terrible decisions
With sales down in part because customers were fed up waiting forever to get their drinks, Starbies execs came up with a brilliant plan: Make customers wait even longer by mandating that baristas write personal messages on every cup.
The best new restaurants thrilled
In a gleaming, David Rockwell-designed setting on Union Square, chef John Villa makes magic with both fish dishes and land offerings — including a terrific duck a l’orange — at Seahorse. Marlow East, is a welcoming, two-level, southern-themed gift to the Upper East Side. At Kabawa, chef Paul Carmichael has reinvigorated the Momofuku brand with exciting Caribbean flavors.
La Grenouille lived on — sort of
A Chinese company transformed the former home of plush La Grenouille into iDen & Quanjude Beijing Duck House — but thankfully kept all of its fancy French predecessor’s crimson banquettes, gold fabric walls and beveled mirrors. Instead of Dover sole deboned tableside, duck is now carved before your eyes — if you can take them off the romantic surroundings.
Masa got demoted
The city’s grand sushi temple, where a meal with wine and sake can easily run to $1,000, lost one of the three stars it had held for fifteen years. Meanwhile, newbie Sushi Sho, which just opened in the city early last year, snagged three twinklers.
Babbo made a triumphant return
New owner Stephen Starr and chef Mark Ladner brought Mario Batali’s former flagship back from the dead — and exorcised disgraced Molto Mario’s ghost —with a more accessible menu and a beautifully redesigned second floor.
The peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich was reborn
At Hani’s Bakery & Cafe, former Gramercy Tavern pastry chef Miro Uskokovic and his wife, Bon Appetit senior food editor Shilpa Uskokovic, have cooked up a life-changing take on the classic that’s served open-face and made with freshly ground peanuts and local raspberry jam.
