The Village Voice‘s annual Choice Eats tasting extravaganza took over the Metropolitan Pavilion on March 11, 2016. Tasty bites from 65 New York City restaurants were up for grabs all night long — from donuts to noodles and everything in between. The sold-out event also gave folks the chance to mingle as they ate their way through the entire critic-curated menu. Here are some of the night’s highlights.
Butter Lane's cupcakes: (from left) banana caramel, vanilla sea salt chocolate, and chocolate strawberry
Spicy Bampa's spicy cold noodle
Dough Doughnuts' chocolate nibs, hibiscus, and glazed doughnuts
Queens comfort
Irvington Bar + Restaurant's croquettes with rotisserie chicken chorizo and romanesco
Xe May Sandwich Shop's pilot sandwich
Baklava Kyklos with walnuts wrapped in crispy layers of phyllo with a light drizzle of honey
Breads Bakery's chocolate babka
Spicy Bampa's hot pot fish fillet
Meatball Shop's shawarma balls with tahini sauce
EGG's chicken and bacon sausage with dirty rice
Butter Lane's cupcakes
Calle Dao's piced goat neck with pickled bok choy shoots, tostones, and Calle Dao house spices
Spicy Bampa's spicy cold noodle
Luke's Lobster's Maine-style shrimp rolls
Fonda's spicy poblano rice
Sigmund's Pretzels
ilili Box's roasted chicken warp and lamb shawarma
Swine's lobster with blood orange, melon radish, crisp potato, and pomegranate
Bread from Grandaisy Bakery
Sweet Generation's fig thyme cupcakes
Boomwich's Rubenese
Raclette Savoyarde melted onto roasted potatoes with cornichons and pickled onions
Genuine Superette's baja burger with Cotija cheese, charred jalapeño, and pickled jalapeño
Sweet Generation's cupcakes: chocolate mint, rosewater, strawberry milkshake, toasted coconut, and eternal chocolate
Dough Doughnuts' glazed, mocha, and cinnamon sugar doughnuts
Flinders Lane's coconut curry laksa with jumbo lump crab meat
Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue's sticky burnt ends with honey cornbread
Sugar Couture's mini smores eclairs
No. 7 Veggie's double-decker broccoli tacos
Awadh's chicken "dum pukht" dahi wala
Long Island fluke with marscarpone, celery, and potato vinaigrette
Veselka's mushroom truffle pierogi
Kuma Nachos with spicy pork, beans, and pickled jalapeños
Javelina Tex-Mex's carne asado taco grilled hangar steak topped with a three-chili sauce and jalapeño relish on a flour tortilla
The Handpulled Noodle's spicy cumin lamb ding ding (chopped noodles)
The Black Ant's tacos de mejillon
El Quinto Pino's milk-poached pork shoulder with trintxat
Thai Rock's Thai dumplings
Queens comfort
Rosemary's crostini Toscana
Ofrenda's tostada de mar y tierra
Sheep Station's sticky toffee pudding
Swine's lobster with blood orange, melon radish, crisp potato, and pomegranate
Doughnut Plant's triple chocolate doughnut
Kailash Parbat's saibhaji
Osteria Cotta's braised pork ragu over polenta