The 19 Best Wine Bars in New York

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.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Winner · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
3. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Bottles line every wall and stack to the ceiling on Doyers Street, which tells you what you're in for at this tiny Chinatown wine bar before you've even sat down. The team pairs a well-chosen, offbeat list with smart modern Chinese food, and the room fills fast enough that tables spill into the alley. It won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2026, which the elbow-to-elbow crowd seems to have already known for a while.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best New Restaurant
2. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Chinese Restaurant Awards Top 20 Honourees · Elite 12 United States

Pascaline Lepeltier, one of a handful of Master Sommeliers in the world, built the wine list here, and it shows: back vintages, unexpected producers, prices that don't require a quiet moment alone with your bank app. The food runs from composed salads to fresh pasta, all of it seasonal and sharper than the "wine bar snacks" framing might suggest. A James Beard nominee for its beverages program, and sitting at number 29 on the Times' 100 Best list.

1. The New York Times 2022 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

On some nights, the menu at this tiny Lower East Side wine bar runs almost entirely on toast, sometimes composed, sometimes a hunk of baguette left for you to figure out. The kitchen gestures toward France and Vietnam without committing to either, and the eggs mayo spiked with Maggi and trout roe has caused some embarrassing arguments about egg dishes. Stools, minimal lighting, a short pours list. Bon Appétit named it one of America's best new restaurants.

1. The New York Times 2025 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Wine Enthusiast Top 50 New Restaurants
3. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America

Magnums of natural wine lean toward empty glasses and conversations bounce off metallic high-tops in a low-ceilinged room that feels more like someone's dinner party than a restaurant. This Lower East Side wine bar runs on eclectic small plates and a list that skews biodynamic and organic, with a vibe that's deliberately, unapologetically Parisian. The New York Times gave it two stars, and Wine Enthusiast put it on its Forward 50 list.

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. The New York Times 2015 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

1. Time Out #2 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC
2. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In NYC

Marble bar, soft jazz, and a wine list that quietly suggests someone here knows what they're doing. This intimate wine bar in Hastings-on-Hudson draws a Westchester crowd that has clearly tired of driving into the city for a civilized night out. The kitchen punches well above its zip code, with a short, focused menu that earns the Bib Gourmand. Come ready to linger; the servers seem to expect it.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A natural wine bar on East Seventh Street where the list leans hard into Eastern Europe and the sommeliers can talk about it all night. The food menu is short and rotates, which keeps the regulars genuinely curious. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the room, split between a communal high-top and a quieter dining area, fills up fast enough that a reservation is less optional than it sounds.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times 2016 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

The kitchen here runs without a proper gas stove, which makes the lamb ragu over house-made spätzle even more worth puzzling over. Sami & Susu is a narrow Mediterranean wine bar on Orchard Street, with a short seasonal menu that wanders the Middle East, a natural wine list, and a punky soundtrack. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the staff seem genuinely unbothered by how much you order.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The custom woodwork lining Dubrovnik's dining room was built next door, in the owner's cabinetry shop, and it shows. This Mediterranean wine bar on a commercial stretch of New Rochelle draws a loyal crowd for dishes off the wood-burning oven and grill, and on certain nights, live Croatian music fills the room. The Michelin Guide has taken notice. Bring someone who enjoys lingering.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A neighborhood wine bar on Worth Street that shares a cellar with the fine-dining temple next door, which tells you something about how seriously the team takes the bottle list. The food goes well past bar snacks: salmon tartare with potato chips for crunch, pasta shaped like a crown and stuffed with lobster in dashi broth. Tribeca locals have clearly noticed, and the room fills accordingly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Grub Street The 43 Best Restaurants in New York
2. Eater The Best Lower East Side Restaurants

1. Wine Enthusiast Top 50 New Restaurants

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. AAA Approved

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1. Grub Street The 43 Best Restaurants in New York