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Two Upper West Side restaurants have earned spots on Eater’s freshly published roundup of NYC’s best desserts — and the recognition feels like a sweet victory for the neighborhood’s ever-evolving food scene. Both restaurants have already racked up serious praise for their savory dishes, but now, it’s their desserts stealing the spotlight.
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First up is Charles Pan-Fried Chicken, the Harlem-born favorite that landed on West 72nd Street in 2021. Best known for its perfectly crisped, cast-iron-fried chicken — which helped turn founder Charles Gabriel into a local legend — the UWS outpost continues to serve the soulful staples that made the original a hit. But Eater is spotlighting something a little softer: banana pudding. “A small plastic cup with slices of banana floating throughout and wafer cookies perched on top,” Eater writes, recognizing it as a satisfying counterpoint to all that crunchy fried goodness.
c/o Charles Pan-Fried Chicken
The second local mention goes to Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi, the Lincoln Center restaurant that’s been racking up accolades since it opened in late 2022. Tatiana is no stranger to acclaim — the New York Times named it NYC’s best restaurant of 2023 and doubled down by giving it the number one spot in its 2024 list, too.
Now, Eater is singing the praises of chef Onwuachi’s nostalgic “Bodega Special,” which they describe as “as much time machine as it is dessert.” There’s a cosmic brownie “complete with rainbow sprinkles” and doughnut-shaped scoops of powdered sugar doughnut-flavored ice cream. It’s childhood reimagined, filtered through a fine-dining lens and served up with a wink.
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Together, these two UWS spots represent vastly different culinary approaches — one grounded in Southern tradition and comfort, the other reinventing cultural memories with flair — but both have officially earned their place among the city’s best places to end a meal on a high note.
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