More Grocery Stores That Are Also Great Restaurants

Restaurants: love ‘em, obviously. But grocery stores … those are my happy places. And when a grocery store’s got prepared food that beats anything? I’m moving in. Last year, my colleague Tanya Sichynsky did a great installment of the newsletter about grocery stores with excellent food, so consider this a sequel.

With park picnic season approaching, mercifully, picking up a meal is an obvious solution. Or maybe you’re hosting a last-minute hang — cook one thing (or nothing at all) and buy the rest prepared. Especially if you need to shop anyway, there’s a win-win solution.

Plov, please

Take a few laps and develop your game plan before digging into the prepared food at the new Tashkent Supermarket.Credit…Heather Willensky for The New York Times

Tashkent Supermarket, the venerated Uzbek grocery store with locations in Brooklyn and Queens, recently opened its first Manhattan location in Greenwich Village. They’re selling produce and other Eastern European groceries, yes, but the big draw is the prepared food: two long hot bars, a bakery section, a kebab counter and a plov station. My favorite bites were of the tennis ball-size spiced beef manti ($2.99); kutabi ($3.49), a flaky, beef-stuffed Azerbaijani pancake; and excellently seasoned potatoes and mushrooms ($7.99 per pound). Finally, the pièce de résistance, plov ($9.99 per pound), a dish of rice and stewed meat (the lamb is phenomenal).

Obviously, all buffet rules apply: Take a few laps first. Develop your game plan. Mind the prices when you pack up plastic clamshells of salads and dumplings, as prices differ per pound. Eat your steaming dish of plov in Washington Square Park, making sure to squeeze out every caramelized clove from the head of roasted garlic. Repeat regularly.

378 6th Avenue (Waverly Place)

Picture-perfect chirashi bowls