If you’re looking for some good restaurant recommendations here in New York, you’re in the right spot because we love sharing our local favorites! Every week we get out and try some new places, and this week we want to share two restaurants we went to recently that we thought were really cool! Both of these are new spots, and they’re both in Midtown Manhattan, and they serve up some pretty interesting and unexpected menus. Best of all, we were able to eat entirely vegetarian at each place, so check them out here.

First up was Five Acres, which is inside Rockefeller Center near the skating rink. Everything here is elevated comfort food – you can get burgers, wings, spinach and artichoke dip, but we decided to start with a bowl of their roasted autumn squash soup, topped with brown butter, sage, and chestnut cream.

Plus we also shared the kale spinach salad, made with avocado, almonds and a lime vinaigrette dressing.

Then we split two entrees – first, this baked rigatoni, made with ricotta and a spicy vodka sauce.

And then the wild mushroom risotto, cooked with herbs, butter and hazelnuts.

If you want to head about a mile south from Rockefeller Center, you’ll find Alligator Pear, which is also very new. It serves up New Orleans-style food, so the menu mixes a lot of Cajun and Creole flavors into their dishes. We decided to split a few different things there – first, a loaf of their cornbread, served with sweet brown butter.

Also these charred carrots, glazed with a sweet pepper sauce and served with pecans and a seasoned cream cheese dip.

And finally, the gnocchi in a cheese, basil and cherry tomato sauce.

We’re glad we discovered both of these places, because they’re really standouts in the area. Midtown Manhattan restaurants have a bit of a reputation for being mediocre and boring, but these two spots definitely get creative. Louisiana food isn’t all that common here, so finding an entire restaurant dedicated to that cuisine is really a fun treat – while Five Acres does classic American dishes very well and lets you try a small variety of different things. These two spots are in pretty convenient locations, so they’re great options if you want some good food and don’t want to travel to far afield in the city.