Make These Recipes From Our 50 Best Restaurants List

For the first time, we asked chefs from our annual list to share recipes for some of their signature dishes.

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For the first time, we asked chefs from our annual list to share recipes for some of their signature dishes.

Even if you’re among the most ardent of restaurant fans, chances are good you haven’t been to all 50 spots on The New York Times 2026 Restaurant List, published Sept. 15. (Though, if you have, call us.)

All that traveling, all that reservation hunting, all that indulgence adds up. But don’t worry: For those hoping for a taste of the list without the travel, our scouting team brought back six recipes that they hope you’ll fall for just as they did. Make one or all: Use them as a weekend treat or the fodder for a dinner party (and, if you do, call us about that, too).

12 of Our Staff’s Favorite Restaurant Recipes

Brown Butter Dates With Ras el Hanout

Michael Rafidi elevates dates to new heights at Albi, his Palestinian restaurant in Washington, D.C. He gets his dates from Jericho, poaches them in butter and roasts them over coals, Ligaya Mishan writes. But you can use whatever Medjool dates you have, then either cook them on the grill, under the broiler or in a grill pan. An easy ras el hanout brown butter complements their smokiness beautifully, and is the kind of thing you can keep around to enhance all kinds of meat and vegetables.

Recipe: Brown Butter Dates With Ras el Hanout

Tirokafteri (Spicy Whipped Feta With Peppers)

Just outside Chicago, the Greek restaurant Kouklas goes beyond traditional Mediterranean spreads and dips. This creamy, spicy one is just an example, coming together easily in a food processor. The hardest part is simply blackening the chile — for a crowd-pleaser of an appetizer that recalls pimento cheese.

Recipe: Tirokafteri (Spicy Whipped Feta With Peppers)

Steakhouse Shrimp Cocktail

Durant’s in Phoenix is a great steakhouse, and like just about any great steakhouse, its shrimp cocktail is a standout. Under the chef Raul A. Del Pozo, an abundance of shrimp are poached in crab boil seasoning and paired with two sauces: a classic horseradish-infused cocktail sauce and a creamy Dijon mustard sauce.

Recipe: Steakhouse Shrimp Cocktail

Braised Butter Beans With Broccolini

A much younger sibling of Chez Panisse, Bar Panisse shares many of its traits: The chef Amelia Telč “has that Chez Panisse-patented reverence for ingredients and rustic cooking,” Tejal Rao writes. Among the restaurant’s offerings, there’s always a platter of butter beans amplified with seasonal ingredients. This version pairs them with broccolini, just in time for fall.

Recipe: Braised Butter Beans With Broccolini

Taho (Sweet Silken Tofu and Tapioca Pearls)

Tapioca pearls swimming in arnibal, a brown-sugar syrup, flavor layers of silken tofu in this classic street dish served at Lasang Pinoy, a Filipino restaurant in Rogers, Ark. Bill Martfeld, the restaurant’s chef, uses homemade silken tofu, but this adapted version swaps in store-bought for a delicately sweet dessert, served joyously in tall glasses.

Recipe: Taho (Sweet Silken Tofu and Tapioca Pearls)

Lamb Shank Birria

Rural Wisconsin may seem an unlikely place to encounter lamb birria, a dish originating in central and western Mexico. But it still feels quite appropriate, especially in the cold Wisconsin winters, Brett Anderson writes. At La Sirena, which opened just last year in Ephraim, a village on the shoreline of Green Bay, the chef Carlos Salgado opts for shanks over the more traditional whole animal.

Recipe: Lamb Shank Birria

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