Wednesday, September 2, 2026

The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Wakky's D Restaurant & Lounge


  1. The buss up shut here is the size of a shirt and flaky as a biscuit, which the name, Trinidadian slang for "busted up shirt," promises and the kitchen delivers. This is a roti shop in South Ozone Park, cash and carry, no fuss. The New York Times put it on their 100 Best list, and the A train ride plus the half-mile walk from the station is apparently just part of the ritual now.



  2. A Peruvian ceviche shop tucked just under the elevated train tracks in Richmond Hill, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand without much fuss about its location. Tree stumps with cushions serve as patio seating, and Latin music hits you at the door. The leche de tigre arrives in a martini glass with octopus, scallops, and shrimp, and the pork tamal, steamed in bamboo, makes a quiet case for itself from the corner of the menu.


  3. Rank 5. Bagel Oasis

    NY-Style Bakery




  4. Rank 8. Rolo's

    Wood-fired Steakhouse

    A roaring wood-fire grill anchors this Ridgewood neighborhood steakhouse, casting the dining room in amber light most places only manage with candles and wishful thinking. The bar upfront handles cocktails; the back handles fire. Polenta bread comes out fluffy and smoky, the dry-aged steaks arrive with green garlic butter, and the servers seem constitutionally incapable of being cold. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the chef is a James Beard semifinalist.


  5. Caramelized onions, sour cream, and chives crown the classic potato-and-cheese pierogi here, and that's more or less the whole argument for visiting. What started as a DeKalb Market stall grew into a lively Ridgewood restaurant and market doing contemporary Polish comfort food. Schnitzel with endive and pickle martinis signal ambition, but the pierogi are still running the show. A casual, cheerful room where the crowd orders like they've been waiting all week.


  6. Rank 10. Bagels For You

    NY-Style Bakery



  7. A former automotive welding shop in East Williamsburg now houses this multi-roaster coffee boutique, where the menu leans into distilled coffee, blue algae, and clarified matcha alongside a hand-brew selection from roasters around the world. The back of the space runs a small craft brewery called Niteglow, so the afternoon espresso can pivot to a draft pour. It reads like a coffee shop that got very ambitious and kept going.


  8. A small mug of grated parm arrives alongside the lasagna alla Bolognese for table-side sprinkling, which tells you everything about this cozy Italian neighborhood restaurant in Ridgewood. The menu is short and unfussy, running from cured meats and fried calamari through cacio e pepe and branzino, with daily specials filling the gaps. Exactly the kind of place you start bringing your kids, and then keep going back to long after they've moved out.


  9. A Korean barbecue spot in Flushing's Murray Hill where the tabletop grills run hot and the room stays packed. The décor skips every trend in favor of the food, which is the right call. Banchan arrives before you've settled in, including house kimchi that's been aged long enough to mean it. The beef short ribs marinated in soy-based sauce are the move, wrapped in romaine at the table. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.



  10. Rank 16. Zaab Zaab

    Isan-style Thai

    The dining room looks like it was decorated by a child who just discovered neon, which turns out to be exactly right for Isan-style Thai cooking this loud and alive. This Elmhurst restaurant earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand for fiery northeastern Thai food built for sharing, heavy on dried shrimp, electric fish sauce, and whole fried fish. Showing up alone is technically possible but spiritually inadvisable. A New York Times top-100 pick.


  11. You have to find it first, which is half the fun: Alley 41 is tucked off Flushing's Main Street, and the room inside, all concrete and curved wood, reads more like a design hotel than a Sichuan restaurant. The electronic menu is long but the photos are accurate, so trust them. Mapo tofu and roasted-chili braised beef arrive fast and genuinely fiery. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the heat alone earns the detour.



  12. Roast Peking duck arrives on a silver tray with thin pancakes, which sets the tone for what Jiang Nan is doing: upscale Chinese dining that roams the whole country rather than planting a flag in one region. The room leans Imperial, all lacquer and stone and greenery, and it reads as date-night or business lunch depending on who you came with. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place this polished on Bowery.


  13. The interior runs like a train car, wood-paneled and faintly sweet with incense, and the menu is long enough to require a strategy. This cozy Elmhurst Thai restaurant earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand and landed on the New York Times 100 Best list, which helps explain why the room fills fast. Curries, stir-fries, salads, and fried rice cover the bases, but the crispy catfish with mango salad is the kind of dish that makes the rest of the menu feel like a warm-up.


  14. Rank 21. Mama Lee

    Taiwanese Chinese

    A Taiwanese home-cooking spot in Bayside so far from the subway that getting there is its own commitment. The chef, owner, and entire staff is one woman, Mei Lee, so ring the counter bell and wait. She'd rather you didn't spread the word. The New York Times put it at number ten on their 100 Best Restaurants list, so that ship has sailed. Beef noodle soup, lion's head meatballs, and broth poured to the rim say everything the bare room doesn't.


  15. Rank 22. Asian Jewels

    Dim Sum Chinese

    The carts find you before you find your seat, which is how it works at this Flushing dim sum hall. Oversized round tables, ornate chandeliers, bamboo plants, and enough shumai to reconsider your weekend plans. No menu required; most regulars never open one. Weekends get loud and frenetic in a very satisfying way, so an early arrival is less a suggestion than a survival strategy. The Michelin Guide has it listed among their selected restaurants.


  16. Rank 23. The Four Horsemen

    Natural Wine Bar

    The natural wine list here won a James Beard Award, and the Michelin star belongs to the kitchen, which tells you this Williamsburg bar is doing two things at once and doing neither halfway. The room is famously small and the wait is famously brutal, but Nick Curtola's seasonal menu follows its own logic, landing somewhere between a great wine bar snack and something you'll think about for weeks. James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem is a co-owner, which explains the playlist.


  17. Rank 24. Yeh's Bakery

    Taiwanese Bakery



  18. Rank 26. Utopia Bagels

    NY-Style Bakery



  19. Rank 28. Olmo

    Mexico City Mexican

    A cantina in Crown Heights where communal tables and light wood make the whole room feel like somebody's relaxed dinner party. The cooking pulls from Mexico City, snacky and nostalgic in the best way, ranging from chicharrón preparado to a carne asada topped with verdolaga greens and a smoky chipotle béarnaise that overshadows everything else on the plate. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.


  20. Rank 29. Mano’s Pizzeria

    NY-Style Pizza

    A long-ferment dough is the whole argument at this Ridgewood slice shop, producing a thin, crispy-bottomed slice that holds its toppings without going limp on the walk to the counter. The menu runs classics alongside richer, more creative options, and the room is small, informal, and quick. The New York Times named it one of the city's 25 best pizza places, and 50 Top Pizza put it at number eleven on its national slice list.


  21. Rank 30. Meju

    Korean

    The chef's counter hides behind a banchan shop in Long Island City, which tells you everything about its priorities. Hooni Kim, a James Beard Award winner with a Michelin star, has spent years wild-fermenting and aging the Korean pantry staples, doenjang, ganjang, gochujang, that anchor his tasting menu. Dishes arrive looking almost spare, then insist on your full attention. The meal closes with a bowl of rice and kimchi that sounds like nothing and lands like a lot.


  22. Black tablecloths, candlelight, and a deer skull resting on a bed of lichen: Fredrik Berselius runs a tasting menu restaurant in South Williamsburg that feels less like dinner and more like being guided through a dark forest by something polite but feral. The cooking is New Nordic in spirit, pulling from Northeastern seasonality, and it holds two Michelin stars and a spot on North America's 50 Best. Wear something dark; you'll blend right in.


  23. Rank 32. Kora

    Filipino Bakery



  24. Rank 34. SEY

    Nordic Coffee


  25. Rank 35. Che

    Natural Wine Bar


  26. Rank 36. Win Son Bakery

    Taiwanese-American Bakery


  27. Rank 37. Shota Omakase

    Omakase Sushi

    A Michelin-starred omakase counter tucked near Domino Park on a quiet Williamsburg block. The chef talks through the meal as it arrives, explaining which region the fish came from, why the rice is what it is, and how long he hunted for the aged soys, so the whole thing feels more like a conversation than a performance. The nigiri is the main event, and the rice gets refreshed throughout, a detail that separates the obsessives from the casual.


  28. Rank 38. Eyval

    Modern Persian


  29. Rank 39. L'industrie Pizzeria

    New York-style Pizza

    The line out the door on South 2nd is the most honest review you'll find. This Williamsburg slice shop has a counter, a few standing ledges, and pizza makers working in plain sight from dough to oven. The crust is thin, crisp, and taken seriously. 50 Top Pizza ranked it the top slice shop in the country, and the New York Times put it on their short list too. Order, pay, wait for your name, eat standing up. That's the whole deal.


  30. Rank 40. Oxomoco

    Mexican

    Tacos share menu space with agua chile and tlayuda at this airy Greenpoint Mexican restaurant, which holds a Michelin star and carries itself like it doesn't need to mention it. The kitchen ranges across regional Mexico rather than settling into one lane, so the menu shifts around you a little each visit. The room is loud and packed in the way that usually signals something is going right.



  31. Rank 42. Corima

    Mexican

    The sourdough tortillas, made with Sonoran wheat and griddled with chicken fat, have their own New York Times moment, which tells you something about the ambition here. Corima is a fine dining Mexican restaurant on the Lower East Side where chef Fidel Caballero works northern Mexican tradition through a sharp, globe-aware lens. Exposed brick, a kitchen counter, and a Michelin star. The tasting menu is 13 courses; à la carte is also on offer.



  32. Portion sizes here run generous enough that the name feels like a promise kept. Gordo's is a laid-back Bushwick cantina where the chef, a Mexico City native, turns familiar Mexican cooking into something that earns its Michelin Bib Gourmand. The room skews family-friendly, the menu covers tacos, chile relleno, and mole enchiladas, and nobody leaves hungry enough to be annoyed about anything.


  33. Rank 45. Restaurant Yuu

    Contemporary French

    Service begins with the lights dropping and curtains parting to reveal the full kitchen brigade standing at attention, which sets the tone for what follows. This is a tasting menu restaurant in Greenpoint where the chef's classic French training and Japanese background meet in a warehouse-scale dining room. Shellfish and proteins carry the menu, and a duck and foie gras pastry feels like a find from a more extravagant era. It holds a Michelin star.


  34. Rank 46. Francie

    Brasserie French

    The limestone facade on Broadway gives way to ash wood, mosaic tile, and a wide-open kitchen that runs the whole show. This is a French brasserie with a Michelin star, the kind of place where the duck arrives whole before someone carves it tableside. Williamsburg's dressed-up crowd fills the generously spaced tables, and nobody looks out of place in either a blazer or a good jacket.


  35. Reservations at this tiny Crown Heights Cambodian restaurant evaporate fast enough that "arrive early and hope" is a legitimate strategy. Shared plates and a high-energy counter setup make it better with four than two. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, it pulls off the thing where every dish on the table disappears before anyone meant it to.


  36. Rank 48. Liberty Bagels

    NY-Style Bakery


  37. Rank 49. Knickerbocker Bagel

    NY-Style Bakery


  38. Strip-mall Sichuan in Whitestone, Queens, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand tucked behind a menu that also lists crab Rangoon for the uninitiated. The kitchen's real business is the numbing, chilli-forward cooking of Sichuan province: spicy mung bean jelly noodles, crispy eggplant with a glass-like crust, and smoked pork shaved thin enough to read through. The tears-in-eyes jelly salad delivers on the peanuts and chillies if not the weeping. Cash in your General Tso's loyalty points here.


  39. Rank 51. Dirt Candy

    Vegetarian

    Amanda Cohen has been making vegetables the whole point since before that was a thing anyone said, and her Lower East Side tasting menu is where that conviction lands hardest. One menu, no substitutions, seasonal produce pushed through pickling, raw preparations, and desserts that can't quite decide if they're sweet. A Michelin star and a James Beard nomination confirm the kitchen's seriousness, even when the food is having fun.



  40. Rank 53. Sofreh

    Persian

    Nasim Alikhani spent decades as a home cook in the Iranian diaspora before opening this Persian restaurant in Park Slope at 58, which explains why the food feels like someone's mother finally decided to show the city what she'd been holding back. Whitewashed brick, marble bar, black wood beams. The kitchen is faithful to Persian tradition but loose enough to foam a yogurt or call a pomegranate-marinated rib-eye a kebab. A James Beard nominee for Best Chef New York State.



  41. Rank 55. ILIS

    Nordic New American

    The unmarked door on Green Street gives nothing away, which is sort of the point. Inside, a converted warehouse with wood-beamed ceilings holds a tasting menu restaurant built around a single organizing idea: every dish is either fired or chilled, and you watch the open kitchen run both with near-monastic focus. Chefs serve their own food here, no front-of-house divide. The Nordic New American cooking is ingredient-first, the room is genuinely dramatic, and the clamshell amuse-bouche is as ridiculous as it sounds.


  42. The red door on Moore Street opens into a loud, wood-fired pizza shop that somehow became the definitive argument for Bushwick's whole self-image. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the pies earn the pilgrimage: thin, blistered, unapologetically themselves. The room is industrial and a little ramshackle, the staff looks like they're in three different bands, and the wait can be long enough to reconsider your life choices. Order ahead and take a box home.




  43. The quinoa-chickpea-walnut burger that made Brooks Headley famous is still on the menu at this vegetarian burger shop in the East Village, now in a bigger room with vintage diner bones. Nothing here pretends to be meat, which turns out to be the whole point. The Michelin Bib Gourmand and a New York Times top-100 spot follow naturally from cooking that treats bold seasoning and smart texture as the actual job. Save room for dessert; Headley came up as a pastry chef.


  44. A fish tail peeking out of a metal pot at the next table sets the tone at this no-frills Filipino homestyle spot in Woodside's Little Manila. The kitchen has been around forever, and the cooking skips any fuss: eggplant sealed in pork-threaded omelet, ginger-bright chicken soup, and chicken adobo that The Infatuation called one of New York's defining dishes. The New York Times put it at number 68 on its 2026 list of the city's 100 best restaurants.



  45. Rank 62. Sunn’s

    Korean Wine Bar

    At this Korean wine bar on Division Street, banchan is the main event, not the preamble. The chef builds a daily set of small plates that sit somewhere between Seoul, Lyon, and Palermo, leeks vinaigrette with Chinese hot mustard, eggplant crushed into something caponata-adjacent. The kitchen is tiny, the room tinier, and the menu stubbornly its own thing. The New York Times placed it among the city's 100 best restaurants.


  46. Rank 63. Una Pizza Napoletana

    Neapolitan Pizza

    Anthony Mangieri runs the wood-burning oven himself, every service, at this airy Lower East Side pizza shop tiled in black and white and lined with canned tomatoes. The Neapolitan pies come out with fluffy edges and thin, papery crusts, topped with not much more than mozzarella di bufala and sweet tomato sauce, which is the whole point. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and ranked first in the country by 50 Top Pizza USA. Reservations are scarce, so arrive early and queue.


  47. Rank 64. Bungalow

    Contemporary Indian

    Pink walls, carved bar panels, and Vikas Khanna working the room while guests line up down First Avenue for a walk-in spot set the tone at this buzzy East Village contemporary Indian restaurant. The kitchen pulls from all of India's regional traditions, and the yogurt kebab earned its own mention in the New York Times. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, and no one seems to leave before they're ready.


  48. Rank 65. Zaab Zaab

    Isan Thai





  49. Rank 69. Place des Fêtes

    Spanish Wine Bar

    The team behind Oxalis opened this Clinton Hill wine bar as a casual second act, and the kitchen takes it as seriously as the cellar. Both lean Spanish: natural wines from small producers, simple seafood, grilled toast, and vegetable plates that hold their own. The bar and open kitchen anchor a cozy room that fills up fast, so arrive early or embrace the wait with a glass of something zippy.







  50. Rank 75. Phayul

    Tibetan Indian

    The momos at this Tibetan restaurant in Jackson Heights are the opening argument: big, carefully pleated dumplings arriving in a cloud of steam, stuffed with beef and scallions. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the rest of the menu holds up, from chewy stir-fried noodles to chicken with caramelized onions and peppers. There's chili oil on every table and a hot sauce that means business. Portions are generous and prices are kind.




  51. Bold colors and custom ceramics set the tone at this tiny omakase counter on the Lower East Side, where the whole vibe runs warmer and looser than the austere hush you might expect. The Michelin-starred kitchen leans into North American sourcing, using New York-grown rice and regional fish, with trim and offcuts turned into a house tostada. Local wine, beer, and cider round out a sake list that runs from Brooklyn to Japan.



  52. Dhamaka means "explosion" in Hindi, and the kitchen takes that seriously, sending out smoky goat belly wrapped in cedar wood and mutton in clay pots swimming in dark chili oil with a whole roasted garlic bulb. This is a sit-down Indian restaurant in Essex Market that goes deep into rustic, regional dishes rarely spotted on menus here. The chef holds a James Beard Award. Tables are comically small, so bring people you like close.


  53. A petite East Village tasting menu spot where the produce comes from local queer farmers and the recipes go straight online for anyone who wants them. Chef Telly Justice runs two menus, one vegan and one omnivore, and Sunday brings a pay-what-you-want seating that fills fast. The kitchen leans hard into seasonal vegetables either way. Food & Wine named Justice a Best New Chef in 2025.



  54. Marble-top bar, globe pendants, and coffee-brown tables give this Basque restaurant on the Lower East Side a midcentury feel that somehow never reads as costume. The room runs loud and convivial, the way a good tapas night should, and everything is built for sharing. The wine list leans deep into small Spanish organic and biodynamic producers, which is either very convenient or a very pleasant trap, depending on your evening.


  55. Rank 84. Gottscheer Hall

    Classic German


  56. Rank 85. Ops

    Neapolitan Pizza

    Sourdough Neapolitan pizza in a cozy Bushwick spot where the lighting is dim enough to feel intentional and the wine list is longer than the beer list, which tells you something about the room. The crust is light and genuinely digestible, as opposed to the kind that sits with you on the subway home. Ranked in the 50 Top Pizza USA, if that's the sort thing you track. The veranda is lovely until it isn't.


  57. Rank 86. AbuQir

    Seafood, Egyptian

    You pick your fish from the case, tell them how you want it, and then somehow end up eating one of the better seafood meals in the city. The New York Times ranked this Egyptian seafood market at number seventeen in New York, which raises real questions about what the fancier places on that list are doing with their tablecloths. The room is Astoria's Little Egypt, not a dining room, and nobody seems to mind.



  58. Vintage mirrors, cherry wood, and brass gas chandeliers give this Downtown Brooklyn steakhouse an amber glow that makes every Tuesday feel like an occasion. The kitchen draws on the legacy of Edna Lewis, who ran it in the late eighties, so fried chicken and crab cakes share the menu with dry-aged prime beef. Dessert gets taken seriously, which a baked Alaska deserves. It has a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.


  59. Rank 89. Bonnie's

    Modern Cantonese

    Calvin Eng's Cantonese restaurant and bar sits on a nondescript east Williamsburg corner, close enough to the BQE that you'll feel the trucks. Inside, it reads like a retro Hong Kong diner, but the kitchen runs modern interpretations of regional Cantonese food, and the MSG Martini earned a spot on Esquire's national list. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, and the James Beard Foundation named Eng an Emerging Chef nominee.




  60. Thomas Chen's East Village fine dining room sits behind bay windows with a backlit bar and purple seats that somehow avoid feeling precious. The menu moves between Asian traditions and classical technique in ways that feel considered rather than calculated, and the Michelin-starred kitchen earns its star without announcing it at every turn. Service knows the food cold but doesn't lecture. A neighborhood room that quietly does serious work.


  61. A tasting menu in a quietly understated Lower East Side room that reads far more modest than what comes out of the kitchen. The cooking is precise and composed, moving from a breakfast taco opener to scallop to a short rib and closing on goat milk ice cream. Nothing announces itself loudly, which is somehow the whole point. The service knows the menu cold. It holds a Michelin star.


  62. Rank 94. Tsukimi

    Japanese

    A kaiseki counter in the East Village built around a single idea: moonlight. The name translates to "moon viewing," and the room takes that literally, with illuminated ceramic shelves and mirrored panels catching every gleam. The seasonal tasting menu moves with the kind of quiet confidence that doesn't need to announce itself, and the sake list, ordered à la carte, is the right move. Tsukimi holds a Michelin star.


  63. A disco ball spins over the dining room at this Graham Avenue pizzeria, where the thin-crust pies share the bill with house pasta and focaccia made in the open kitchen. The Italian wine list runs to two pages of sparkling alone, which tells you something about the ambitions here. The Calabrian soppressata and hot honey on the Diavola have a following. Michelin has it in the guide.


  64. Rank 96. Tempura Matsui

    Tempura Japanese

    A Michelin-starred tempura tasting counter in Murray Hill where the chef uses a blend of sesame and cottonseed oils and keeps the batter deliberately thin, letting the ingredient do the talking. Counter seats give you a front-row view of the whole process. The menu moves with the seasons, running from sashimi through a procession of fried courses, and closing with tencha, a broth that turns out to be a quietly convincing argument for ending a meal with soup.



  65. Rank 98. Sailor

    Seafood

    The line wrapping around the Fort Greene corner is not a glitch; it's just how things work at April Bloomfield's neighborhood seafood bistro, where eggs with celery salt and a roast chicken somehow outshine the obvious Instagram moment. The skylit room is bright and unhurried, the menu turns with the seasons, and lunch earns its own following with a burger that regulars treat as a state secret.


  66. Rank 99. Bánh by Lauren

    Vietnamese-French Bakery


  67. Rank 100. Maxi’s Noodle 2

    Hong Kong-Style Noodles


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Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

      How we score →

      Stay Score

      The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. It runs on the scored places nearby: more good stuff within reach, higher score. If it looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.