This post originally appeared on June 1, 2019, in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

The Shops at Hudson Yards, the mall within the New York mega-development, is not a place where I would want to spend much time, even though it’s jam-packed with potentially exciting restaurants.

Luckily our critics Robert Sietsema and Ryan Sutton took one for the team and spent a lot of time — days upon days — at Hudson Yards over the past two months to review a plethora of restaurants and stands. Their collection of reviews and guidance to the space — part of the most expensive development in American history — dropped on Eater New York this week. What do the best restaurants money can buy offer New Yorkers?

The Good News:

Robert’s list of the best things you can find around the mall for under $20, often “located in obscure corners, along lanes that hold no further interest” and his first look at José Andrés’ Spanish market.

Kawi: “...it’s heartwarming to see a superstar operator show up to a $25 billion complex that’s become a bastion of bland steakhouses and use it to represent dishes that are still largely underrepresented, or undervalued, throughout the country’s fine dining scene.”

Milos Wine Bar: ”To dine at Estiatorio Milos in Hudson Yards, one of the city’s most expensive seafood restaurants, is to witness the efforts of a small army...To dine downstairs at Milos Wine Bar, however, is to witness a very different ballet, and arguably a more compelling one.”

The Bad News:

Wild Ink: “In place of classic bulgogi, diners are treated to a veritable Frankenstein of a dish, an unholy triad recalling microwaveable Hot Pockets, airline Korean food, and hospital-quality Welsh rarebit.”

TAK Room: “The a la carte format in this case lets the 1 percent flex their wealth — amid the company of their privileged brethren — without the burden of a four-hour meal or throngs of destination diners seeking culinary enlightenment. It’s just dinner.”

Estiatorio Milos: “Constant incongruities on a bill at Milos feel more like the work of an unscrupulous bookie than an honest act of hospitality.”

On Eater

Patricia Chang

• Intel: Guy Fieri will open a restaurant in Boston; a beloved Twin Cities Caribbean restaurant will close after a new landlord doubled its rent; Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant group is back in the black; San Francisco’s Bi-Rite Creamery reopened after a three month renovation; New York’s Time Out food hall opened yesterday with 20 vendors; 10-year-old Charleston sticky bun destination WildFlour will close its downtown shop; a natural wine bar and seafood spot will open next month in Seattle; cultishly loved Texas grocery store H-E-B will open a food hall and beer garden in 2022; a bill extending last call to 4 a.m. for certain California cities passed its latest hurdle; a bunch of veterans of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group have left the company; a chef in Portland launched a delivery company geared toward strippers and sex workers; a wild club from a Cirque du Soleil founder opens this weekend in Montreal; 73 food words made it into this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee; Flour + Water Pizzeria opens Monday in San Francisco; beloved New York restaurant Barbuto closed yesterday; and restaurateur Bill Chait will reopen the recently closed Church & State next month.
• Um wow, look at this bagel place opening in San Francisco.
• How the very cool murals and design touches came together at Austin restaurant She’s Not Here.
• 11 spectatcularly spicy Houston dishes to eat right now.
• How to take a limited edition, high-end burger and translate it for the masses of a food hall.
• A look at the Bangladeshi restaurants in Detroit that assemble and sell thousands of iftar boxes —filled with things like biryani and fried eggplant — during the month of Ramadan.
• To buy: a Japense copper grater to supplement your Microplane.
• Netflix’s A Tale of Two Kitchens is a loving ode to restaurant workers.
• To watch: The Prime Time guys turn a whole pig head into thinly sliced charcuterie.

On The Podcast This Week

This week on the podcast, Daniel and I discussed the week’s biggest food stories, including the run on celery juice, how brands do Pride wrong, a big Toronto sushi restaurant opening, and more.

Off Eater

• Howlin’ Rays, a hot chicken joint in LA’s Chinatown, attracts obscene lines, and senior neighbors have neither the time nor the money for it. So Frank Shyong got them some to find out their thoughts. [LAT]
• How to be happy at 90. [Glamour]
• AOC is down to bartend at political fundraisers. [NYDN]
• Will Guidara on the importance of being present and not multitasking so much. [FastCo]
• For the Pacific Dining Car’s 88-year-old bartender, work is therapy. [Los Angeleno]