Huntington tops Newsday's Top 50 restaurants list, with most eateries

The early fall release of our Top 50 Restaurants list each year offers the Feed Me team an opportunity to take a collective sigh, sit back and study our work. And, like any annual undertaking, patterns emerge. One such pattern is the towns where clusters of our Top 50 restaurants are located.

Spending the better part of each year scouring Long Island’s nooks and crannies, the Feed Me team makes a concerted effort to reach far and wide for examples of greatness, no destination is off-limits and diligence has yielded some under-the-radar gems. Still, four towns have proportionately more spots than others on the list, be it due to location, population, or access to local trains or highways. Westbury and Rockville Centre have three entries each; Roslyn has four entries, and Huntington, has a whopping five, 10% of the list.

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The diversity of our list is one of its best attributes, with such lesser-known cuisines as Turkish, Peruvian and Korean sitting beside our much-debated picks in prolific categories including Italian, Japanese and Chinese, so while you may not be surprised by those pockets, you may be surprised by the spots that merited inclusion within. From a new Egyptian spot in Rockville Centre to a Peruvian spot in Huntington, the destinations may be obvious, but the restaurants, often, are not.

Rockville Centre 

Our South Shore towns with the most eateries include Rockville Centre and Westbury. A convenient train station and vibrant nightlife scene squarely elevate Rockville Centre as a time-tested place to open a restaurant. One of our long-standing favorites, Bigelow’s, continues to impress us with its unwavering consistency in its presentation of fried clams and other finger-licking seafood delicacies. Two new spots equally wowed us this year, including a cozy, simple spot serving some of the best — wait for it — Egyptian food and one of the two outposts of our first burger on the list.

What they both have in common is that they are chef-owned and operated, one of the hallmarks of many of the eateries that wind up on our Top 50. At Abu Zayn, chef-owner Omar Soltan is serving irresistible chicken shawarma, beef kofte and chunky, earthy hummus with fresh pita bread. Small but mighty, everything we had at Abu Zayn was nothing short of delicious. Whereas at No Good Burger Joint, Baldwin-native Marcello Erickson is flipping juicy 8-ounce patties, both simple classic and elaborate mashups, that influenced us enough to add a burger joint to the list for the very first time.

Westbury 

Over in Westbury, proximity to Roosevelt Field, Long Island’s most-visited mall, usually translates into visibility, and two of the three restaurants on our list from Westbury are repeat entries. At Mala Madre Taqueria, owner Alejandro Nava, who hails from Puebla, Mexico, offers a straightforward menu of tacos, tostadas and enchiladas that rival most of the tacos we’ve tried elsewhere across the Island.

Karahi Adda, a newcomer for 2026, is a Pakistani treasure where the namesake dish, karahi, a meaty recipe anchored in a flavorful sauce that's built from peppers and tomatoes and a bundle of aromatics that include cumin, coriander and garam masala, is not to be missed.

Roslyn

It’s no surprise that four restaurants on our list are nestled in charming Roslyn village.

Not too far off the highway, Roslyn often finds itself the breeding ground for first-timers making their way out from New York City, and the inclusion of Okaru, the first Long Island restaurant from beloved Bond Street chef Marc Spitzer, proved a winning formula for glorious sushi platters, in addition to a seasonally inspired menu of hot entrees like braised short rib with wasabi celery root in red shiso and a dry-aged New York strip with truffled teriyaki. Don't skip the killer Japanese whiskey bread pudding for dessert.

Newcomers often become mainstays in Roslyn and favorites like Kyma, the Greek temple of Mediterranean whole fish and lightly battered zucchini and eggplant chips, set against a backdrop of DJ-fueled beats, keep folks returning to this bustling, walkable town.

Huntington 

Huntington, a buzzy North Shore hub that is usually packed with hungry diners on both weekdays and weekends, tops our list with five entries. But they are not the celebratory, crowdsourced favorites of online food chat groups.

Sure, we enjoy Italian American classics served in vast, Tuscan-inspired dining rooms, but we prefer the quiet, cozy ambiance of chef-owned Edoardo’s, with its fresh pasta offerings, regularly-changing specials and feels-like-you’re-actually-in-Italy-vibe.

Another Huntington revelation, which enters the list this year, is Urubamba, the Long Island offshoot of New York City’s oldest Peruvian restaurant, opened in 1970 by Julian and Maria Ruiz. Their granddaughter Silvana Rojas has blessed Long Island with a chic and modern version that takes design inspiration from eateries you might find in the bohemian Barranco neighborhood of Lima. Stop in for a classic pisco sour, a citrus-infused ceviche or a rich lomo saltado. 

Be it tiny Tonnam Thai Kitchen in Bohemia or one of our longest-standing entries, Bryant and Cooper in Roslyn, we regularly visit each restaurant to ensure its quality hasn’t waned or it hasn’t been surpassed by another place that is doing the same thing — only better. As with all Feed Me coverage throughout the year, we do not collaborate with restaurants: We pay our own way and strive to dine anonymously.

Read the entire list of this year's 50 best restaurants at Newsday.com/Top50.