The Best Places to Eat and Do in New York

1. The Infatuation Latkes · The Best Potato Dishes In America
2. The New York Times #92 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
3. Eater The Best Upper West Side Restaurants

1. US Coffee Championships #1 · U.S. Latte Art Championship · Piyapat "Flook" Lapteerawut
2. US Coffee Championships #7 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · John Chau Ly
3. US Coffee Championships #7 · U.S. Brewers Cup · Peace Sakulclanuwat

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.

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. The New York Times The Restaurant List

A modern Korean tasting menu tucked near the Flatiron, where the room, all soaring ceilings and low light, hums at the kind of pitch that makes a Tuesday feel like an event. The chef pulls from Korean tradition without treating it as a costume, running dry-aged fish and wood-fired lamb alongside dishes rooted in the peninsula. It holds a Michelin star, and the room on any given night suggests the regulars already knew that.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2022 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The Infatuation 11 Of The Best Donuts In America
2. Eater Best Bakery · The 2025 Eater NY Award Winners
3. The Infatuation The Best Bakeries in NYC

Velvet booths, Christofle cutlery, and a marble bar set the tone at this French tasting menu restaurant on a coveted TriBeCa corner. The chef spent years in Joël Robuchon kitchens, and the cooking shows it: classical French technique pulled toward Japanese sensibility, refined without the stiffness that usually tags along. Servers in fitted suits orbit the room with something close to telepathy. One Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Missy Robbins runs an open kitchen inside a former car body shop in East Williamsburg, which tells you something about the bones of the room before a single plate arrives. Lilia is the kind of Italian pasta restaurant where everything is handmade and the mafaldini with pink peppercorns has turned regulars into a kind of informal cult. The New York Times gave it three stars, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2016 · 3 stars · Restaurant Review
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Missy Robbins

A nose-to-tail British bistro in the Village where the duck-stuffed cabbage arrives large enough to feed a small party. The team behind Dame brought the same easy warmth here: cozy banquettes, unhurried service, and bar stools held for walk-ins even on a packed night. The menu leans into hearty English classics with just enough creative wobble to stay interesting. Food & Wine named the chef a Best New Chef in 2023, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed.

1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Ed Szymanski
2. The New York Times 2022 · 1 star · Restaurant Review
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Wine Enthusiast The Wine Restaurant Hall of Fame

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · America's Classics: New York State
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Hospitality
3. Eater The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC

Blacked-out windows and a buzzer at street level set the tone before you've eaten a bite. Pull back the curtain and you're at the counter of a yakitori omakase, a NoHo sibling to Tokyo's Torishiki, where the chef works skewers over binchotan charcoal with the focus of someone who has decided this is the only thing worth doing. The smoke becomes part of the room. One Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The Infatuation Carne Adovada Burrito · The Best Breakfast Burritos In America
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Eric See

The line forms on Third Avenue before the door unlocks, which tells you most of what you need to know about this no-reservations Vietnamese neighborhood spot in the East Village. The baguettes for the banh mi come out of the oven fresh, and the pho runs on housemade noodles. The New York Times named the banh cuon among its favorite dishes of the year, and Michelin handed it a Bib Gourmand.

1. The New York Times 2025 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. The New York Times 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in New York in 2025

A marble counter with built-in grills running quietly all evening sets the mood at this intimate tasting counter tucked behind Oiji Mi. The kitchen leans hard into luxury, stacking wagyu, uni, caviar, and truffle onto contemporary Korean courses without much apology. A dry-aging chamber sits in full view, so you watch dinner aging while you eat it. One Michelin star.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

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.

1. The New York Times 2026 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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 Art Deco lobby of 70 Pine Street leads into a dining room with soaring ceilings, marble floors, and windows that make you feel like you're eating inside a postcard. This is Michelin-starred fine dining that doesn't take itself too seriously, with a long bar, an upbeat playlist, and a kitchen running technique-driven Contemporary American cooking that somehow reads as approachable rather than intimidating. The crowd dresses up just enough to feel like they belong.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2019 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar

The Montanara Starita comes out of the kitchen lightly fried, sauced, and finished in the wood-fired oven, which is a more interesting origin story than most Midtown pizzas can claim. This Neapolitan pizza shop off Times Square is the New York branch of a Naples institution, run by a chef who grew up in the family craft. Ranked seventh on 50 Top Pizza USA, it draws a crowd that skips the tourist traps one block over and knows exactly what they came for.

1. 50 Top Pizza #29 · 50 Top Pizza World
2. 50 Top Pizza #6 · 50 Top Pizza USA
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. World's 101 Best #84 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Esquire Turf Club · The Best Martinis in America
3. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef · Caroline Schiff

A counter seat at this intimate Korean noodle bar puts you close enough to watch the pork bone broth hit the bowl, which is half the point. The menu is short and the prices are low for a Michelin-starred kitchen in the West Village. Gochu ramyun is the draw, but the kitchen moves between broth, salad, and rice with enough range that nothing feels like an afterthought.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2017 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review

A converted farmhouse in North Salem with sweeping views of actual countryside, which somehow makes the tasting menu feel earned rather than theatrical. This is a Michelin-starred modern French fine dining room with very few tables, run by a husband-and-wife team whose roots are in the south of France. The cooking is precise and quietly confident, and dessert gets its own moment to shine. Esquire named the Vesper martini among the finest in America, which is a strange fact about a farmhouse, and a good one.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Esquire Le Martini Vesper · The Best Martinis in America

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Caesar salad made tableside, prime rib carved from a rolling trolley: Daniel Boulud's French steakhouse in the Flatiron plays its classic moves with full confidence. Leather-paneled bar, walnut floors, soaring ceilings, and servers who materialize exactly when needed. The dry-aged beef comes off an oak wood grill, sauces are French, the Bordeaux list is long, and the expense accounts are ready. Ranked 34th on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. World's 101 Best #34 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The Indonesian rosewood dining room looks out at Central Park South like it was born to, which sets the tone for an upscale Italian seafood restaurant where the power-lunch crowd arrives knowing exactly what it costs to sit here. Crudo and handmade pasta anchor the menu, the kind of cooking that earns its address without making a fuss about it. Dress up; this is not a jeans situation.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The conceit here is a Korean tasting menu built around rolls, which sounds like a fusion experiment but plays out more like a revelation. Chef Sungchul Shim, who built his reputation just down the street at Kochi, runs a counter where chefs work in full view on every side, wrapping pristine fish and rice in seaweed at a deliberate pace. A Michelin star hangs over the whole thing, and the banchan tray that closes the meal earns its place.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Eight seats behind a half-moon counter, tucked past the cocktail lounge like a room that doesn't want to be found. Noda is an omakase spot with a Michelin star and a genuine speakeasy mood, dark and close, where the chef moves through each piece of nigiri with a calm precision that makes the room go quiet. A deep sake list and vintage Champagne round things out, which is either restrained luxury or showing off, depending on your table.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

The Jerusalem bagel arrives piping hot with olive oil and holds its own in a city that takes bagels personally. That confidence runs through everything at Eyal Shani's neo-Levantine restaurant in Greenwich Village, a one-Michelin-star spot where the compact room fills before the door swings open. Vegetables, seasonality, and sharing drive the menu, but the bone-in short rib tends to settle any debate about whether you needed meat.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

A subterranean New England seafood joint in the East Village where the menu runs heavily toward the ocean and the wine list follows suit, mostly whites chosen to keep pace with it. The New York Times named it among the city's best new restaurants, and the sommelier took a Next Wave Award. The celery root float has become something of a minor cult object, which tells you something about the kitchen's sense of humor.

1. VinePair Sommelier of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Nikita Malhotra
2. The New York Times 2025 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. The Infatuation #7 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants

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.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2015 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review

The corrugated metal-and-wood façade on Mott Street is hard to miss, and the inside delivers: a Thai-accented diner with rattan screens, woven bamboo, and counter seats worn smooth by regulars. Ann Redding and Matt Danzer run the kitchen, and Thai tea French toast is available all day because breakfast should not have a curfew. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, and the New York Times puts it at number 52 on its NYC list.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation #2 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
3. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City

The room where the Four Seasons once held court still has that same pull, now under Major Food Group, with tableside presentations arriving like small theatrical productions. The Grill is a fine dining steakhouse running an all-American menu of classics, the kind of place where the suits at the next table never glance at the prices. Grandiose is the right word, and the kitchen leans into it without apology.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2017 · 3 stars · Restaurant Review
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

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.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

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.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The New York Times 2014 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review

1. Time Out The best bakeries in America
2. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. NJ.com #13 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. NJ.com #4 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. NJ.com #11 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

Part restaurant, part charcuterie counter, Augustine's Salumeria is a relaxed modern Italian spot in Mamaroneck where the menu leans hard on Westchester farms and local fishermen. The kitchen turns out Italian-leaning dishes alongside nightly specials that change the calculation every time. The room feels like a neighborhood place that happens to cook with serious intention, which is a comfortable combination.

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The servers at this Italian-American red-sauce institution work the room in tuxedos, and they know it. Plush banquettes, glittering chandeliers, and mid-century classics on the menu make Carbone feel like a fever dream of 1960s New York that never cooled down. The rigatoni alla vodka is famous for a reason, the prices are serious, and getting a reservation requires planning well in advance.

1. Eater The All-Time Eater 38
2. The New York Times 2013 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Rattan light fixtures and dark wood set the mood at this Hell's Kitchen shared-plates spot, where the kitchen focuses on Southern Thai cooking. The menu runs through curries, noodle dishes, and seafood plates that lean traditional rather than trend-chasing. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod. Pre-theater crowds from nearby find it fits the timeline without feeling rushed.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times 2026 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Nate Limwong

Soft tofu is the anchor of the menu at this homestyle Korean restaurant in Koreatown, which makes a quiet case for everything that isn't barbecue. Bubbling casseroles, spicy stews, pajeon, bibimbap, and cod roe omelet fill out a menu that reads like someone's grandmother wrote it. The dining room is wood tables and close quarters, warm enough that you forget you're on 35th Street. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and on the New York Times list of the city's 100 best.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation #8 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
3. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City

There's a piano near the door, and on weekends kids actually play it while their families work through lazy breakfasts nearby. Cocina Consuelo is a supper club in Harlem built from a pandemic-era Mexican pop-up, and the home-cooking warmth masks some real kitchen ambition: masa pancakes from heirloom corn, birria over bone marrow. The New York Times named it one of the city's best new restaurants in 2025, and also called out the masa pancake among the top dishes of 2024.

1. The New York Times 2025 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The Infatuation #9 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
3. The New York Times 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in New York in 2025

The corn husk meringue has been on the menu so long it's practically load-bearing. Cosme is a fine dining Modern Mexican room in the Flatiron, dark and handsome, with a serious bar up front pouring seasonal cocktails and roomy tables behind it where the menu runs short and focused. Chef Enrique Olvera put this kitchen on the map, and it remains very much a scene, for better and occasionally for worse.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. AAA Three Diamonds
3. The New York Times 2015 · 3 stars · Restaurant Review

A quaint seafood restaurant on MacDougal where the wine list is sorted by whether you'd rather be James Bond or Austin Powers, and that tracks with everything else here. The fish and chips, a hake fillet in lacey batter, is what put the place on the map when it was still a pop-up. The menu turns with the season, the room is small and blue-and-white, and getting a table requires actual planning.

1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Ed Szymanski
2. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. International Baking Industry Expo Winner: Baguette · World Bread Awards USA · Jeremy Canut

The one decision you make at this Korean diner on Allen Street is which protein you want. Everything else arrives whether you're ready or not: rotating banchan, crispy jeon, soy-cured shrimp, the works, with refills waved over without asking. The whole thing costs $36, lunch is $19, and a coffee from the machine by the door is on the house on the way out. It's modeled on Korea's taxi driver restaurants, which is exactly the energy.

1. Eater Best New Restaurant
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

The bottle gourd for their signature lau chingri comes from the parking lot out back, which tells you most of what you need to know about this small Bangladeshi-Indian neighborhood eatery in Jersey City. The chef and her daughter run the room, the cooking is homestyle but precise, and the dish landed on a New York Times list of the year's best across the country. A James Beard semifinalist, and NJ.com's top-ranked restaurant in the state.

1. The New York Times 2025 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. NJ.com #1 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked
3. The New York Times 2026 · The Restaurant List

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. NJ.com #17 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

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

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. NJ.com #18 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

Marcus Samuelsson's Harlem soul food restaurant has had a standing reservation from the neighborhood since it opened, and the fried chicken alone explains why. The room runs loud and lively, with live music most nights pushing the vibe closer to a party than a dinner. Seasonal Southern cooking shares the menu with apple pie that manages to taste like someone's grandmother made it, which in a restaurant this size is no small thing.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Eater The All-Time Eater 38

1. Food & Wine S&P Burger · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year
2. The New York Times 2022 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Eater The Best Breakfasts in New York

1. Industry Excellence Awards Restaurant of the Year

Sapphire-blue velvet booths, caramel leather, wood floors, and a chandelier situation that would make a Gilded Age banker feel underdressed: Andrew Carmellini's fine dining room inside the Fifth Avenue Hotel is maximalist and means it. The kitchen leans Mediterranean-Italian, with dishes that have a way of arriving as formal little compositions. A James Beard semifinalist and a New York Times pick for the year's best new restaurants.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. The New York Times 2024 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America

A tiny Red Hook corner spot where the menu fits on one page and the fried halloumi, served warm over honey, made the New York Times list of top dishes. Café Kestrel runs pan-European with a French lean: terrines, duck confit, a seafood plate finished with gaufrettes. The room is casual enough for a Tuesday but pulled-together enough that you won't feel underdressed ordering dessert, which the staff will gently insist upon anyway.

1. The New York Times 2025 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Eater Restaurant We'd Most Want to Be Regulars
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Eighty-two floors above Lower Manhattan, this Forbes Five Star hotel puts you a block from the World Trade Center with views that sweep across the Oculus and the harbor beyond. The neighborhood has quietly become a proper destination, with Brookfield Place and the Westfield shops within easy reach and decent restaurants in every direction. It suits the finance crowd and the tourists who want the postcard skyline without midtown noise.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Jonathan Benno share the kitchen at this fine dining room on Park Avenue, where floor-to-ceiling windows flood the space with enough light to make the room feel both grand and surprisingly calm. The menu roams freely from French to Italian to Asian without apology, landing each time with precise technique. The New York Times and Esquire both named it among their best new restaurants in 2024.

1. The New York Times 2025 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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

The British steakhouse import near Gramercy that made New York carnivores feel slightly underdressed. The room leans into a warm, vintage-century-club atmosphere, and the menu runs from serious cuts to the kind of British comfort food that sneaks up on you. The bar program is no afterthought, landing a regional Spirited Award and a James Beard semifinalist nod for beverages. A New York Times Critic's Pick, and reliably easier to love than the places that take themselves more seriously.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Esquire Ultimate Vodka Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

The ceiling is covered in thousands of clay churchwarden pipes, each one claimed by a regular who never came back to collect it. Keens is an old-school Manhattan steakhouse in Midtown, all dark wood and white tablecloths, and the mutton chop alone has landed on the New York Times list of the city's defining dishes. The porterhouse is USDA Prime, dry-aged in-house, and broiled without apology. It sits at number 68 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

1. World's 101 Best #68 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. AAA Three Diamonds
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Timeless U.S. Award

Fourteen seats around a charcoal counter in the back of Chinatown's Canal Arcade, where every course of the yakitori omakase is built around a chicken that gives up everything. The chef coaxes cuts most menus never mention, oyster, heart, cartilage, into something precise and quiet. The New York Times gave it three stars, and a James Beard nomination for Best Chef followed. Wear something that can take a little smoke.

1. The New York Times 2022 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Atsushi Kono
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Atsushi Kono

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery
2. The Infatuation The Best Bakeries in NYC
3. The Infatuation The Best Croissants In NYC

Plastic stools, plastic tables, and a fermented shrimp paste so funky it has its own gravitational pull, this is a Vietnamese restaurant on the Lower East Side that draws a crowd large enough to colonize the sidewalk and occasionally a neighboring storefront. The menu runs through stuffed snails, grilled intestines, and frog sausage with the tiny bones crushed in. The New York Times placed it 26th on their 100 Best Restaurants in New York City list.

1. The New York Times 2023 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The Infatuation #5 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
3. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City

Melba Wilson, a born-and-bred Harlemite, named this Southern comfort restaurant after herself, which sets the tone immediately. Fried chicken with eggnog waffles is the move, and a fruit cobbler that has no business being that good closes things out. The room feels like a gathering spot rather than a destination, warm and unhurried in a way that explains the James Beard nominations for Outstanding Hospitality two years running.

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Hospitality
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality

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.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times 2022 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City

The smoked fish counter on Orchard Street has been an institution since forever, and Russ & Daughters is the appetizing shop New York trots out whenever it needs to prove a point. White-jacketed servers, a pristine deli case, egg creams, bagels, and Scottish salmon done multiple ways. The Michelin Bib Gourmand nod keeps it honest: the food is the whole point, and the regulars at the counter have known that for years.

1. The New York Times 2014 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. Eater The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC

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.

1. The New York Times 2023 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Ayesha Nurdjaja
2. The New York Times 2021 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. The New York Times #69 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City

Honey-toned wood and bamboo slats are as decorative as this midtown sushiya gets, which is pretty much the whole statement. An old-school omakase counter where the itamae in front of you sets the tone entirely, Sushi Yasuda runs on classical instincts and zero interest in trends. They require a confirmation call and expect you on time, which regulars treat as basic manners rather than a hardship. Counter seats toward the far end are the ones to request.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Eater The Best Sushi Restaurants in Manhattan

Wood smoke hangs in the air the moment you walk into this Fort Greene seafood restaurant, which should tell you something about how the kitchen operates. Chef Tomer Blechman anchors the menu around dry-aged fish and open-fire cooking, pulling from a Mediterranean pantry that keeps things interesting without announcing itself. The bar draws a crowd that clearly has opinions about natural wine, and the pita alone justifies showing up early.

1. VinePair Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
2. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. The New York Times 2022 · 3 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. The New York Times The Restaurant List

The cured olive cookie has been living rent-free in regulars' heads for years, which tells you something about this East Village espresso bar. Abraço roasts its own, keeps laptops out, and occasionally pivots to cocktails for evening music events, which is either a flex or just very New York. The room fills fast on weekends, the bites are small and creative, and the whole operation runs with a neighborhood-institution energy that's genuinely hard to fake.

1. Time Out #3 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in New York City
3. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In NYC

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.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The New York Times #17 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
3. Grub Street The 40 Best Restaurants for Kids (and Parents!)

The "Laundromat" sign from the old tenant is still up out front, which means half the neighborhood has walked past a very good French bistro without knowing it. Inside, brick walls and vintage furniture set a mood that feels broken-in rather than designed, and the menu leans on Northeast ingredients for a modern French run through small plates and proper mains. Greenpoint regulars who've found it tend not to share the address.

1. The New York Times 2026 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The Infatuation The 21 Best New Restaurants In NYC

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.

1. Esquire MSG Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Calvin Eng
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. The New York Times 2026 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in Brooklyn Right Now
3. The Infatuation The 21 Best New Restaurants In NYC

A marble staircase leads to this fine dining jewel box above Madison Avenue, where the whole point is caviar and the menu makes no apologies about it. Tins range from a modest Pacific Sturgeon scoop to Osetra by the 500 gram, priced accordingly. The French-inflected menu runs prix fixe or à la carte, with dishes like Dover sole in curry cream that somehow feel restrained given everything else going on.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Mosaic tiles, warm wood, and a room where everyone is happily crammed elbow to elbow set the scene at this Iberian seafood spot on Canal Street. The kitchen draws from the coastal traditions of Spain and Portugal, leaning into briny, bright flavors without apology. The fish preparations are the reason to come. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, and Bon Appétit once named it among America's best new restaurants.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times 2017 · 1 star · Restaurant Review
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

The wood-burning oven runs the show at this Italian restaurant tucked inside the Manhattan West development, where everything from onion torta to pasta passes through its heat. It's a Danny Meyer production, so the room is handsome and the service moves like it has somewhere to be. The chef keeps the menu generous and designed for sharing. The New York Times named it among the 100 best restaurants in the city.

1. The New York Times 2022 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The New York Times #84 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City

The dry-aging locker runs along the front window so you see the USDA Prime slabs before you even open the door, which is a very Gallaghers way of setting expectations. This old-school Midtown steakhouse has been around forever, and the walls of jockey photos and the rolling dessert cart are not ironic. Hickory-grilled steaks, creamed spinach, a bar that hums, and a menu that still winks at Prohibition. Ranked among the World's Best Steak Restaurants.

1. World's 101 Best #87 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. AAA Three Diamonds
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Pendant lights strung with thick grass ropes and a gleaming marble bar signal that this is a fine dining Indian restaurant with a point of view, not just a curry house in a jacket. The kitchen has a taste for unexpected combinations and sharp presentation, with the menu moving across regions rather than playing it safe. Flatiron regulars who know to book ahead fill tables that have been sought-after for years.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A U-shaped bar anchors this Danish coffee shop, where streamlined taps for cold drinks share space with a proper V60 setup and a counter lined with pastries worth stopping for. La Cabra built a following in Copenhagen before planting roots on the Lower East Side, and the East Village original still draws a crowd that treats croissants and a carefully pulled espresso as a reasonable reason to leave the house.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in New York City
2. The Infatuation The Best Bakeries in NYC
3. Eater The Best Croissants in NYC

The olive-green velvet and marble floors aren't decorating choices so much as a thesis statement: this is a French fine-dining room where the vegetables are the point and the fish and meat play supporting roles. The chef builds a produce-driven tasting menu with the kind of seasonal precision that makes a lemon tart with tarragon ice cream feel inevitable rather than precious. Midtown somehow disappears entirely once you're inside.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Every bagel here comes out hot, and that's non-negotiable. This Greenwich Village bagel shop forgoes the plastic knife entirely: you rip, you dip into one of several cream cheeses pulled straight from the fridge, and that's the deal. The bagels run smaller and darker than the New York standard, which will either bother you or convert you. The New York Times and Eater have both put it on their short lists, so the line is rarely short.

1. The New York Times The 17 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now
2. BagelUp #2 · The Definitive 30 Best Bagel Shops in New York City
3. The Infatuation #6 · The 19 Best Bagels In NYC, Ranked

1. Time Out #4 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in New York City
3. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide to Coffee in North Brooklyn

Sweeping ceilings, a marble bar, and an open kitchen visible from the dining room signal what Tamarind is before you've opened the menu. This is Indian fine dining in Tribeca, the kind of room that cost real money to build and hasn't forgotten it. The cooking is region-spanning and precise, with the tandoor doing serious work throughout. Service is unhurried and professional, and the crowd tends toward the quietly well-dressed.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Jackets are required, which should tell you everything about the register here. This fine dining landmark sits right under the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Manhattan skyline fills the windows the way a painting would if you couldn't afford the real thing. The prix fixe menu is formal and unhurried, the waitstaff operate with genuine poise, and couples have been proposing at these tables for decades.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2014 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Glowing jars of preserved lemons and backlit wine bottles line the walls at this warm California-Mediterranean brasserie near 26th Street, which has the feel of a very well-dressed farmhouse. The menu leans into the kind of sun-soaked, produce-forward cooking that makes New York briefly forget it's New York. The room fills with people who know exactly what they're doing here, which is a compliment.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The New York Times 2015 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Newsprint wallpaper lines the hallway at this perpetually packed East Village Indian canteen, which relocated from Queens and came back louder. The kitchen runs on fierce seasoning and ornate presentations, often arriving in Le Creuset Dutch ovens that make the table feel like a small occasion. Order rice, order the crispy parathas, and plan to use them both. A Michelin Selected restaurant with a loyal following that doesn't really need to be told to come back.

1. The New York Times 2018 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

A fish sauce martini is either the best idea you've heard all week or the reason you're leaving, which is a pretty good filter for this Vietnamese-French bistro on Eldridge. The menu swings between leeks vinaigrette with mussels and vol-au-vent loaded with chilis and seafood. Getting a table means arriving before doors open to join the waitlist, which the regulars already knew.

1. The New York Times 2026 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The New York Times 2026 · The Restaurant List
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Eater The Best Steakhouses in New York City

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer

Scarlet curtains climbing toward the ceiling set the scene at this Tao Group steakhouse in Chelsea, where the room commits fully to the bit. Melissa Rodriguez runs the kitchen, and the custom grill sears cuts edge to edge while a long roster of vegetable sides keeps things honest. The desserts punch well above the steakhouse average. A thoughtful wine list and servers who actually know how to pace a table round out the package.

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

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

The dark checkerboard floor and blue-gray leather banquettes make this West Village dining room feel like a romantic fever dream someone actually built. Don Angie is a creative Italian restaurant where the team bends the genre cheerfully, folding in fried rice and mezcal-braised chicken alongside handmade pastas without any of it feeling like a gimmick. The room fills with people who booked weeks out and don't regret it.

1. The New York Times 2018 · 2 stars · Restaurant Review
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli

1. The New York Times 2022 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
3. Grub Street The 43 Best Restaurants in New York

The ticket system is real: you get one at the door, you guard it with your life, and the men at the counter are not interested in your confusion. Katz's is an old-school Lower East Side deli that has been feeding New York pastrami sandwiches longer than most buildings around it have been standing. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which feels about right for a place where nobody is pretending to be anything.

1. AAA Approved
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. The Infatuation Pastrami Sandwich · 25 Iconic Dishes That Define New York