Restaurants in 2013

I thought that since summer is quickly drawing to a close that I would post an update on the restaurants that I said I was dying to try in 2013 (and one from 2012).  We're not doing quite as well as last year in knocking restaurants off the list but we are trying!  I made reservations at Torrisi Italian Specialties for mid-September so that will take care of another restaurant.  Go us!  And I am determined to hit one of the Pok Poks, Red Farm and Khe-Yo by the end of the year.  I only have four months left so I had better get cracking.  The others will probably stay on the list for at least another year...  There are a few other restaurants that recently opened that I am dying to try, so I added them at the bottom even though they weren't on the original list.

1. Brooklyn Fare (still dying to go but it's totally impossible to get reservations and really pricey)
2. Locanda Verde
3. Torrisi Italian Specialities and Parm (should also add Carbone and ZZ's Clam Bar)
4. Empellon Cocina
5. Pok Pok NY and Pok Pok Phat Thai
6. Biang
7. Red Farm (the new UWS location is set to open in late September so I am determined that we will try it by the end of the year)
8. The Marrow
9. Roberta's and Blanca
10. Acme
11. Khe-Yo
12. ABC Cocina

Runners Up:  M. Wells Dinette, Pig and Khao, Sripraphai, Boulud Sud, Yunnan Kitchen, Red Rooster 

Runner Up from 2012: John Dory Oyster Bar

Of the restaurants we have tried, I have to say that Biang, Acme, Pig and Khao and Boulud Sud were all very different, but pretty fabulous nonetheless.  The Marrow was good, but not quite as good as the others.  Part of that might be due to the fact that we ate a meal that would have been very well suited to a cold fall or winter day in mid-July, when it was 90 degrees outside.  I should mention that we did have a fantastic corn salad there that might be one of my favorite side dishes for the year.  Yunnan Kitchen and John Dory Oyster Bar are probably the next level down.  The meals I had there were good, with a few memorable dishes, but they couldn't quite live up the meals we had at some of the others.

P.S.  I think it bears mentioning that we went to a number of other fabulous restaurants that weren't open yet when I wrote this list, including Mighty Quinn's Barbecue and Uncle Boon's, both of which are serious contenders for my favorite new restaurants of 2013.  This year's list is going to be a little all over the place because there are some restaurants we visited in Austin, TX (random but true) and Europe that definitely deserve to make the list.