Smile Politely

BEST new restaurants of the decade: #4, NAYA

A bowl of pasta at NAYA. Photo by Jessica Hammie.
Jessica Hammie

From our BEST new restaurants of the decade feature:

This was a much anticipated addition to the restaurant scene, and just squeezed into the decade, opening early in 2019. As you can see, there are two other Jin Park restaurants in this best list that have been around a bit. Throw in Thad Morrow, former owner and head chef at bacaro (RIP), and this was bound to be a winner. We had to wait awhile to experience NAYA — we announced its intentions back in January 2018 and it officially opened in March 2019 — but they did a pretty clever thing in the interim. Throughout the summer of 2018, you could order NAYA specials at Miga. It kept our interest while allowing Morrow to experiment with possible menu items. The cuisine is Italian, with an Asian flair, and everything I’ve had is delish. The menu is laid out in a way that makes sampling and sharing easy, which I appreciate, and the ambience is warm and welcoming. Personal favorites are the bulgogi risotto, rigatoni bolognese, and orange olive oil cake with marscapone, but I’ve yet to have a bad bite. (Julie McClure)

Photo by Jessica Hammie

Executive Editor

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