Summer means it is probably going to be hot where you are. Or at least some version of “warmer than it often is.” With rising temperatures come slipping appetites. You still want to eat, but you want to do so in a different manner. These restaurants across the country specialize, in part, in summer-ready dishes. Bring yourself and your appetite, whatever that happens to look like when the mercury skyrockets.
Handroll Bar Rolling, New York City
It’s all there in the name: This Manhattan restaurant specializes in hand rolls, served from a long bar at which you sit and the rolls are, well, rolled. At Handroll Bar Rolling, choose from a set of 4, 5, 6 or 7 seafood rolls, or 4 or 5 vegan rolls. Should you crave a more bespoke meal, choose from one of the 20 a la carte roll options, such as eel with avocado, blue crab, scallop and shiitake. There is sublime satisfaction in having each step of your meal waved your way, in handheld progression.
Honest Restaurant, Houston
In the proper hands, a chain restaurant is a glorious institution. Honest was born in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the northern Indian state of Gujarat. It has since exploded and landed in oodles of states across the U.S. and its menu reads like a greatest hits compilation from across the subcontinent. This time of year, you likely want chaat, those deliriously snackable nibbles born in Bombay. Whichever you choose — whether its bhel puri with its puffed rice base or dahi puri and its thin, crackling edible cups — the chaat will be a riot of textures, chile heat and sweet chutney lift.
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Hue Oi, Fountain Valley, California
The menu at this Vietnamese restaurant in Orange County serves the Viet dishes that Americans know best. You’re here, though, for Hue Oi’s Hue dishes from the central region of Vietnam. To skitter among a variety of recipes, order a selection of banh, a genre of savory snacks that includes banh beo chen (tiny saucers of steamed rice cakes topped with ground shrimp and fried shallots) and banh khoai (small crackly crepes stuffed with bean sprouts and two kinds of pork). Because you didn’t really come all this way for egg rolls and pho, did you?
Kokkari Estiatorio, San Francisco
You could order a main course at this nearly 30-year-old restaurant near San Francisco’s downtown. At Kokkari, though, the mezethes (small plates) section is stacked: More than 15 wee dishes cover every craving you might have. Some, like the gigantes (monster-sized white beans with tomato sauce, feta and rivers of olive oil), are evergreen staples. Others are hyper-seasonal, such as kalamboki (roasted corn with feta butter) and aginares souvlaki (artichoke skewers with bell pepper, red onion and a yogurt side). Choose your weapon. Then select another — and on you go.
Kunjip, San Jose, California
When the weather scorches, zero in on numbers 6, 7 and 8 at Kunjip. Saucy, spicy sweet-potato-starch noodles served with cucumber, radish, Korean pear, sesame oil and boiled egg are the base for bibim naeng myun (number 6 with sliced beef) and hwe naeng myun (number 8 with marinated raw skate). Or go light and slurpable with mul naeng myun (number 7), in which those same noodles and accompaniments are set in a light beef broth loaded with ice. Soup can indeed be hot-weather refreshment.
Malagón Mercado y Tapería, Charleston, South Carolina
Tortilla española, jamón serrano, queso de Valdeón — you go to a restaurant in the States that claims to traffic in tapas, and you want the classics. Malagón has them. But this small restaurant, with a Michelin star to boot, also knows how to be free-wheeling. There might be fried rabbit on the menu, or shrimp skewers with guindilla-pepper vinaigrette. A smashing drink menu loaded with vermouth and endless Spanish wines ensures your food will play so very nicely with its accompanying beverages.
SRV, Boston
“Cicchetti” are the Venetian notion of what we often know as tapas in the U.S.: diminutive bites crafted to be eaten alongside a drink or cocktail. SRV serves delightful pasta, salads and mains in a broad Italian idiom. Wander that way, if you must. But begin with the cicchetti. This time of year you might encounter crostini with duck prosciutto, stracciatella and cherry, fried rice balls with pickled green garlic and a lofty puree of whipped salt cod with black bread. After a couple drinks, you may find you have worked your way through every cicchetti available.
Tanta, Chicago
Oh, the zippy luxury of Peruvian fish dishes. Like your raw seafood in chunks? How about the nikkei ceviche with tuna, tamarind leche de tigre and cucumber, scallions, avocado, daikon, sesame seeds? Prefer your fish sliced? Consider the apaltado, with salmon, tapioca cracker, chile oil, cherry tomatoes and choclo (large kernels of starchy field corn). Tanta is beloved in Chicago. Your meal here will reveal why.
