Now reading · September 2026New York + Los AngelesToronto
Every seat in the house.
A monthly magazine about the people, rooms and prices of eating out. This month: 51 stories from New York and Los Angeles in six chapters, and a 10-story Toronto edition.
Kohada at Sushi Akira, Upper East Side. Photo: Sushi Akira, via MICHELIN Guide
From the editors · September 2026
Most dining coverage ranks rooms. This issue asks a plainer question: where would you sit? At a sushi counter on East 75th Street, at a charcoal grill on 32nd Street, in a hotel dining room under sculpted trees, or on a stool at a tortilla griddle in downtown Los Angeles.
We start at the counter, where Nikki Zheng has priced one of the city’s most exacting meals at about half of what New York omakase usually costs. Then we climb into Koreatown, walk into the big rooms of the West Side, stop at the tables priced to bring you back, and cross to Los Angeles, where Little Tokyo’s counters and the Arts District’s long tables are a short walk apart.
— The Dine Digest desk, New York and Los Angeles
01
Five stories to start with this month.
Chef Nikki Zheng · Sushi Akira, via MICHELIN Guide · rights review pending
At Sushi Akira, about a dozen seats, eighteen courses and a bill under $200 turn New York’s most intimidating format into a welcome.
Read the storyChef Shin Chang-ho’s tasting menu, perilla oil and aged jang included, is the only room in this chapter the guide rates at two stars.
Teodoro Diaz-Rodriguez and Jen Feltham cook the flour tortillas of San Luis Río Colorado on East 8th Street, and the guide gives the whole meal a single $.
Brandon Go’s seven seats, no recorded music and a kaiseki menu the guide rates at two stars.
Daniel Hadida and Eric Robertson cook a menu decided by the day’s harvest, and the 2026 guide rates them at two stars.
02
From a Manhattan sushi counter to an Arts District courtyard.
03
Where to sit this month, city by city.
04
Only ten of the fifty listed rooms in the NY + L.A. issue are $ or $$. Here are four.
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Curated dispatches from kitchen, counter and dining room, delivered monthly. Free, independent, and never paid for by the restaurants in it.
