The Most-Read American Food Stories of 2024
Budget steaks, rising pizza prices, a corporate French dip, so many listicles, and other stories that everyone was reading in 2024
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Kindly Stop Firing Restaurant Critics and Other Journalists!
This past week, I observed two of my favorite December traditions.
On Christmas, I made my annual pernil. It was just okay! The beans were better. Beans are always better!
Then, the day after, I began compiling my guide to the most-read food stories of 2024. I searched The New York Times, Food & Wine, Grub Street, and others. But when I got to the Eater NY list, I noticed something. I saw that critic Robert Sietsema had authored three of the site’s most-read columns.
His writing resonated deeply with readers.
Sietsema was laid off this month alongside other journalists from Eater and Thrillist. I was also laid off from my critic’s job at Eater NY two years ago. Bill Addison, who wrote long and thoughtful reviews for the national site, departed for The Los Angeles Times before the pandemic.
Eater no longer has any restaurant critics on staff.
Most of you know that the environment for food reviews has been changing for quite some time. Formal criticism isn’t the only thing that readers rely on to decide where to eat. We’re deep into an excellent age of newsletters, essays, cultural criticism, and collaborative lists and guides. That’s a good thing!
But actual reviews are still absolutely necessary. That’s especially true as readers search for reliable advice in an era of ubiquitous influencers. An era of rising prices. An era when thin “what to order” and “what to skip” sensibilities on certain corners of the Internet trump the deeper storytelling and argumentation that critics prefer. An era when an expanding Michelin Guide simply wants us to trust them with their stars.
Tell someone what risotto to avoid and you’ll save them $37 tonight. But help someone understand why vegan tacos or cheeses can be delicious, or why they should rethink their love of a certain French Vietnamese spot, and you’ll make a lasting impact on their life. You might even help out a few small artisans too. All the better if the critic doing all this is the same one you read every week. Someone to draw in readers and then subvert their expectations. Like good art does.
I hope Eater finds a way to bring back proper criticism — of restaurants, pop-ups, street cart vendors, food halls, and wherever else people eat. Because sometimes, folks want more than a few quick sentences or paragraphs in a list or map. Sometimes, folks want to know what it’s like to be surrounded by plutocrats at a sushi bar or by sweaty people at an Eastern European bathhouse. On that note, proper reviews made their way onto other most-read lists too, at The NYT, Grub Street, and my tiny little site, The Lo Times.
I also hope to see more folks who aren’t critics reviewing restaurants — just as it’s nice to see print reporters toying around with video and EICs helping out with the breaking news queue. We all need to switch things up and develop our voices. That’s how we learn. That’s how we develop the next class of critics and journalists.
But here’s the thing. Even if you have reporters and columnists pitching in with the edit process, you probably wouldn’t run a newsroom without any actual editors. With that in mind, I feel like I’m on solid ground stating that the basis of good restaurant criticism is employing critics. Eater had one with decades of experience, an individual whom multiple food writers have called a “mentor.” His name is Robert, and he was the last restaurant critic at Eater. I hope he keeps reviewing. And I hope we see more restaurant reviews from everyone in 2025.
The Most Read Stories on The Lo Times This Year!
Most-read lists are some of my favorite lists in our listicle world, lol. They tell us what folks are interested in. And they help me plan at least a little bit of my coverage. You probably know the old adage by now: Let analytics inform your coverage. Don’t let analytics dictate your coverage.
Anyway! I was surprised that some of my THC columns were my most popular columns — by no small margin. I was nervous about entering this space, but I’m glad I did, because gummies and cannabis beverages don’t get as much mainstream coverage as they should. It was particularly fun to highlight cool, smaller brands by Korean American and Latin American entrepreneurs.
Stories that leaned on rising prices — or ways to save a few bucks — were also among the most popular, which tracks since this was a year when narratives around inflation at the grocery store and elsewhere drove national political conversations. My thoughts on the price of pizza at Penn Station got quite a few eyeballs, as did my budget steak guide, and my essay on the cost of living in Manhattan.
One other quick observation: My most-read review wasn’t of a caviar fried chicken spot. It was of Corima, a really cool Mexican restaurant that tips its hat to Sonora, Chihuahua, Japan and China. Right on.
Here is the list, presented in descending order:
13. What the Food Oscars Could Learn From the Real Oscars
Why the Beards should expand their list of nominees to highlight more voices — especially in an era of media layoffs and independent journalism.
12. The $1,000 Thrill of Sushi Sho
An FAQ-style review of chef Keiji Nakazawa’s very unique omakase spot — where diners can more than double the price of dinner with supplemental sushi.
11. Din Tai Fung's Thirsty Reservations Site Has Zero Chill!
A fun story about how a reservations platform can turn an otherwise pleasant dining experience into a dystopian one.
10. The Splurge Guide
Our guide to special occasion dining, with longer reviews of Bōm and Rice Thief.
9. On Slice Pizza, and Rose’s of Penn Station
Why an everyday pizzeria for commuters doesn’t feel as compelling in an era of $5 slices.
8. Does Caviar Fried Chicken Merit the Wait at Coqodaq?
A critical look at one of the year’s most popular new restaurants — and why you should probably skip the caviar nuggets.
7. These Are New York's 57 Best Restaurants
Our longest post! It’s a comprehensive guide to dining out in the city, alongside an essay on why Superiority Burger is the city’s best restaurant.
6. This Is Where I Ate Before I Left Manhattan
This is a guide to Times Square. But it’s also an essay about how so many of us have to keep switching apartments (and neighborhoods) to afford life in NYC.
5. The $45 All-You-Can-Eat Ribeye at Legasea Is a Bad Deal
I had lots of fun writing about this Tao Group newcomer — a venue that was blowing up on social media.
4. New York's Best Budget Steaks, Reviewed
No surprise here; people like reading about luxuries that don’t cost too much.
3. Review: Corima Is a Mexican Tasting Menu Marvel
This Modern Mexican hotspot by Fidel Caballero and Sofia Ostos was also my choice for restaurant of the year.
2. Sundae School Edibles: The Definitive Review
The cult edibles brand started shipping their bouncy mochi gummies nationwide, so I reviewed them!
1. Rose Edibles, Reviewed
My most read story! Rose Los Angeles rose to fame with its low-dose edibles, as well as its cool chef collaborations — including Enrique Olvera, Ha’s Dac Biet, and others. So I thought it would be fun for my inaugural edibles review!
This list excludes a non-news announcement post that did quite well.
NYT: Lists, Sandwiches, Essays, Weeknight Dinners
The Times again saw its cooking coverage make up a solid portion of its most-read list, with entries like Sohla El-Waylly’s “11 Tips to Make You a Better Cook,” as well as Emily Weinstein’s “100 Easy Dinners for Right now.”
But here are some restaurant selections from the 2024 list:
No. 4: The Restaurant List 2024
Allow me to make three observations. First: The closest thing to a proper individual review is a column about a sandwich at Houston’s, a corporate restaurant chain. Tejal Rao has written about chains before — and so have I — but this should give us all a sense that Food Media, whether institutional or independent, should be spending more time thinking about this slice of our national dining culture.
Second: The dining section’s foray into lists and guides continues to resonate in a big way with readers. Indeed, the Pete Wells “Top 100” list is just two years old, while the Pizza List (with Brett Anderson doing the bulk of the eating), and the Sandwich Guide (with Nikita Richardson taking the lead) saw strong debuts. Third: It’s nice to see individual bylines on these team-effort guides!!
This is list of most-read lists, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of my favorite independent publications on Substack and elsewhere. Here they are, in no particular order:
Eater NY: Liverwurst, Rao’s Red Sauce, Gotham’s Closure
Among Eater NY’s top stories were reports on the opening of the world’s largest Din Tai Fung, the closure of Gotham Food Hall (where I wrote countless reviews), the death of chef James Kent, Luke Fortney’s pizza piece, and three Robert Sietsema’s columns — including one about a sandwich I used to eat all the time as a kid! Some selections:
No. 8: Which New York Restaurant Sells the Best Italian Red Sauce?
No. 7: Robert Sietsema’s Best Dumplings in Manhattan’s Chinatown
No. 5: The Pizza Street
No. 3: After 11 Years, Another Major Manhattan Food Hall Is Shuttering
No. 2: Robert Sietsema’s Quest to Find an Endangered Sandwich
No. 1: James Kent, One of New York’s Most Celebrated Chefs, Has Died
Eater: Lasagna, Stanley Cups, Best New Restaurants
It was cool to see Eater’s home-cooking efforts doing well; Bettina Makalintal’s lasagna column came in at number 3! Just the same, it was nice to see Amy McCarthy’s keen cultural eye yielding dividends, with her columns on Stanley Cup and “Super Size Me” making the top 10 as well. Some highlights:
You should all read this piece by Jaya Saxena about Gaza Soup Kitchen.
Food & Wine: Recalls, Recalls, Recalls
The Food & Wine folks confine their most-read list to news, and the results suggest that readers (and editors) care about health and food safety! Among the top results this year:
“More Than 4 Million Eggs Were Part of a Class 1 Recall by the FDA”
“These Are the 12 Most Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables, Ranked”
“The FDA Initiated a Class III Recall on More Than 150,000 Bottles of Water”
“Nearly 80,000 Pounds of Butter Sold at Costco Were Recalled”
You should also read this sauce dossier by Tammie Teclemariam!
Grub Street: That Big Cool Package
Reeves Wiedeman’s “The Empathy Punishment” clocked in at No. 1. The nearly 5,500 word inquiry looked a judge’s decision to let an unruly customer — who threw a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker — avoid jail by working at a fast food restaurant. The No. 2 spot went to “The Risks of Deli Meat,” Lane Brown’s feature on why we should look at processed luncheon fare “a little harder” — especially amid high profile reports of foodborne illnesses.
And I hope you all read Chris Crowley’s “Do You Know Mr. Mango?,” no. 14.
But forgive me for being particularly excited about the No. 4 slot: Who Ate Where: The Restaurants That Defined New York. It’s a massive package with all the tidbits one might expect: Why you wanted to sit in the smoking section at Indochine; Mark Twain’s 70th birthday party at Delmonico’s; how Amy Sacco maybe invented the clubstaurant; the importance of Punjabi Deli; the time Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez waited on Anthony Weiner; and Malcom X making radio announcements from a pay phone at 22 West. And more!
I recommend reading the whole column in one sitting at Golden Mall in Flushing or Club Moynihan in Penn Station or anywhere else where you can feel the city swirling around you.
Happy New Year!
Ryan!!!
p.s. I’m still plotting out my coverage for next year, and I’ll try to use January to play around with a few different ideas. But I’m curious about bringing back chain dining into the fold, as it was a staple of my pre-pandemic writing back at Eater! And as always, you’ll see some really cool reviews, guides, and other fun stuff in 2025.
This post has been updated to add more recommended Substacks!