The Top 100 Places to Eat and Drink Near Bar Mercer
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Rank 2. Milady’s
Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best 2025 · Julie Reiner · Industry Icon Award
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Esquire 2023 · The Best Bars in America
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Rank 3. Estela
Modern New American
Ignacio Mattos builds restive dishes from unexpected ingredients—endive hiding walnuts and aged cheese, arroz negro studded with squid—that feel both natural and precise. A lively downtown room where ingredient-driven cooking sustains its rebel energy after more than a decade.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · United States' Best Restaurant
- The New York Times 2026 · #34 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 4. 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
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Rank 5. BONDST
Japanese-Inspired
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Rank 6. Torrisi
Italian
The dining room gleams with pressed linens and dinner jackets, but Torrisi's warmth comes from its confident imagination, where tuna meets pickled caponata and Dover sole gets a Francese turn. Each dish feels both familiar and revamped, served in the landmark Puck Building to diners clearly in on the pleasure.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Esquire 2023 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The New York Times 2023 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 7. Jungsik
Modern Korean
A dining room of studied restraint—dark wood, spare angles, downtown cool—frames Chef Yim Jung Sik's tasting menu, where Korean tradition splinters into something altogether new. Raw fish arrives beside kimchi and bone broth; octopus crisps under gochujang; each course unfolds with such precision and invention that you find yourself nodding involuntarily at the plate.
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Rank 8. César
Seafood
César Ramirez sustains a demanding precision night after night, refining raw ingredients—Danish hiramasa, North Sea turbot, California quail—into harmonious compositions at his minimal downtown seafood counter. The sauces are masterly, the service eager, and the open kitchen makes clear why this restrained space commands such focused attention.
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Rank 9. The Musket Room
Contemporary
Beyond the glass doors on a crowded street, a cozy dining room with Danish chairs and wood tables opens onto a menu that shifts with the seasons. Chef Mary Attea's cooking moves between precision and comfort—razor clam chowder with leeks, mackerel suspended in tomato water, pork jowl in red eye gravy. The service knows what it's doing without announcing itself.
- Food & Wine 2024 · Best New Chefs · Mary Attea
- Food & Wine 2024 · Best New Chefs · Camari Mick
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Jennifer Vitagliano and Nicole Vitagliano - Elizabeth Street Hospitality
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Rank 10. Balthazar
Classic French
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Brunch Venue
- Eater 2026 · The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 11. Raf's
Modern French
A narrow Elizabeth Street bistro where Chef Mary Attea layers Italian and French traditions with unhurried precision: mafaldine tossed with shredded rabbit and spring fava in lemon pesto, cast-iron Sicilian pizza meant for sharing, white chocolate budino that tastes like restraint perfected. The bar accommodates walk-ins; the kitchen rewards patience.
- Food & Wine 2024 · Best New Chefs · Camari Mick
- Food & Wine 2024 · Best New Chefs · Mary Attea
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Jennifer Vitagliano and Nicole Vitagliano - Elizabeth Street Hospitality
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Rank 12. Kabawa
Caribbean
A dark green dining room holds Chef Paul Carmichael's Caribbean vision: roti with curried chickpeas, fried plantain crowned with salt cod, seared black bass in yellow curry alongside pineapple-glazed sweet potato. This is tropical cooking refined into ceremony, each course a deliberate statement rather than a casual gesture toward the islands.
- Esquire 2025 · Chef of the Year · Paul Carmichael
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
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- BagelUp #2 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- Eater The Best Bagels in New York City
- The Infatuation #6 · The 19 Best Bagels In NYC, Ranked
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Rank 14. Superbueno
Mexican-American
- 50 Best 2025 · #12 · World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best 2026 · #9 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- VinePair 2023 · Bar Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
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Rank 15. Atera
Contemporary
Counter dining at chef Ronny Emborg's spare, uncluttered room in Tribeca unfolds with quiet precision—shigoku oysters paired with kiwi and cucumber, halibut suspended in buttery shrimp bisque—while a spirited playlist keeps the intimate experience from settling into reverence. The menu travels globally through numerous delicate courses that balance restraint and abundance with equal finesse.
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Rank 16. 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
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- 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
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Rank 18. Carbone
American Italian
A cavernous room of plush banquettes and glittering chandeliers where servers move with practiced charm, channeling mid-century Italian-American nostalgia at full throttle. The rigatoni alla vodka and meatballs arrive reliably satisfying, though the real spectacle is less about what's on the plate than the sense of being seen in a room where everyone else wants to be.
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Rank 19. Lord's
British
A London bistro transplanted to Greenwich Village, where Chef Ed Szymanski and Patricia Howard apply nose-to-tail restraint to English comfort food—curried lamb scotch eggs, duck-stuffed cabbage the size of a small animal. The apple and calvados trifle arrives like an apology for your own excess, and the bar still finds room for walk-ins even when the banquettes overflow.
- Food & Wine 2023 · Best New Chefs · Ed Szymanski
- Eater 2023 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Ed Szymanski
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Rank 20. Sushi Nakazawa
Sushi
At a ten-seat counter in Commerce Street, Chef Daisuke Nakazawa orchestrates omakase with restraint: tender fish, precisely seasoned rice, a whisper of wasabi and nikiri. The progression moves from Hokkaido salmon through live scallop to uni and a final fatty tuna handroll so finely chopped it dissolves on the tongue.
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Rank 21. Raoul's
French
A SoHo fixture since the seventies, Raoul's occupies a bohemian time capsule where art-lined walls and classic cocktails set the scene for diners returning across decades. The kitchen's French American cooking—crab beignets with chili remoulade, duck with foie gras and lentils, tableside profiteroles—arrives with steady competence and occasional grace.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Eater 2026 · The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
- Eater 2026 · The Best Restaurants in Soho
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Rank 22. 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.
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- 50 Best 2025 · #41 · World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best 2026 · #35 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
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Rank 24. Arcane Estate Coffee
Panamanian
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Rank 25. 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
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Rank 26. Sadelle's
Bakery
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Rank 27. Le Coucou
French
A jewel-box dining room where Chef Daniel Rose interprets French classics with theatrical flair: pike mousse quenelles swim in lobster sauce, lamb arrives blushing pink with braised neck and spring carrots, and Chartreuse-spiked crème brûlée proves desserts need not whisper. The open kitchen glows at the center; the crowd, impeccably turned out, provides its own entertainment.
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Rank 28. Frenchette
French
- AAA Four Diamonds
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Restaurateur · Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 29. Yoshino
Sushi
Chef Tadashi Yoshida works behind a hinoki counter sourced from a 300-year-old tree, each gesture precise and deliberate. His omakase balances pristine nigiri with cooked preparations—notably a saba maki that arrives with theatrical sizzle—while handmade chairs and knives from master craftsmen signal an obsession with materials that borders on architectural. The meal demands your full attention.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Vogue 2026 · A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City
- Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan
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Rank 30. Torien
Yakitori Japanese
Behind blacked-out windows on Elizabeth Street, a curtain parts to reveal Chef Hideo An at the counter, working skewers over binchotan charcoal with surgical precision. Yakitori here means chicken in every form—nikomi, vegetables threaded between—but the real star is the smoke itself, which settles into the room like an essential ingredient. A Tokyo transplant that treats grilling as high craft.
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Rank 31. 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
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Rank 32. Mama's Too
Sicilian Pizza
- Time Out The Cacio e Pepe · The 18 best pizzas in the world right now
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #4 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
- Time Out 2026 · The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
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- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #1 · U.S. Latte Art Championship · Piyapat "Flook" Lapteerawut
- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #7 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · John Chau Ly
- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #7 · U.S. Brewers Cup · Peace Sakulclanuwat
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Rank 35. Le Chêne
French
In a cramped West Village room where every plate draws eyes, the Duchênes execute classical French cooking with precision and weight—their pithivier a study in bronze-skinned architecture, their sauces (vin jaune, foie gras terrines) built on substance rather than whimsy. A curved bar absorbs walk-ins while a serious, deep wine list rewards those who linger.
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Rank 36. Ha's Snack Bar
Wine Bar
At Ha's, a sliver of a room on Broome Street where stools outnumber tables, the menu pivots nightly between French toast and Vietnamese gestures, untethered to anything but appetite. The eggs mayo—spiked with Maggi, studded with trout roe—suggests the kitchen knows something about restraint and flavor that most restaurants have forgotten.
- Bon Appétit 2025 · America's Best New Restaurants
- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Sadie Mae Burns and Anthony Ha
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Rank 37. Thai Diner
Thai
A corrugated-metal diner on Mott Street where Thai cooking meets American comfort: fried chicken laab with actual depth, cabbage rolls in fragrant broth, Thai tea French toast at any hour. The kitchen executes with discipline what the woven-bamboo dining room merely suggests, favoring flavors that taste fully realized rather than tamed for mass appeal.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The Infatuation #2 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
- Eater 2026 · Where to Eat Brunch in New York City
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Rank 38. Corima
Mexican
Chef Fidel Caballero's cooking on Allen Street charts an uncompromising path through Mexican tradition, whether from the kitchen counter or the boisterous dining room. Sourdough tortillas made with Sonoran wheat and chicken fat arrive with recado negro butter—a detail that suggests the ambition threading through every plate.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- 50 Best 2025 · #36 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Bon Appétit 2024 · America's Best New Restaurants
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Rank 39. Crevette
Spanish-French Seafood
The dining room hums with purposeful energy, cream walls and white linens setting a composed stage for seafood that tastes like the Mediterranean got loud. Peekytoe crab agnolotti swims in tomato butter; whole Dover sole arrives burnished with bearnaise. This is coastal cooking stripped of pretense, built on good ingredients and the kind of brightness that makes you order another drink.
- Artful Living 2025 · The Top 5 Most Stylish Restaurants in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 40. Librae Bakery
Middle Eastern Bakery
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery
- The Infatuation The Best Bakeries in NYC
- The Infatuation The Best Croissants In NYC
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- 50 Best 2025 · #72 · World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best 2026 · #37 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. East
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Rank 42. 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 · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
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Rank 45. 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
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Rank 46. 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!)
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Rank 47. Bungalow
Contemporary Indian
Vikas Khanna's dining room—pale pink walls, carved bar panels, perpetual crowd—sets a convivial stage for contemporary Indian cuisine that moves fluidly across the country's regional traditions. Turmeric cocktails and dishes like yogurt kebabs in kataifi with mango coulis suggest a kitchen thinking beyond the expected.
- Condé Nast Traveler 2024 · The best new restaurants in the world
- Esquire 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 48. 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.
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Rank 49. Cove
Contemporary
Flynn McGarry's Hudson Square dining room rises with soaring wood ceilings and an open kitchen in constant flux. Seasonal cooking drawn from the team's Long Island farm—grilled black cod with mushroom rice, pumpkin schnitzel, huckleberry semifreddo—strikes a balance between playful invention and genuine restraint, flavors always in service to the plate rather than the other way around.
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Rank 50. 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.
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- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #1 · U.S. Latte Art Championship · Piyapat "Flook" Lapteerawut
- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #7 · U.S. Brewers Cup · John Chau Ly
- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #7 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Peace Sakulclanuwat
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Rank 52. Yamada
Kaiseki Japanese
Chef Isao Yamada has distilled a lifetime of kaiseki into a sparse, intimate counter where each course unfolds a different technique: pristine sashimi, a clear broth studded with king crab, a rice course married to Maine lobster and foraged mushrooms. The room itself—pale wood, ikebana, a framed garden—recedes politely behind the food, letting the seasonality speak.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- The New York Times 2025 · Ajisai Wagashi · The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S.
- The New York Times 2026 · #2 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 53. Una Pizza Napoletana
Neapolitan Pizza
Anthony Mangieri tends his wood-burning oven with monastic focus, yielding pies whose charred, papery crusts justify the reservation scramble. Nothing else matters here—no appetizers, no elaborate toppings, just Neapolitan geometry and restraint.
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #1 · 50 Top Pizza USA
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 54. King
Mediterranean
At night, King glows amber in SoHo, serving rustic European cooking that lets each season's harvest speak for itself. The kitchen's deft restraint—panisse, house-made ravioli, grilled bass—suggests that three chef-owners learned something essential at River Café about making difficulty vanish.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times 2026 · #50 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 55. Pinch Chinese
Chinese
The lantern-lit dining room opens onto a kitchen where soup dumplings emerge with gossamer skin and concentrated broth, the crab version particularly fine. Spicy wontons swim in house chili oil with genuine teeth, while silken tofu hot pot absorbs the umami of maitake and truffle. SoHo glamour meets Flushing technique in a place that feels both inevitable and hard-won.
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Rank 56. Pasquale Jones
Neo-NY Pizza
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Rank 57. Sunn’s
Korean
At Sunn's, Chef Sunny Lee elevates banchan from supporting cast to main event, producing six daily small plates that bend Korean tradition toward France and Italy in a kitchen barely larger than a closet. Crushed olives tangle with eggplant namul; hot mustard stands in for Dijon—stubbornly original gestures in a room that refuses to apologize for its ambitions.
- Food & Wine 2025 · Sunn’s Salad · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Sunny Lee
- Esquire 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 58. Kiko
Mexican
- Esquire 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Punch 2025 · Nashi Highball · Our Favorite Cocktails
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Rank 59. Dominique Ansel Bakery
French Bakery
- The Infatuation The Best Croissants In NYC
- Eater 2026 · The Best Restaurants in Soho
- Eater 2015 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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The Eighty Six occupies a former speakeasy on Bedford Street, where heritage and precision converge around beef sourced from small producers and heritage breeds rarely found in America. Dry-aged in a salt-lined room below the bar, each steak is cooked by method—broiler, plancha, or binchōtan—chosen to honor the animal's character rather than convenience.
- World's 101 Best #12 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Eater 2026 · The Best Steakhouses in New York City
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Rank 61. 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 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- Esquire 2023 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 63. Lei
Wine Bar
On a narrow Chinatown street, Annie Shi has packed a wine bar so thoroughly that bottles climb the walls and diners spill into the alley. The kitchen, squeezed into every remaining crevice, sends out precise modern Chinese cooking—chilled celtuce with shallots, scallops with lily buds, hand-rolled noodles with braised lamb—that matches the ambition of a wine list that refuses to play it safe.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
- Esquire 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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- Grub Street 2026 · The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)
- Eater 2026 · The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times 2024 · New York’s 14 Best New Restaurants
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Rank 66. Kono
Yakitori Japanese
A narrow room glows with the heat of the grill, where Chef Atsushi Kono moves through yakitori omakase with choreographed ease, his focus unwavering on chicken's lesser-known parts. The progression—from clarifying broth through charred skin, liver, gizzard, and offal—transforms what arrives as pedestrian poultry into something you'll reconsider forever.
- 50 Best 2025 · #23 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Bon Appétit 2023 · America's Best New Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Atsushi Kono
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Rank 67. Dean's
British
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Rank 68. 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
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Rank 69. L’industrie Pizzeria
NY-Style Pizza
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #1 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
- Time Out 2026 · The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
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Rank 70. ATLA
Mexican
The bright, perpetually humming room on Lafayette Street channels casual Mexican cooking with quiet precision. House-made tortillas anchor tacos of juicy suadero and tender octopus with Chihuahua cheese and morita; larger plates like al pastor gringa invite sharing. Straightforward, ingredient-focused, and ending with churros and dulce de leche—a restaurant that doesn't need the noise.
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Rank 72. Kisa
Korean
At this deliberately unglamorous Korean diner styled after a Seoul cabby's canteen, the set meals arrive in a precarious stack of small bowls and plates, each main course bluntly satisfying in its restraint. The menu offers little choice, but the giddy abundance—and occasional mediocrity—of the banchan feels like part of the point.
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
- Eater 2024 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Eater Best New Restaurant
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Rank 73. Osteria 57
Seafood Italian
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Rank 74. Dante
Italian
- 50 Best 2026 · #58 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
- Esquire 2023 · Dante Mini Martini · The Best Martinis in America
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Rank 75. Bridges
New American
Sam Lawrence's spare, ambitious kitchen in a warm Chinatown room defies easy categorization, moving fluidly between cured fish, custard tarts, and savory cheesecake. The execution is precise, the service unhurried, and the whole enterprise carries the ease of a bistro with the rigor of a destination.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Esquire 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The Infatuation #21 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
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Rank 77. 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
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Rank 78. Sami & Susu
Mediterranean Wine Bar
A sliver of a room on Orchard Street where a kitchen without a proper gas stove produces seasonal Middle Eastern cooking of remarkable clarity. Half-roasted harissa over tzatziki and lamb ragu with house-made spätzle demonstrate an elegant restraint, while the natural wine list and irreverent staff encourage the kind of uninhibited eating that feels increasingly rare.
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Mediterranean Cuisine Restaurant
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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Rank 79. Da Nico Ristorante
Classic Italian
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- Esquire 2024 · Candarin Orange · The Best Martinis in America
- Punch 2024 · Best New Bars
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar
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Rank 81. Russ & Daughters
American
The counter gleams beneath white-jacketed servers at this Lower East Side institution, where appetizing traditions meet contemporary technique. Scottish smoked salmon arrives with everything-bagel chips; babka French toast balances chocolate and fruit with textural precision. A place that honors its heritage while refusing nostalgia.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- BagelUp #4 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- Eater 2026 · The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
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Rank 83. Baz
NY-Style Bagel Bakery
- BagelUp #18 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
- Time Out The 18 best bagels in NYC
- The New York Times The 16 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now
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Rank 84. Ballato
American Italian
A narrow family-run corner serving unadorned Italian-American classics like cacio e pepe and breaded chicken with lemon-caper sauce. The gold-trimmed storefront masks a genuine, gracious operation where even the cannoli feel authentic.
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Rank 85. Scalini Fedeli
French/Italian
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Rank 87. Carnitas Ramirez
Mexican
At Carnitas Ramirez, a taqueria on East Third Street, you sit on buckets and confront the entire pig—snout to tail—in tacos that demand you reckon with what you're eating. Tongue, brain, skin, cartilage: each texture arrives in fried tortillas, a lesson in anatomy that never lets you forget the animal's former life.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Giovanni Cervantes
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Giovanni Cervantes
- Eater Best Counter-Service Spot
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Rank 88. Sushi Ikumi
Sushi
An L-shaped bar with soft light and exposed brick frames the sushi chef's work at this modest Sullivan Street omakase. Each course pivots unexpectedly—a silken chawanmushi studded with lobster and ikura, miso-glazed cod, grouper with wasabi—arriving at prices that feel gracious for the caliber of fish and technique on display.
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Rank 90. Superiority Burger
Vegetarian
A vintage diner wedged into the East Village serves vegetarian cooking that doesn't apologize for what it isn't. Brooks Headley's menu—quinoa-and-chickpea burgers, beans with escarole and provolone—prizes bold seasoning and textural contrast over imitation, while desserts drawn from his pastry training elevate the experience beyond counter food.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outsdanding Restaurant
- Eater The All-Time Eater 38
- The New York Times 2023 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 92. Scarr’s Pizza
NY-Style Pizza
A narrow storefront on Orchard Street where flour ground in the basement becomes dough for both round and square pies sold by the slice. Scarr's elevated the slice shop—not through pretension, but through the kind of ingredient discipline that makes a line of people worthwhile.
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #13 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Scarr Pimentel
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
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Rank 93. C as in Charlie
Southern Fusion Korean
Eric JaeHo Choi's Bleecker Street corner hums with the warmth of strangers becoming friends over a cramped counter. A ten-dish menu that dances between Seoul and the American South yields Seoul'sbury steak with galbi jus, shrimp toast rolls, and baby back ribs lacquered in harissa and plum. The cooking is straightforward but playful, each plate seasoned with genuine affection.
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Rank 94. 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
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Rank 95. Bar Goto
Japanese
- Esquire 2023 · Sakura Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
- Punch 2025 · Best New Bartenders · Capucine Prager
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Rank 96. Ramen by Ra
Noodles
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Rank 97. Tamarind
Indian
The marble bar catches light like a jewel in this Tribeca dining room, where soaring ceilings and classical proportions announce themselves without apology. Tandoori prawns arrive with char and smoke, while chana pindi and malai naan demonstrate how refinement needn't abandon warmth. A restaurant that treats Indian cooking as occasion worthy of grandeur.
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Rank 98. Katana Kitten
Japanese-American
- 50 Best 2026 · #52 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Masa Urushido
- Time Out #18 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
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Rank 100. Shmoné
Neo-Levantine Mediterranean
A narrow Greenwich Village room where diners crowd the counter to watch Chef Eyal Shani work through seasonal Levantine cooking. Towering salads, hot Jerusalem bagels finished with olive oil, and bone-in beef short ribs with an almost austere tenderness define a menu built on vegetables and shareability rather than flourish.