Essex Restaurant

"This seafood restaurant with a Southeast Asian menu is one of the great sit-down spots that are sprinkled in among the typical food court-style vendors at The Market Line on the LES. For a long hang, come here early for Happy Hour (4-7pm) when you can get things like cumin lamb skewers and a gin/shochu martini for $10 each. The dining room never feels dead, but it also doesn’t get annoyingly packed, so it’s fine to sample their many small plates (deep-fried baby octopus in spicy lemongrass curry, for example) over a period of several hours. You can always move your get-together to one of the many other surrounding places if the mood for something else strikes." - team infatuation

"Essex Restaurant will move to 124 Rivington St. later this month." - Stefanie Tuder

"Lower East Side restaurant and boozy brunch spot Essex has lived at 119 Rivington since 2000, but it will soon move across the street to 124 Rivington in the same building as dance and hookah bar La Caverna." - Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya