Kabawa opened in March, and by December it was the number-one restaurant on the New York Times' 100 Best NYC Restaurants list for 2026. Three stars from the Times. Best New Restaurant of 2025 from Eater. Food & Wine's Best Restaurant in America for 2026. For a 20-seat counter tucked into the alley entrance that was once Momofuku Ko, the velocity of acclaim is almost absurd. But the accolades are not misplaced. This is the most exciting dining room in New York right now—and it doesn't play by fine dining's tired rulebook.
Chef Paul Carmichael, Barbados-born and trained at Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney, has written something like a love letter to Caribbean food, and he's doing it in a space that thrums with soca and the kind of energy you'd find at a block party, not a tasting menu. The 145-dollar, three-course prix fixe unfolds around a U-shaped counter where you watch Carmichael and his team work in watercolor-dipped aprons—moving fluidly between casual conversation with guests and then stunning them with a slow-roasted goat shoulder glistening in an orangey-reddish Creole sauce that announces itself with habanero heat. A Chuleta Can Can arrives with recaíto and the kind of aggressive seasoning that makes you understand why Caribbean cooking doesn't need permission from anyone. Roti service comes with curry chickpeas and pepper jelly. A coconut turnover arrives at the end, warm enough to share.
What sets Kabawa apart isn't just the cooking—though the cooking is precise and alive. It's the refusal to perform fanciness as constraint. The room is intimate and joyful in the same breath. The cocktail list leans into rum and island ingredients without irony. The plating is confident without becoming precious. You leave satisfied, not performing satiation. This is Caribbean fine dining that doesn't apologize for being fun, and in a city drowning in austere tasting menus, that matters.
Reservations are nearly impossible to land; the room seats 48 and the counter slots fill weeks out. Bar Kabawa next door offers walk-in access to cocktails and a limited menu, which is the realistic play for most people. But if you've been meaning to experience the restaurant everyone is talking about, start checking availability now. This is not a trend. This is a chef at the peak of his powers in a room that refuses to be boring.