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    "parsed_content": "Early reservations, which became more popular coming out of the pandemic, are now seemingly a permanent preference among many diners, according to chefs.Credit...Yuvraj Khanna for The New York TimesWe Asked Chefs What They Think of You. Here\u2019s What They Said.A dozen of the chefs from the 2026 edition of our 50 favorite restaurants list talk GLP-1s, diner drinking habits, A.I. and more.Early reservations, which became more popular coming out of the pandemic, are now seemingly a permanent preference among many diners, according to chefs.Credit...Yuvraj Khanna for The New York TimesSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen \u00b7 11:07 min Share full articleBy Luke FortneyPublished Sept. 14, 2026Updated Sept. 16, 2026Feel like you\u2019re being watched? You are \u2014 by the chefs and owners on the list of our 50 favorite restaurants of 2026. More than anyone, they notice what we order and how much we\u2019re willing to spend. They know we want to be back in bed by 9 p.m., full of fancy pork, and it\u2019s only possible if they abandon the tableside spiel. And yes \u2026 they can tell we\u2019re on GLP-1s.To make sense of this year in dining, we surveyed a dozen of those proprietors from around the country about how we eat today, from the rise of the 5 p.m. reservation to the death of the second martini. Oh, and of course, what does the A.I. future look like in your favorite dining rooms? Here\u2019s what they had to say:Nearly one in five Americans have tried a GLP-1. How is it changing dining?Sachi Statz (Tin Tin, Miami): I joke about Ozempic all the time, but it does make a difference in how much people order. Before, you\u2019d see people have a couple appetizers, a couple entrees, dessert, maybe wine and cocktails. Now it\u2019s more like, \u201cWe\u2019ll share an appetizer. We\u2019ll share two entrees.\u201d Maybe they skip dessert. Maybe they get a little after-dinner drink and call it a night.ImageCredit...Janice Chung for The New York TimesSarah Lewitinn (Jacaranda, Los Angeles): I tried Ozempic out of curiosity, and I was extremely surprised that I had zero interest in drinking alcohol. So when I\u2019m seeing guests on the floor and they\u2019re not eating as much and they\u2019re not drinking, I know why.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTJon Sybert (Rye Bunny, Washington, D.C.): We\u2019ve had someone working the counter say, \u201cHey, you guys might need a few more plates,\u201d and they\u2019ll say, \u201cOh no, we\u2019re all on Ozempic. Don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d So there\u2019s going to be two entrees and two small plates between four people and that\u2019s absolutely fine. However people want to eat is fine by me.So \u2026 is that why no one drinks anymore?Daniel Patterson (Jacaranda, Los Angeles): People just don\u2019t drink as much. It\u2019s one of the biggest challenges. Some of it is GLP-1s, some of it is health. You have all these lovely people who won\u2019t buy any beverages. You want them in the restaurant, but it\u2019s hard to make it work.Jill Tyler (Rye Bunny, Washington, D.C.): People are being more conscious. We have regulars who we\u2019ve known for 10 years. They\u2019re like, \u201cWe\u2019re not drinking on weekdays anymore.\u201d So some days they\u2019re ordering Phony Negronis, and then they come in on the weekend and get their bottle of wine.ImageCredit...Juan Aguirre Lewittin: A lot of people want the experience of drinking without the drinking. They still want to feel like they\u2019re doing something. We make all of our nonalcoholic drinks in house, and when people hear that we forage for some of the ingredients, they get excited.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAdolfo Garcia Jr. (Dolfy\u2019s, New Orleans): I don\u2019t feel that way here in New Orleans. Even the people who are health-conscious will come out and have a drink. But our N.A. sales are much larger than they were at my dad\u2019s restaurants. He\u2019s owned restaurants here for 20 years. He looked at our N.A. sales last week and was shocked.Have we passed peak influencer? Or do you only wish we have?Victor Santos (Tin Tin, Miami): Social media has a huge impact now. Whether it\u2019s an influencer coming in on their own or somebody we\u2019ve paid to come in and promote us, people will walk through the door and say: \u201cI saw that dessert on Instagram. I saw that sandwich on TikTok. I need to get that.\u201d You want them to come for that one thing, stay for more and then come back.Lewitinn: We get approached all the time asking to do a collab. I\u2019m like, \u201cNo!\u201d I don\u2019t need to pay you to write about my restaurant. Give me the money and enjoy it. People that pay move the dial way more than people who get a free meal.Margarito P\u00e9rez (Paprika, Austin, Texas): There are 20 of you every day in my inbox asking for something. At first it was funny. Then it was aggravating. Maybe we can afford to do this, but I just don\u2019t want to. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too much to ask you to buy a $4 taco.ImageCredit...Tag christofSix p.m. is the new 8 p.m., we hear. When do diners want to eat?Jimmy Bannos Jr. (Kouklas Greek Eatery, Niles, Ill.): 5 p.m., the floodgates are open. It\u2019s a madhouse. By 9 or 9:30 p.m., we\u2019re winding down.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTLewitinn: They\u2019re coming at 5 p.m. Their reservation will be at 5:30 p.m. and they\u2019ll show up at 5 p.m. while we\u2019re still in the middle of a meeting.Sybert: In D.C., it turned into 6:30 p.m. five years ago. We\u2019ve been pulling teeth trying to turn it back to, like, 8 p.m. If we can get people in after 9 p.m., that\u2019s awesome.Garcia Jr.: People are trying to get in at 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. You say, \u201cWhat about 8:15 p.m.?\u201d They say, \u201cAh, that\u2019s too late.\u201d Really, 8:15 p.m.? But we\u2019re starting to get people in their late 20s and early 30s taking 9 o\u2019clock reservations. They turn it into a night: \u201cAfter this, we\u2019re going to the bar.\u201dImageCredit...Scott SuchmanAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTCan we leave the restaurant spiel in 2026?Theo Adley (Heretik, Denver): We don\u2019t spiel until we\u2019re spieled to. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much value in rubbing that kind of thing in our guests\u2019 faces. \u201cHave you dined with us before?\u201d I don\u2019t ever want to hear. It makes me feel like a dummy. I want guests to be able to take the menu at face value. And if they want to talk about it for 45 minutes, we have all the ammunition to do it.Sybert: The most annoying thing in the world is when you sit down at a restaurant and the menu is appetizers and entrees, a very basic format, and somebody tries to talk to you about how this works. You\u2019re like \u2026 I\u2019ve eaten before. I actually have a fairly decent idea of what\u2019s going on here.Garcia Jr.: I don\u2019t like going to a restaurant and the server says, \u201cHave you ever eaten here before?\u201d You say no, and they\u2019re like, \u201cOK, well, this is how the menu works. Our appetizers are smaller, and then our sides are meant to be ordered with an entree \u2026 \u201d Man, I\u2019ve been in a restaurant before. What are we talking aboutEverybody wants \u201cvalue\u201d now. What does that mean?P\u00e9rez: You can come out and buy one taco with us for four or five dollars, and depending on your appetite, that might be enough to satiate you. If you want to make a more robust meal out of it, you can get four tacos and have a great time. You\u2019re still looking at around 20 bucks with a drink and tip.Ned Baldwin (Zoli, New York City): We use the expression \u201cvibes pricing\u201d sometimes. There\u2019s math, and then we look around the city and ask what comparable restaurants are charging for a similar item.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTArthur Gregorian (Yerord Mas Bakery and Deli, Glendale, Calif.): If a customer pays for something and feels like they didn\u2019t get their money\u2019s worth, obviously that\u2019s a problem. For example, I thought that if a burger could be turned into a luxury item that costs $40, we could do the same with basturma brisket. People got mad about that.ImageCredit...Julie Goldstone for The New York TimesWill artificial intelligence come for restaurants? Has it already?P\u00e9rez: I\u2019m really proud to have never generated any A.I. content on social media. Our menus are Risographed by a local printer. Our big storefront sign is hand-painted. All these little elements would be a lot easier and maybe a lot more affordable if we used A.I., but I\u2019m proud that we\u2019ve been able to do it our own way. I briefly used A.I. to help me scale recipes, but our food relies on so many variables \u2014 how hot the pot is running, the humidity in the air, how much meat we\u2019re throwing in \u2014 that ultimately I ditched it and went back to doing it by feel.Adley: It\u2019s a double-edged sword. The amount of menial stuff it\u2019s made easier (scheduling, breaking down profits and losses, developing strategies around labor or operational issues) has been really helpful. I don\u2019t need to spend two and a half hours drafting a month\u2019s worth of schedules anymore. You write the rules in, you write the variables in, and there you go. If that allows my management team to make their days more efficient and spend a little more time with their families, I\u2019m all about it. I don\u2019t want our guests dealing with a bot, though. That\u2019s horrible.Baldwin: I work with and happily empower a team of much younger cooks, and it\u2019s thrilling, exhilarating and terrifying to see the way they apprehend new information, process it and put it into practice. I keep going back to that scene in \u201cThe Matrix\u201d where Neo sits down in the chair, they jam the thing into him and he goes, \u201cI know kung fu.\u201d It\u2019s like that, but with some arcane kind of fermentation or a Japanese sauce.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSybert: Restaurants are blessedly one of the places where I don\u2019t know that A.I. is ever going to infiltrate in the same way it will other industries. A.I. can\u2019t cook. A.I. can\u2019t be hospitable. There\u2019s no real substitute for actual human interaction.ImageCredit...Juan Aguirre In the era of proteinmaxxing, what is the next hot protein?Garcia Jr.: Pork is on the up. Fifteen years ago, you could stop 20 people on the street and nobody knew what Wagyu was. Now all 20 would know. I think Ib\u00e9rico pork is headed in that direction. In five years, everyone\u2019s going to know it.Adley: I\u2019ve always considered mackerel to be a black-belt-level fish for most people. And there has been one on every single damn table since we opened.Santos This community loves pork. We try to have it somewhere on the menu, whether it\u2019s an appetizer or a main course. Trust me, if I could put pork in the dessert, I would.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTBannos Jr. Lamb destroys everything. We sell tons of lamb. Lamb chops, lamb souvlaki, lamb pastitsio, lamb meatballs, lamb pasta. You\u2019ll see a group order lamb in three or four different configurations in their meal.Sybert: I want it to be tofu.Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-14T23:30:09+00:00",
    "author_name": "Luke Fortney",
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    "section": "Dining",
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    "ai_headline": "We Asked Chefs What They Think of You. Here\u2019s What They Said.",
    "ai_simplified_title": "Chefs Discuss Dining Trends, GLP-1s, AI, and Influencers",
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