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The 2025 edition of The New York Times’ list of the best restaurants in NYC has just dropped, and the Upper West Side eatery that held the number one position in both 2024 and 2023 has been knocked down a few pegs.
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Last year, three Upper West Side restaurants made the coveted list of the city’s 100 best dining establishments: Jean-Georges in 19th place, Barney Greengrass in 66th place, and Tatiana By Kwame Onwuachi in 1st, after topping the list in 2023 just a few months after opening.
Tatiana, which opened within Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall shortly after the completion of its $550 million overhaul, is now sitting in position number 10. The new # 1 is Semma, a Southern Indian restaurant that opened in Greenwich Village in 2021.
The list, previously written by Pete Wells—who departed from his position last year—was put together by the outlet’s “interim restaurant critics,” Priya Krishna and Melissa Clark, who state in their intro that the 90 restaurants following their new top 10 are unranked and listed in alphabetical order.
That being said, Barney Greengrass and Jean-Georges are still in there, just without official positions.
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As far as the general public is concerned, Tatiana’s reviews are mostly positive (they’ve got a score of 4.3 on Google). Many patrons compliment the restaurant’s vibrant atmosphere and creative menu, praising items like their oxtail, goat curry and short rib dishes. While the service is generally well-received, some people have complained about wait times and reservation difficulties. A number of patrons have also called out high prices and noise levels, though the overall sentiment is still positive.
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For all the early huzzas and well beyond any actually earned praise for a newcomer, after two visits we — well, there were 4 of us the first time and 6 the second, our reactions were unanimous — none of us shall be returning anytime soon to Tatiana by KO. Even considering Lincoln Center wallets and purses, in tandem with below 4.5 ratings from Google – meaning nothing superb is going on here with their 4.3 – Tatiana’s thinks too much of themselves as evidenced by ridiculous menu prices. And people are right to complain about the poor sound-proofing; the din is unacceptable. Reservation staff need to be assigned elsewhere, retrained, or just terminated; their people skills are beyond the pale.