Kim and I have long been fans of Bravo’s Top Chef although we haven’t been following as much during recent seasons. (Thanks to Lucas we’re more likely to watch Paw Patrol or Sesame Street at the moment.)

A bunch of former Top Chef contestants have (or have had) restaurants in the New York City area. While watching the show we would often wonder just how good the food being featured was. Maybe some day there will be smell-a-vision but I don’t think there will ever be a way to have taste-a-vision!

While we haven’t tried many Top Chef contestants’ restaurants, we have visited a few. I’m not going to lie, a big part of the reason we chose to eat at that these restaurants  was due to the fact of the chefs being on the show.

Here are the restaurants that we’ve visited:

• Dale Talde:  Pork Slope– Brooklyn, NY: A Roadhouse Inspired Neighborhood Bar- We stopped by soon after it opened and enjoyed some tasty BBQ and a really good burger. We’ve been planning to go back but haven’t had a chance. He also owns the popular Talde restaurant not too far away.
• Nicki Cascone: Octavia’s Porch– East Village (CLOSED):  Global Jewish Cuisine- Kim and I enjoyed the food here and were surprised when we found it closed soon after opening. We enjoyed tasty matzoh ball soup, a spiked egg cream and a couple of other dishes which I don’t remember.
• Leah Cohen: Pig & Khao– Lower East Side: Southeast Asian Inspired Cuisine– We bought a Groupon-type of deal for our visit. I remember loving everything that we ordered but one dish is still fresh in my mind. Sizzling Sisig, (pork head, chili, whole egg) a Filipino dish that tasted much better than it’s description.

From what I recall, I came across these 3 restaurants thanks to TimeOut NY.

For those of you interested in  finding out where former Top Chef contestants are cooking (and would also like to try their food), Bravo recently came out with a Top Chef Tracker.

The Top Chef Tracker allows you to find restaurant a bunch of ways. You can search by chef, cuisine, location or just view all restaurants. You can also choose to search from Top Chef or Top Chef Masters.

I did a location search for Brooklyn, NY and the results returned 4 restaurants which were plotted on a map. If you scroll over one of the spots on the map, the name of the restaurant and chef come up. When you click the spot, the restaurant’s address as well as info about the chef (show & season) comes up.

If you’re interested in checking to see if any Top Chefs are cooking at a restaurant near you, try out the Top Chef Tracker HERE.

Check out a couple of other useful food trackers that I’ve written about:

• TV Food Maps
• Eater’s Airport Dining Guides