Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi: a changing of the guard in New York

The New York Times’ food critic Pete Wells has released what is now an annual list of the 100 Best Restaurants in New York City and the coveted number one spot is awarded to Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi.

Wells, who briefly gave up actually rating restaurants with stars during and post pandemic is back to what he does best, sharpening his cutlery and putting his considerable palate to the test, and working his way through the crowded New York high-end restaurant scene to discern the 100 most worthy of your patronage.

While many of the familiar fixtures of New York fine dining appear on the list, there has been significant change in the last couple of years. New York itself has changed, society has been convulsing through many identity crises and the restaurant industry has had to overhaul its business to mitigate many evolving challenges. The fact that Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi can realistically be called the best restaurant in New York is a vote of confidence in the culinary talents of its American-Nigerian chef-patron, but also in his authenticity and his command of the culinary medium in recounting the Black experience in America, showing another side of what the artform can achieve.

Onwuachi seems to have impeccable timing. After calling time on his stint at Kith and Kin in Washington D.C., where he came to international notoriety, in 2020, the chef probably neatly sidestepped much of the worst endured by the restaurant industry during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. When he did eventually decide to open his restaurant, he put his heart and soul into it, putting his sister’s name above the door and creating a menu that shared a deeply personal reflection on his upbringing, his West African, Caribbean, and Creole roots, and the intergenerational meaning of African-American identity.

Wells was impressed when he reviewed Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi back in March 2023, writing: "I’ve never seen a restaurant address what’s going on in the culture the way Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi, inside David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, does. For his first New York restaurant, Mr. Onwuachi has drawn many of the dishes from episodes in his own, 33-year-old life. Selling dishes with personal history is a staple of restaurants and the cooking-competition show ‘Top Chef,’ on which Mr. Onwuachi was once a contestant. Often when servers relate a personal anecdote of the chef’s that supposedly inspired a dish, an appropriate response is: Who cares? But Mr. Onwuachi is able to connect his autobiography with some of the great themes of Black life in the United States.”

The food served by Onwuachi celebrates the diversity and complexity of Afro-American culture. It is not the cuisine most often associated with fine dining. Still, at Tatiana, he shares its full breadth and sophistication, flavors and ingredients in a joyful and, above all, inclusive way.

Already feted by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants as the One To Watch award winner in 2023, Onwuachi’s star is rising again. A Michelin star is conspicuous by its absence outside this restaurant’s door.

You could say that Wells’ list of New York restaurants signals a changing of the guard in New York’s fine-dining scene. Of the most notable restaurants in the city over the last decade, only Le Bernadin holds a place in the top 10. The rest are establishments that are unafraid to do things differently and forge their own paths, with the likes of Atomix at #2 and La Piraña Lechonera at #5. Eleven Madison Park doesn’t even make the list of 100.