The Top 100 Places to Eat and Drink Near Audace
-
Rank 1. Eleven Madison Park
Contemporary
Eleven Madison Park is a temple of control where everything—the suits, the glassware, the vegan roll with its gossamer crust—bears the obsessive stamp of Daniel Humm's vision. A tonburi quenelle mimics caviar; a radish tostada gleams with pumpkin seed butter. The kitchen's plant-based luxury is audacious and complete, though animal proteins remain available for those who ask.
-
Rank 2. Atomix
Elevated Korean
Chef Junghyun Park's tasting menu unfolds in a subterranean counter as a series of meditations, each plate accompanied by written reflection on beauty and anticipation. Korean traditions meet refined technique in dishes like black banana with monkfish liver, in a room as warm as its servers.
-
Rank 3. Borgo
Italian
In a dining room that feels both composed and unafraid, Borgo honors the Brooklyn ethos its chef helped invent—communal tables, daily-shifting menus, vegetables still wearing soil. The cooking speaks of patience and appetite for the gamy, the bitter, the flavors that require time to understand.
- Esquire 2025 · Wine Director of the Year · Lee Campbell
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service · Lee Campbell
- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
-
Rank 4. Upland
California Mediterranean
Stephen Starr and Roman and Williams craft a bright, wood-floored brasserie where California cooking meets Mediterranean ingredients in understated elegance. Hand-cut beef tartare and roasted King salmon arrive with the precision of a chef who knows restraint.
-
Rank 5. Clemente Bar
Vegan
- 50 Best 2025 · Best New Opening Award
- 50 Best 2026 · #15 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire 2024 · Martini of the Year: Clemente Martini · The Best Martinis in America
-
Rank 6. Audace
Italian
-
Rank 7. La Tête d'Or by Daniel
French Steakhouse
A glamorous Flatiron temple where French technique meets steakhouse tradition under Daniel Boulud's direction. Leather-lined bar, soaring ceilings, and tableside Caesar salads precede dry-aged beef and roving trolleys of prime rib—the kind of room where the architecture itself suggests money changing hands.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- World's 101 Best #34 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
-
Rank 8. Gramercy Tavern
Contemporary New American
A mahogany-lined institution where the bar seats are fought over at lunch and the dining room glows at night. The seasonal American cooking—pappardelle, impeccable proteins—speaks plainly but with confidence, matched to wood-paneled surroundings and service that knows when to hover and when to recede. A place equally at home with a first date or a closed business deal.
-
Rank 9. Cosme
Modern Mexican
Cosme's moody dining room and polished bar serve seasonally inventive Mexican cooking, from uni tostadas with bone marrow to duck carnitas. The corn husk meringue alone justifies the price.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · United States' Best Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
-
Rank 10. Café Carmellini
Italian
Andrew Carmellini's fine-dining return occupies the Fifth Avenue Hotel with sapphire velvet booths and an open kitchen turning out Mediterranean-leaning dishes. A crab mille-feuille of delicate wafers and sweet meat in Meyer lemon sauce, or scallops in coconut-turmeric broth, suggest a chef working in layers of restraint and indulgence at once.
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
- 50 Best 2025 · #39 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Esquire 2023 · The Best New Restaurants in America
-
Rank 11. Rezdôra
Emilia-Romagna Italian
A Flatiron dining room devoted to the pasta traditions of Emilia-Romagna, where handmade anolini and gramigna arrive in their plainest, most persuasive forms. The cooking here trusts simplicity—fried gnocco with cured pork, ragù finished with Parmigiano—and asks nothing more of you than appetite and respect for the region's canon.
- 50 Top Italy 2025 · #5 · The Best Italian Restaurants In The World
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Stefano Secchi
-
Rank 12. COQODAQ
Korean
A buzzy Korean fried chicken den where reservations vanish fast, rewarded with a theatrical bucket feast that unfolds through crisp rounds and finishes with frozen yogurt. The gluten-free bird stays clean and light despite its indulgent choreography, paired with an ambitious champagne list.
- Condé Nast Traveler 2024 · The best new restaurants in the world
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Simon Kim - Gracious Hospitality
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Simon Kim - Gracious Hospitality Management
-
Rank 13. COTE
Korean
Simon Kim's steakhouse fuses Korean beef reverence with American steakhouse grandeur, its dark, moody dining room anchored by a visible aging room downstairs. Meats arrive raw for inspection before tableside grilling, their umami deepened by kimchi and ssamjang in a ritual that feels both ceremonial and convivial.
- World's 101 Best #21 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
-
- 50 Best 2026 · #71 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire 2023 · Cartagena · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire 2024 · The Best Bars in America
-
Rank 15. Gabriel Kreuther
Alsatian French
Chef Gabriel Kreuther's cavernous showroom near Bryant Park serves Alsatian cooking with French precision and global reach, from warm kugelhopf to smoked sturgeon tart. Cream banquettes, a roving cheese trolley and an armada of servers evoke old-world fine dining.
-
Rank 16. Hawksmoor
British
- Esquire 2023 · Ultimate Vodka Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. East
-
Rank 17. Lysée
Korean
- Food & Wine 2023 · Best New Chefs · Eunji Lee
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Eunji Lee
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Eunji Lee
-
Rank 18. Bagels & Schmear
NY-Style Bakery
- BagelUp #24 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- Eater The Best Bagels in New York City
-
Rank 19. Martiny’s
Japanese Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best 2025 · #75 · World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best 2026 · #23 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
-
Inside the Park South Hotel, Stone & Soil applies Japanese hospitality and zero-waste principles to cocktails, where a mezcal drink built on fermented pineapple—skin and all—tastes like restraint has never tasted so good.
-
Rank 21. Atoboy
Korean
Chef Junghyun Park's Gramercy dining room is spare and bright, with an open kitchen where Korean cooking gets a creative push without losing its spine. Red shrimp in kimchi beurre blanc, fried chicken brined in pineapple and finished with ginger-peanut butter—the menu reads as both adventurous and fundamentally welcoming. It is a place that loves what it cooks.
-
- Esquire 2024 · King Tusk · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire 2024 · The Best Bars in America
- Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
-
-
Rank 24. Ai Fiori
Italian
Fifth Avenue views and a marble bar set the stage for polished Italian cooking—Hiramasa crudo with sunflower cream, handmade pasta with braised rabbit. Service and linens match the formal room's marble and leather restraint.
-
Rank 25. JUA
Modern Korean
Chef Hoyoung Kim orchestrates a modern Korean tasting menu in a sleek, high-ceilinged room near the Flatiron, where raw fluke from Jeju arrives in chilled spicy broth, branzino emerges with shattered skin, and wood-fired lamb speaks to exacting technique. Each course moves with purpose toward a glazed Korean donut and silky ice cream, the whole experience calibrated and unrushed.
-
Rank 26. Le Pavillon
French
A soaring glass dining room in a gleaming new tower, all warm light and architectural confidence, where the bar itself becomes theater under a blown-glass chandelier. Boulud and Nacev's carte pivots on seafood and vegetables rendered with global inflection—spaghetti alla chitarra gilded with caviar, cauliflower sharpened by Aleppo pepper and local beans.
-
-
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East
-
Rank 29. Little Ned
Cocktail Bar
-
Rank 30. Elcielo
Colombian
Chef Juan Manuel Barrientos orchestrates a two-star tasting menu in the Virgin Hotel that channels tropical Colombia through dishes like shio koji duck with passion fruit sabayon. Floor-to-ceiling windows and theatrical touches—a bread tree, chocolate experience, coffee ceremony—transform the meal into something between fine dining and curated theater.
-
Rank 31. Bazaar Meat by José Andrés
Steakhouse
Fire and theater collide at this steakhouse where the grill becomes performance and meat is both reverence and provocation. Dry-aged beef emerges from charcoal-fired ovens with smoke and precision, a menu that questions the cut as much as it honors it.
-
Rank 32. Junoon
Indian
Pendant lights and white marble set a refined stage where contemporary Indian cooking meets restless ambition, each plate a small argument for why tradition needn't mean stillness. Tuna puchka arrives jeweled with caviar; the Assamese tile fish curry hums with cilantro and restraint.
-
Rank 33. Keens Steakhouse
Steakhouse
Dark paneled rooms and bow-tied waiters define this 1905 steakhouse where the mutton chop and porterhouse arrive with the weight of old New York still clinging to them. The wedge salad alone—blue cheese funk meeting fresh crunch and lardons—suggests a kitchen that understands restraint and satisfaction in equal measure.
- World's 101 Best #68 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Timeless U.S. Award
- Eater 2026 · The Best Steakhouses in New York City
-
Rank 34. Midnight Blue
Japanese-ish
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
-
Rank 35. Shinji’s
Japanese
- VinePair 2024 · Bar Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- 50 Best 2026 · #77 · North America's 50 Best Bars
-
Rank 36. The Gallery
Japanese
-
Rank 37. Lola's
Asian, Southern
Suzanne Cupps coaxes vegetables into unexpected eloquence across a menu that moves from naan to gumbo without apology or design—the confident cooking of someone equally at home in three culinary worlds. Her plates feel less like fusion than like the natural inheritance of a chef raised between the Philippines, Pennsylvania, and the American South.
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Suzanne Cupps
- The New York Times 2026 · #71 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2024 · New York’s 14 Best New Restaurants
-
Rank 38. Thyme
Cocktail Bar
-
Rank 39. Odo
Kaiseki Japanese
Behind a cocktail bar lies a hushed counter where Chef Hiroki Odo conducts kaiseki with precision and invention—a broth of tilefish brightened with yuzu, house-made soba studded with salmon roe. The service dissolves into the background, leaving only the clarity of carefully sourced ingredients and the subtle force of tradition meeting personal vision.
-
Rank 40. Sushi Sho
Omakase Sushi
Beneath the Public Library's shadow, Chef Keiji Nakazawa orchestrates omakase with rare precision—a progression of fish, shellfish, and fermented vegetables that moves like a composed piece, reverent yet willing to bend. The Hinoki counter anchors a room where kitchen and service operate in silent synchrony, each gesture considered. Here, mastery doesn't announce itself; it accumulates.
- Michelin Guide 3 Stars
- Vogue 2026 · A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City
- The New York Times 2026 · #11 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 41. Koloman
Austrian/French
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Markus Glocker
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
- Esquire 2022 · #21 · The Best New Restaurants in America
-
Rank 42. Mark's Off Madison
Old-School Bakery
- BagelUp #15 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- Esquire 2021 · #35 · The Best New Restaurants in America
-
Rank 43. L’Americana
Italian-Inspired
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
-
Rank 44. LenLen
Thai
-
Rank 45. Penny
Seafood
Marble counters run the length of the space, stacked with Champagne and white wine on ice. The kitchen celebrates pristine seafood—razor clams with giardiniera, stuffed squid with harissa, Dover sole in bordelaise—each dish dressed with restraint and precision. Arrive early; most seats hold walk-ins.
- 50 Best 2025 · #40 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Food & Wine 2025 · The Top 15 US Restaurants
- Wine Enthusiast 2024 · Forward 50 Restaurants
-
Rank 46. hakubai
Japanese
-
- The Pinnacle Guide 2026 · 1 Pin
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
-
Rank 48. Undercote
Korean-Inspired
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Simon Kim - Gracious Hospitality
-
Rank 49. Grace Street
Korean
- Time Out #16 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC
- The Infatuation 9 Great Shaved Ice Spots In NYC
- The Infatuation The Best Asian Dessert Spots In NYC
-
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 10 U.S. Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
-
- Esquire 2023 · The Best Bars in America
- Esquire 2023 · 1884 Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 10 U.S. Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
-
Rank 52. Bourke Street Bakery
Australian
-
Rank 53. Kanyakumari
Indian
A compact south Indian seafood kitchen with a bar-forward buzz, where bold regional cooking—fried chicken, tender beef short rib with curry leaves—delivers genuine depth. The fish curry and ghee rice show restraint and care alongside the kitchen's louder pleasures.
- Eater Sleeper Hit
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Grub Street 2025 · The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
-
Rank 54. Cho Dang Gol
Homestyle Korean
In Koreatown's barbecue-heavy corridor, Cho Dang Gol pivots toward the rustic and comforting: silken tofu in bubbling stews, cod roe omelets, and a sautéed tofu trio that braids pork belly with sweet potato noodles and kimchi in a bright red pepper sauce. The wood tables are close and the room unadorned, built for eating, not posing.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The Infatuation #8 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 55. Dominique Ansel Workshop
French Bakery
-
Rank 56. Oiji Mi
Korean
Brian Kim's modern Korean kitchen operates with uncommon restraint, letting the quality of striped jack hwe and tender lobster ramyun speak for themselves across five courses. The sleek dining room hums with attentive service; cocktails and wine arrive with equal intelligence. A place where technique and subtlety have displaced bombast.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Esquire 2023 · Martini Royale · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire 2023 · The Best New Restaurants in America
-
Rank 57. bōm
Korean
Behind its sister restaurant, bōm presents Korean wagyu in a marble-countered room where grills work quietly at the bar, searing premium beef kept visible in a dry-aging chamber. The kitchen layers luxury ingredients—uni, caviar, truffle, crab—with equal ambition across savory and broth-based courses, a place where comfort and refinement coexist without apology.
-
Rank 58. Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare
Contemporary
A grocery store conceals this intimate counter where Natmessnig and Prins orchestrate a rapid succession of refined small plates—delicate tarts, a scallop crowned with caviar in vin jaune, oysters in aguachile—from behind spotlit glass. The walnut bar leaves no room for kitchen theatrics to falter, only for precision to land.
-
Rank 59. noda
Sushi
Behind the speakeasy bar sits an eight-seat counter where Chef Tsunoda composes his omakase with measured precision, each piece of nigiri a study in knife work and rice temperature. The dark room and thoughtful sake program suggest this is sushi designed less for spectacle than for the particular pleasure of restraint.
-
Rank 60. NORMA Gastronomia Siciliana
Sicilian Italian
The arancini here—golden-crusted spheres of ragù, mozzarella, and chicken-stock rice—arrive in tomato sauce as a corrective to every flattened version you've eaten elsewhere. Rustic crackle-glazed platters line the walls, the menu unfolds with Sicilian authenticity, and a small retail section tempts you toward specialty ingredients on your way out.
-
Rank 61. Casa Mono
Spanish
At Casa Mono, a small room on Irving Place, the kitchen breaks down whole animals and sends out tapas in a considered rhythm—scrambled eggs with uni, silky confit goat—that prioritizes the diner's experience over operational efficiency. The cooking reaches beyond its nominal Costa Brava roots with a refinement that suggests someone genuinely understands what good food is supposed to do.
-
Rank 62. abcV
Vegetarian
Nestled within ABC Carpet & Home, this vegetarian restaurant pairs minimalist design—mismatched chandeliers, bright pops of color—with menus that blur the line between nourishment and refinement. An egg and cheese dosa arrives beside bergamot-scented spaghetti with rainbow chard, dishes that prove vegetables need no apology.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times 2026 · #48 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
-
Rank 64. Novitá
Italian
A golden room with low ceilings holds the comfortable rhythm of a neighborhood institution. Novitá trades novelty for clarity—warm calamari with lemony avocado, tagliolini Bolognese—and the kitchen's unhurried confidence mirrors the Italian warmth of service. It is the kind of place where the coziness feels earned.
-
Rank 65. Sushi Yasuda
Sushi
At Sushi Yasuda, honey-toned wood and bamboo offer the only warmth in a deliberately austere room where punctuality is non-negotiable. The itamae controls your meal from behind the counter, assembling classical nigiri—bluefin, uni, sayori with shiso—with deliberate care that lets each piece's robust flavor speak. The place ignores fashion and rewards those willing to submit to its rhythms.
-
- 50 Best 2026 · #3 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Bar Team
-
- BagelUp #3 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- Eater The Best Bagels in New York City
- The Infatuation #1 · The 19 Best Bagels In NYC, Ranked
-
Rank 68. Ulivo
Regional Italian
Emanuel Concas runs this trattoria like a masterclass in regional Italian cooking, where house-made pastas—cannelloni al forno layered with short rib ragú—sit beside wood-fired dishes that reveal his Sardinian heritage, notably bottarga shaved over pici and seadas, the cheese fritter finished with honey. A meal here reads as deliberate and rooted, each plate a statement rather than a flourish.
-
Rank 69. Claud
French-inflected New American
A few steps below street level, Claud glows with whitewashed brick and dark tile, its open kitchen framing an ingredient-focused menu of shared plates. Red shrimp sizzle in garlic oil, pork chops arrive with smoked onion jus, and a six-layer Devil's food cake demands a second spoon.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Joshua Pinsky
- Wine Enthusiast 2024 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- Esquire 2023 · The Best New Restaurants in America
-
- The Infatuation #15 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
- The Infatuation The 21 Best New Restaurants In NYC
-
Rank 71. Schmuck
European/Middle Eastern
- 50 Best 2026 · Three Cents Best New Opening Award 2026 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best 2025 · #59 · World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best 2026 · #4 · North America's 50 Best Bars
-
Rank 72. HanGawi
vegetarian Korean
Beyond a modest storefront on 32nd Street, a shoes-off sanctuary of low tables and meditative quiet. The vegetarian ssam bap arrives as a long platter—sesame leaves, avocado, bean sprouts, pickled vegetables, three rice options—each wrap a textured conversation between you and the food. HanGawi operates less as restaurant than as deliberate pause.
-
Rank 73. Sip & Guzzle
Japanese
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · World’s Best Cocktail Menu
- 50 Best 2025 · #39 · World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best 2026 · #1 · North America's 50 Best Bars
-
Rank 74. Le Bernardin
Seafood
A Midtown room where diamond necklaces catch the light and Eric Ripert's kitchen moves with quiet confidence through pristine seafood—yellowfin tuna pounded thin over foie gras toast, salmon with horseradish emulsion—finished by a dark chocolate tart that tastes like technique perfected. French classicism with global reach, no tasting menu required.
-
Rank 75. Utopia Bagels
NY-Style Bakery
- BagelUp #1 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- The New York Times The 16 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now
-
Rank 76. Smithereens
New England Seafood
Down a flight of stairs in the East Village, Smithereens channels a New England seafood shack with a downtown edge. Chef Nick Tamburo works the grill—amberjack belly over binchotan, mackerel sharpened with seaweed and ginger—while sommelier Nikita Malhotra's mostly white list mirrors the cooking's brightness. The celery root float alone justifies the descent.
- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
- VinePair 2025 · Sommelier of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Nikita Malhotra
- The Infatuation 2025 · #7 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
-
Rank 77. Bánh Anh Em
Vietnamese
People queue before this Third Avenue spot opens, drawn by Vietnamese cooking that repays the wait. The baguettes for bánh mì arrive warm and flaky; the pho layers brisket, tendon, tripe and steak over housemade noodles. Bánh cuốn and bánh xèo follow—dishes that taste like they've been perfected across decades, not invented last season.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The Infatuation #20 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
- The New York Times 2026 · #33 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 78. Xi'an Famous Foods
Xi'an-Style
-
Rank 79. Che Li
Shanghainese Chinese
The narrow dining room at Che Li glows with red lanterns and imperial detail, perpetually crowded with diners working through a Shanghainese menu of chicken in Shaoxing wine and stir-fried rice cakes. The house fish stew—a Sichuan-inflected departure—arrives as a bracing, peppercorn-laden argument for asking your server what's worth eating.
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Chinese Cuisine Restaurant
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Grub Street 2026 · The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)
-
Rank 80. Anixi
Vegan Mediterranean
-
Rank 81. Cafe Zaffri
Modern Middle Eastern
-
Rank 82. Family Meal at Blue Hill
New American
An intimate dining room where Dan Barber lets vegetables—sourced from his Stone Barns farm upstate—speak for themselves with minimal intervention. The single seasonal menu arrives family-style, grains and occasional proteins orbiting the produce, each plate marked by restraint and confidence in its raw material. Eating here feels like witnessing a cook who trusts what he grows enough to step back.
-
Rank 83. Osteria 57
Seafood Italian
-
Rank 84. Semma
Indian
Vijay Kumar's south Indian cooking at Semma arrives without apology or accommodation: mulaikattiya thaniyam crackles with the intensity of childhood memory, gunpowder dosa achieves an almost austere perfection, and lamb curry unfolds in layers of warm spice. The heat here is architectural, never decorative, and the staff navigates you through unfamiliar terrain with genuine enthusiasm.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Best Chef: New York State · Vijay Kumar
- The New York Times 2026 · #9 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 85. Il Fiorista
Contemporary Italian
Alessandra and Mario De Benedetti's flower shop doubles as a dining room where nasturtium and hibiscus edge into both cocktails and plates—lotus root crisped with pine pollen, campanelle in white Bolognese, broiled salmon over fennel and cauliflower. The décor is vivid and springlike, but the cooking is what blooms.
-
Rank 86. Tempura Matsui
Tempura Japanese
A counter-only tempura specialist where the chef's restrained batter and mixed-oil technique elevate humble ingredients into delicate, seasonal revelations. The progression from shrimp legs through tender squid and scallop to mellow tencha broth unfolds with the precision of ritual.
-
Rank 87. Jōji
Sushi
In a Grand Central corner, Jōji carves out stillness amid transit chaos with nigiri built on meticulously vinegared dual-rice bases and sashimi that pairs buri with green apple and yuzu. The seafood—sourced from Toyosu Market, often luxe—arrives without pretension, though the bill reflects the ingredients' rarefied status.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Vogue 2026 · A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City
- Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan
-
Rank 88. Caffè Panna
Italian Dessert
A narrow parlor on Irving Place where the daily rotation of gelato flavors arrives announced on Instagram, each scoop crowned with clouds of namesake panna. Hallie Meyer's Roman-inspired sundaes and affogatos suggest a quieter ambition than her father's empire—less spectacle, more cream.
-
Rank 89. Bar Calico
Southwestern
-
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
- VinePair 2025 · Drinks Professional of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Meaghan Dorman
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
-
Rank 91. Via Carota
Italian
A West Village trattoria where rustic Italian cooking—charred vegetables, silken pasta, snow of Parmigiano—arrives with such seeming ease that you simply sit back and savor the meal. The wait stretches hours, the tables fill nightly, yet the food's unpretentious grace justifies the hunger.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- 50 Best 2025 · #18 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
-
Rank 92. Ribalta
Neapolitan Pizza
-
Rank 93. Joo Ok
Traditional Korean
A freight elevator ascends to this sixteenth-floor Korean tasting room, where minimalist dining overlooks Manhattan while Chef Chang-ho Shin balances tradition with refinement through dishes like pheasant mandu with foie gras and house-made perilla oil. The evening unfolds with composed precision, each course a study in restraint and technique, concluding with warm sunchoke tea.
-
Rank 94. Moono
Korean
The modest storefront on the edge of Koreatown opens into a two-story dining room of honeyed wood and soaring ceilings, where Korean cooking balances refinement with ease. Twice-fried chicken, dry-aged branzino with crisp skin and soy mustard, and a jeweled bowl of uni over rice share the menu with bubbling hotpots and noodles. Start at the bar, where Korean spirits become sophisticated cocktails.
-
Michael Schulson's sprawling izakaya across from Rockefeller Center manages the difficult feat of serving 350 people without sacrificing the counter's immediacy. Sushi, robatayaki, wagyu, and broiled bass move with equal authority across the bi-level room, each done with the confidence of a place that has earned its size.
-
Rank 96. Aretsky's Patroon
New American
-
- BagelUp #9 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- The New York Times The 16 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now
-
Rank 98. Le Basque
French/Spanish
-
-
Rank 100. HAGS
Contemporary
Chef Telly Justice's tiny East Village tasting room sources produce from queer farmers and publishes its recipes freely, rotating seasonal vegetables through nimble vegan and omnivore menus. Chewy corn ice cream with currant jam typifies the kitchen's unselfconscious inventiveness.
- Food & Wine 2025 · Telly Justice · Best New Chefs
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Telly Justice
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Telly Justice