As we look back on a great year of dining, we're celebrating the best dishes and desserts we ate at new restaurants in 2023. For our list of The 24 Best New Restaurants of 2023, click here.
The past few years haven’t been all sugar and spice for dessert menus. During the pandemic, as restaurants looked to cut costs and pare down their operations, pastry chefs were often the first to be let go. In their absence, the range of desserts on offer at a lot of places got notably slimmer, simpler, and less exciting. Still, I’ve remained devoted to dessert, and almost always order something sweet to end my meal. As our team ate across the country this year in search of the Best New Restaurants of 2023, our commitment to sugar paid off. Restaurants are finding their groove again, and desserts—I mean the genuinely exciting, glad-we-didn’t-skip ones—are on the upswing.
Whether it was a tower of kakigori studded with little treasures, a grapefruit filled with swirls of luscious frozen yogurt, or a just-set pie covered with fresh fruit, these 10 dishes from new restaurants affirmed that in 2023, skipping dessert was never the move. —Elazar Sontag, restaurant editor
These dishes were eaten throughout 2023, and some may no longer be offered. When in doubt, check a restaurant’s updated menu.
“Affogato”
In 2023, if you want to know what it’s like to be at a downtown New York hotspot, head straight to Torrisi. The restaurant comes from Major Food Group, the behemoth restaurant empire best known for celebrity fave Carbone, but Torrisi is a revival from when the crew was just starting out and Drake (probably) didn’t know they existed. Despite major sceney vibes—you will want to show up looking hot—the food is creative and surprising and extremely worth setting your Resy alerts for. One dish I immediately rushed back to eat again was a dessert simply titled “affogato.” A creation of genius pastry chef Stephanie Prida, who has since moved on to esteemed California bakery Manresa Bread, the dessert is absolutely not the traditional espresso-topped ice cream. Instead, an oversized martini glass comes packed with vanilla ice cream, mascarpone cream, hot fudge, and espresso granita. Grab a spoon and scoop up a bit of each. It’s tiramisu funneled through a funhouse mirror—and just one of several magical dishes you’ll experience at Torrisi. —Serena Dai, digital editorial director
Bánh Kẹp
Shaped like a boat and rockin’ with Vietnamese pop hits, The Boat is a playful restaurant offering creative drinks and unparalleled chicken in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. Half a game hen is bejeweled in fried garlic, cooked until it’s pull-apart tender, and served with chrysanthemum salad and either rice or noodles in a light chicken broth. This chicken might be why you came, but don’t leave without ordering a plate of bánh kẹp. Four lightly browned wedges of pandan or pink pineapple waffle arrive on a colorful plate next to a little cup of frothy, salted coconut cream topped with crushed peanuts—I would happily slurp down the cream with a straw. The pink waffle is almost imperceptibly sweet, laced with jammy chunks of pineapple, and the pandan is grassy with hints of vanilla. Crisp on the outside and somehow both airy and doughy inside, the waffles are expertly engineered for dunking in the cloudlike coconut cream. Be sure to order the combo plate, which comes with two waffles in each flavor, or live a little and get a plate of each flavor. Like the gold disco ball hanging in one corner, the pink neon rooster in a window, and the fake palm tree attached to the front of the boat like a kitschy figurehead, this colorful dish is emblematic of The Boat’s joy-filled vibes —Ali Francis, staff writer
Okinawa Yam Pudding
Every dish at N/Soto, the second Los Angeles restaurant of chef-partners Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama, is flashy. A sculptural dish of Hokkaido scallops, uni, caviar, and tuna tartare; a caramelized marrow bone ready to be scooped onto a crisped triangle of rice. I’d expected dessert to be just as large and showy, but what really wowed me was a little bowl of pudding. The custard base was a dreamy purple, colored by Okinawan sweet potato. It was topped with chewy, syrupy balls of mochi the size of grapes, earthy roasted soybean powder, and a deep dark pool of Okinawan black sugar syrup. Bites of chewy mochi balanced out all that silky-sweet custard. It would be easy to pass over a bowl of pudding after such a lavish meal, but don’t; it’s one of the restaurant’s most impressive dishes. —Elazar Sontag, restaurant editor
Sorghum Custard
A lot of the seafood at Sedalia’s, a charming Oklahoma City oysterette (and one of BA's Best New Restaurants of 2023), is flown into the landlocked state. But co-owners Zack Walters and Silvana Arandia Walters are passionate about sourcing locally when possible—from the farmer’s market-procured veg and the Oklahoma paddlefish caviar to the standout dessert: sorghum custard. Sorghum is a grass that grows abundantly in the region. To make this dessert, Zack buys a rich, earthy sorghum syrup made by the Seminole nation and folds it into a luscious custard. The dish is served in soft-whipped, mousse-like cumulus clouds, beneath which tessellations of nutty, toasty rye cookies hide. I’ve never cared for custard, but it was the only dessert on the menu when I visited so, naturally, I was game. The combination of subtle, creamy sweetness and crunchy, savory, bitsy morsels was delightful. Turns out, one simple yet very good dessert is all you need. —Jen Choi, editor
Kakigori
Eating the kakigori at Phuket Cafe, a stunning new Thai restaurant in Portland, OR, reminded me of playing a magnificent game of hide and seek. The pile of fluffy shaved ice was decked out in treasures: veil-thin slices of pink pearl apple, big blocks of raspberry and rose mochi reminiscent of the best Turkish delight, halved lychees. When I finally made it to the middle of the icy mountain, there were more gems waiting for me in the form of a mound of tapioca balls. I’m usually disappointed when a restaurant only has one or two desserts. When one of them is this fun though, anything else would be completely overshadowed. —Elazar Sontag, restaurant editor
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Satsuma, Vanilla, Crème Fraîche
Vern's, a charming bistro in Charleston’s Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood, is the first restaurant of owners Bethany and Daniel Heinze. Even before I sat down, I had my sights set on the satsuma, vanilla, and crème fraîche dessert. After a sampling of dishes like charred sourdough, skewered lamb shoulder, and roast spring chicken, I locked eyes with my prize: a coupe filled with vanilla crème fraîche and topped off with a golden dome of sweet, tangy satsuma shaved ice. It’s exactly the kind of dessert I crave after a big meal. The satsuma ice was floral and citrusy, and the crème fraîche—studded with satsuma jam—was reminiscent of melted vanilla ice cream. The fruit, which rotates seasonally, came from a friend of the owners’ backyard, making it taste—if only in my head—even more inviting. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager
Cardamom & Pistachio Rice Pudding
I don’t think about dessert much when I’m at a barbecue joint. I’m there for the ribs, the brisket, and absolutely the potato salad. It makes sense that KG BBQ in Austin overrode all of my expectations, seeing as the restaurant is doing Texas barbecue entirely its own way. The food truck, led by pitmaster Kareem El-Ghayesh, specializes in all the barbecue classics (ribs, brisket, sausage), only through the lens of Egyptian flavors and cooking techniques. Pork ribs were glazed with sticky pomegranate molasses, smoky lamb chops stood in for beef ribs, and the small bowl of rice pudding that ended my meal could confidently enter the ring with the best banana pudding. Spiked with pistachio butter, and topped with whipped mascarpone and crumbled pistachios, it was an almost painfully rich finale to my smoked meat tray. But when it was time for me to get in the car and start my long ride to Houston, I ordered another little tub for the drive. —Elazar Sontag, restaurant editor
Pearl Pie
Before Superiority Burger reopened in April after moving to a new location, there were the pictures: a steady stream of them, teasing loyal fans and hinting at the development of exciting new menu items. One of these tantalizing photos dropped on the restaurant’s Instagram in January. A pie, shot outside, with a sunset-hued sheen. The caption read: “commercial cracker-crusted (vegan) and (DELICATE) coconut custard mango li hing mui-glazed PEARL PIE”. The pie, from pastry chef Darcy Spence and pastry sous chef Katie Toles, shot to the top of my must-try list. When the restaurant reopened, and I finally did get my hands on it, the custard in question was passionfruit and the slice was blanketed with tapioca—the softly chewy pearls bursting against the tangy custard and the gentle crunch of the crust. A total textural victory, the whole thing stunned me. Creamy, fruity, and a little tart, it became my new ne plus ultra for custard pies. The pie rotates on and off the menu, but either way, you should still go to Superiority Burger for some of the very best—and certainly most fun—desserts in town. —Sonia Chopra, executive editor
Keso Ice Cream
By the time I reached dessert at Neng Jr.’s (one of BA's Best New Restaurants of 2023), there was no doubt in my mind that whatever chef Silver Iocovozzi put in front of me would be a winner. Perched on a barstool at the chef’s counter, I had watched Iocovozzi and a team of just a few cooks turn out chewy hand-pulled noodles, duck breast adobo, and big, luxurious lobes of shad roe (that’s the very delicious egg sac of a fish). Still, I was slightly disappointed when I flipped open the dessert menu and saw that the end of my meal would be ice cream. I'm not an ice cream hater, but rarely does a scoop of even the most velvety stuff leave me wanting for more (I know, I'm in the minority here). I was wrong to doubt: The impossibly smooth mixture was spun with shards of rich cheddar, and each bite was just as salty as it was sweet. Iocovozzi covered the ice cream with a handy dose of extra cheese, punctuating each spoonful with an added blast of salt. There was something sneakily genius about the dish; I knew my meal was over, but every savory-sweet bite made me wish I could start all over again. —Elazar Sontag, restaurant editor
Lemon Meringue Kakigori
When you order the towering, delicate, seasonally-changing kakigori at Bar Futo, you're committing to making a mess. That’s part of the fun of this dessert. The precariously piled mountain of ice shavings arrived at my table topped with a small swoop of meringue and sent a shower of ice flying as I eagerly dug my spoon in—but no one was judging. The real treasure was at the heart of the dish. Hidden under a layer of snowy ice sat a sweet but gloriously tart lemon curd. Each bite was teasingly rich; the smooth custard sung with mouth-puckering lemon before giving way to more refreshingly cold shaved ice. —Sam Stone, staff writer