The Top 45 Wine Bars Near Hop Lee
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Rank 1. 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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- 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 3. 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 4. 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 5. Tolo
Chinese
Ron Yan's Chinatown spot pairs refined Chinese cooking—tender beef shank with herb salad, salt-and-pepper tofu, branzino in sweet-and-sour sauce—with an unexpectedly serious wine program and proper glassware. Tables overflow quickly in the modest room, but the energy feels earned.
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- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. East
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. East
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Rank 7. Farra
Wine Bar
A sleek wine bar with a restless kitchen, Farra shares its cellar with neighboring Atera and the same obsessive attention to detail. Salmon tartare arrives textured with potato chips and nori; lobster-filled ravioli floats in dashi broth. The cooking is playful without cynicism, elevated comfort that rewards close attention.
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Rank 8. Le French Diner
French
A narrow counter where cooks move with the precision of surgeons, Le French Diner trades bistro polish for the controlled chaos of a place that feeds its own. The steak tartare arrives as a small ceremony of salt, acid, and intention in a room that hums with professional hunger.
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Rank 9. Atrio Wine Bar & Restaurant
Mediterranean Wine Bar
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Rank 11. il Buco
Mediterranean
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Rank 12. Wildair
Wine Bar
A narrow wine bar on the Lower East Side where the kitchen moves with the precision of a small orchestra, each plate and glass arranged as a deliberate act. The desserts arrive like encores—small, intricate, worth the occasion alone.
- Wine Enthusiast 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- Eater The Best Lower East Side Restaurants
- Eater 2016 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 14. Laliko
Georgian Eastern European
At a West Village corner, Georgian pride radiates through vibrant salads and cheese-filled khachapuri, while a long communal table and Georgian wine list complete the scene. Servers guide you through plump khinkali dumplings brimming with hot broth and lamb or beef, making the handsome, mural-lined room feel like an extended table of friends.
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Rank 15. Quique Crudo
Mexican
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Rank 16. 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.
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Rank 17. Al-Andalus
Andalusian
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Rank 18. 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
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Rank 19. The Four Horsemen
Natural Wine Bar
The wine list moves with obsessive focus through natural varietals at this perpetually mobbed Williamsburg bar, where Nick Curtola's seasonal cooking—veal sweetbread skewers, crisp chickpea crepe studded with squash blossoms and lardon, fried skate wing—never overreaches. There is intelligence in the room, and in the glaze.
- 50 Best 2025 · #15 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
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Rank 20. 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.
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Rank 21. Ishq
Modern Indian
This Avenue A restaurant resists modern Indian clichés with spiced depth and textural play, anchored by a salmon-pink quartz bar. Butter chicken and lamb biryani arrive complex and generously spiced, meant for sharing among tables set with deliberate space.
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Rank 23. Meju
Korean
Behind a fermented-foods shop in Long Island City, Chef Hooni Kim runs a counter where traditional Korean pantry staples—doenjang, gochujang, aged through his own decade-long practice—meet precise minimalism and Miyazaki beef. A final bowl of rice and kimchi, handmade ceramics throughout, and Kim's attentive presence transform an unassuming setting into something quietly unforgettable.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Hooni Kim
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Hooni Kim
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Rank 24. Anixi
Vegan Mediterranean
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Rank 25. Audace
Italian
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Rank 26. Sauced
Natural Wine Bar
- Time Out #23 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants and Bars in Williamsburg
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Rank 27. Don Antonio
Neapolitan Pizza
A wood-fired outpost of a Neapolitan institution, Don Antonio channels four generations of pizza-making into dishes like the Montanara Starita—fried dough topped with house tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella, and basil—and frittatine, where fried spaghetti scraps meet ham and Buffalo mozzarella. The kitchen's lineage shows in every char and fold.
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #7 · 50 Top Pizza USA
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Eater 2026 · The Best Restaurants Around Times Square
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Rank 28. Four Twenty Five
Contemporary
Benno and Vongerichten's Park Avenue dining room floods with daylight and restraint, a glamorous stage for cooking that roams Italy, France, and Asia without apology. A foie gras arrives with blood orange and warm spiced madeleines; even asparagus reads as a statement, while the chocolate tart at meal's end—layered with black cardamom and tonka—justifies its prominence.
- Esquire 2024 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Grub Street 2025 · The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
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Rank 29. Chez Ma Tante
Canadian French
Aidan O'Neal and Jake Leiber run a compact French-Canadian kitchen where pork preparations and offal terrine anchor a menu that refuses apology. Fennel sausage over beans and bacon, gnocchi with blue cheese, maple crème brûlée—the cooking is forceful, richly flavored, and worth the weekend crowds.
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Rank 31. Place des Fêtes
Spanish Wine Bar
The team behind Oxalis runs this Clinton Hill wine bar where small plates of grilled seafood, charred bread, and roasted vegetables share equal billing with zippy natural wines from obscure Spanish producers. The kitchen and bar face each other across a narrow room that fills nightly with the particular hum of people who came for good wine and stayed for better food.
- Wine Enthusiast 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Time Out 2026 · The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
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Rank 33. Bien Cuit
French Bakery
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Rank 34. Dons Bogam
Korean
At Dons Bogam, table-side grills and attentive service create the illusion of indulgence without the smoke. Pork belly glazed in red wine arrives supremely tender; the beef platter pairs thinly sliced galbi with meaty king trumpet mushrooms. A vented room and cheerful bar make this Koreatown spot feel less like a casual barbecue joint and more like a deliberate occasion.
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Rank 37. Sempre Oggi
Italian
The dining room sprawls across the Upper West Side like a gallery, all soaring ceilings and gilded sculpture. Sempre Oggi executes the Italian canon—house-made rigatoni with guanciale and roasted tomato, calamari brightened with herbs and crème fraîche—with enough precision to justify the grandeur, while a properly fluffy tiramisu closes things out with classical comfort.
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Rank 38. Barawine
Contemporary
Fabrice Warin's dining room on Lenox Avenue draws in passersby with whitewashed walls that do double duty as wine racks, a communal bar, and a quieter back space where the mood settles. The menu refuses easy categories—quinoa salads and braised lamb shanks coexist without apology, each executed with equal conviction.
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Rank 39. Dubrovnik
Croatian
A Michelin-selected Croatian restaurant where custom woodwork matches the kitchen's precision—branzino from the wood-fired grill arrives with smoky vegetables and broccoli rabe risotto. Live music some nights adds to the appeal of this New Rochelle find.
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Rank 40. Boro6 Wine Bar
Wine Bar
Soft jazz drifts through a marble-countered room in Hastings-on-Hudson where Paul DiBari's kitchen turns out hand-cut pasta with ricotta and tomatoes, brasato braised in red wine, rillettes studded with pork confit. The wine list matches the ambition of the cooking, and servers move with the unhurried grace of people who understand that civilization requires patience.
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Rank 41. OKO
Asian
The chef interprets Japanese cuisine through his own lens in a light-filled room where locals gather at a welcoming bar beneath soaring ceilings. An open kitchen sends out creative takes on nigiri, tempura, and hot dishes—miso black cod and crab-pork dumplings anchor a menu that rewards improvisation.
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Rank 43. Osteria Padre Pio
Campanian Italian
Chef Andrea Ingenito's Campanian kitchen produces nearly everything from scratch—wooden boards arrive laden with house-made focaccia and caponatina, while the kitchen turns out silky pappardelle and baked corvina in generous portions. The dining room feels genuinely warm, the kind of place where locals return not for novelty but for the steady, unpretentious generosity of real regional cooking.
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