The Best Places in New York

1. NJ.com #10 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Time Out #1 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in Queens Right Now

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

1. Eater The Best New Bars in New York City
2. Eater The Best New Cocktail Bars in New York City

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Jennifer Vitagliano and Nicole Vitagliano - Elizabeth Street Hospitality

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in Brooklyn Right Now

1. The New York Times The 17 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now

A second-floor cocktail bar on Avenue B where the team came up through Death & Company and it shows. The bartenders here are the kind who can build a Jack Rose, hold a real conversation, and remember what you ordered last time, all without breaking stride. Classic cocktails done with the focus of people who treat the work seriously but aren't precious about it.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

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

You order at the door, grab a table, and the pizza shows up without ceremony, which is exactly the point at this Greenpoint slice shop. The dough is soft and light in the way Neapolitan purists get worked up about, and the toppings stay out of each other's way. The bruschetta with honey and ricotta is a small, sweet detour worth taking. Ranked 32nd on 50 Top Pizza USA, Salsa keeps things casual enough that nobody feels underdressed.

1. 50 Top Pizza #32 · 50 Top Pizza USA

1. The New York Times 2026 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

1. Eater The Best New Bars in New York City
2. Eater The Best New Cocktail Bars in New York City

1. NJ.com #8 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in Queens Right Now

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

1. Eater The Best New Bars in New York City
2. Eater The Best New Cocktail Bars in New York City

1. NJ.com #2 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

A pre-war cellar beneath the Flatiron that once hosted a gambling den is now a cocktail bar with avant-garde techniques and presentations critics have called sippable art. The room has the bones of a genuine speakeasy, and the drinks menu leans into that drama hard, with smoke, science, and ceremony that would feel overwrought somewhere less atmospheric. A good spot for a first date, assuming you want them slightly impressed.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in Queens Right Now

1. The Infatuation The Best Bakeries in NYC
2. The Infatuation Black and White Cookie · 25 Iconic Dishes That Define New York

1. The Infatuation The Best Bakeries in NYC
2. The Infatuation The Best Asian Dessert Spots In NYC

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in Queens Right Now

1. NJ.com #16 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. NJ.com #48 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. Time Out #8 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #38 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. Eater Where to Eat Brunch in New York City
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Soho

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #21 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. NJ.com #39 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #30 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. NJ.com #25 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

The rice noodles here are stubby and chewy rather than the thin, rippling sheets you'd find elsewhere in Chinatown, and that texture is the whole point. Chang Lai is a tiny Cantonese noodle shop on Bayard where the regulars from the old street cart days have simply followed the owners indoors. Curry fish balls and noodles with all the sauces will run you around five dollars, which leaves you no excuse not to go twice.

1. Eater The Best Breakfasts in New York
2. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Chinatown

1. NJ.com #49 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. NJ.com #14 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

The name is a nod to a Prohibition-era collective that disguised speakeasy maps as temperance posters, which tells you exactly the kind of commitment to the bit you're walking into. Death & Co is a proper cocktail bar on a quiet East Village block, dark and close and serious about what's in your glass. The crowd leans dressed-up without being showy, and the bartenders talk about spirits the way sommeliers talk about Burgundy.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Time Out #9 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Time Out #6 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC

1. Time Out #9 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC

1. Time Out #7 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC

1. NJ.com #37 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

Inside Grand Central Terminal, this vast all-day French brasserie runs from the pre-dawn commuter rush straight through to a late-night dinner crowd, 365 days a year. The scale is genuinely staggering, which means walk-ins are usually fine, a minor miracle in Midtown. The menu swings from a lobster omelet at breakfast to classic brasserie fare at dinner, with the room itself doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

1. Eater The Best Breakfasts in New York
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Midtown

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #32 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

One of the last dim sum parlors in Chinatown still rolling carts through the dining room, House of Joy fills fast on weekends, and the wait outside can stretch past an hour if you don't arrive early. Worth the patience: plates of rice noodles, pineapple buns, and chicken feet run a few dollars each, and the room itself, loud and bustling and completely unbothered by trends, does most of the convincing.

1. Eater Where to Eat Brunch in New York City
2. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Chinatown

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · David Viana

1. AAA Approved

Taking the elevator to the sixth floor of a commercial building off Union Square is a strange way to find a kaiseki omakase, which is probably the point. The chef spent years at the cult Japanese spot Kyo Ya before opening this one, and the room lands somewhere between chic Tokyo penthouse and relaxed dinner party, with the city glittering through the windows. The courses are elaborate and precise; the mood, somehow, is not.

1. The New York Times #24 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
2. The New York Times 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in New York in 2025

The Steinway location of this Astoria coffee shop is wedged into a cheese-wedge-shaped room with a reclaimed-wood window bar that's made for watching the neighborhood go by. Kinship roasts its own beans nearby and pulls seasonal espresso drinks alongside pastries from Balthazar and cookies from The Good Batch. A round communal table anchors the middle, and the whole thing has the unhurried energy of a place run by people who actually live on the block.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide to Coffee in Queens, New York

The cheese-wedge-shaped room is the first thing you notice, followed by the reclaimed-wood window bar and the Steinway Street foot traffic rolling past it. Kinship is a neighborhood coffee shop that roasts its own beans nearby, and the seasonal drinks menu keeps regulars guessing. Pastries come from Balthazar, cookies from The Good Batch, and the whole operation has the warm, slightly chaotic energy of a place run by people who actually live on the block.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide to Coffee in Queens, New York

1. Vogue A Definitive Guide to the Best Omakase in New York City

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #23 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

A three-meals-a-day French brasserie on Upper Broadway, close enough to Columbia that the booth next to you is probably arguing philosophy. The room pulls in Francophiles, rumpled academics, and students from everywhere, giving it a genuine Left Bank café energy without anyone having to board a plane. Classic French cooking, a lively corner of the neighborhood, and no particular need to dress up.

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

The tavern name comes from Henry Lee, whose riding so impressed George Washington that he earned the nickname Light Horse Harry. Centuries later, the beautifully restored dining room and street terrace in downtown Jersey City draw a neighborhood crowd for lobster rolls, shrimp po boys, crab cakes, and fried clam baskets, plus burgers when the mood calls for it. A casual American tavern that takes its history seriously but not its dress code.

1. AAA Approved

1. Eater The Best Breakfasts in New York
2. Eater The Best Restaurants Around Times Square

Cash only, no reservations, and a line down Henry Street most nights: Lucali has been a Carroll Gardens institution long enough that the wait has become part of the lore. It's a small, candle-lit pizza shop serving large pies and calzones, nothing more. The dough is soft and thin in the New York tradition, and the room is the kind of quietly charming that makes two hours feel reasonable.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias

1. NJ.com #41 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

The back lounge is velvet, laptop-free, and clearly the whole point. Melting Cups is a Black-owned coffee shop a short walk from Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, pouring Sey Coffee with pastries by day and pivoting to wine and beer come evening. A few tables out front catch the street; the cozy back room is for books, crosswords, or actual conversation, which is a quietly radical offer in 2024.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide to Coffee in Queens, New York

Iced towers of oysters roll through the dining room at a pace that suggests the kitchen has a tide chart. This is a big, loud seafood restaurant a short walk from the Broadway theaters, so the crowd swings from pre-curtain nervous energy to post-curtain relief, and the staff somehow keep both waves moving. Clam chowder, lobster rolls, and fried calamari hold down the menu alongside the raw bar.

1. AAA Approved

The wood-fired oven is the first thing you see when you walk into this Astoria pizzeria, and the pies that come out of it lean modern and loose rather than strictly Neapolitan. The dough is light, the toppings are chosen with care, and the beer list keeps pace with the casual, come-as-you-are room. Milkflower has its own creative logic and doesn't apologize for it, which is half the reason the neighborhood keeps showing up.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias

1. Time Out #5 · The 21 very best coffee shops in NYC

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #31 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

Oak-paneled walls and Art Deco bones give this seafood bar and grill the feel of a Manhattan that existed before Madison Square Garden became a tourist landmark. The menu leans hard into oysters, Little Neck clams, and lobster rolls, with a beer list long enough to keep the IPA faithful occupied. It draws the kind of crowd that knows exactly where it's going in a neighborhood where most people are just trying to find the arena.

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. NJ.com #20 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

The bar room here was once a pharmacy, and the old apothecary shelves now hold bottles of wine and spirits where the remedies used to be. It's a multi-floor pizza and pasta spot in Jersey City with a rooftop that looks back at the New York skyline you just escaped. The pizzas follow Italian tradition, the spaghetti has its fans, and the music keeps the whole thing moving at a pace that feels deliberately un-Manhattan.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias

1. NJ.com #45 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. NJ.com #45 · New Jersey’s 99 greatest restaurants, ranked

1. AAA Approved

1. The New York Times 2012 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

A short walk from the Staten Island Ferry, this old-school steakhouse keeps the lights low, the wood dark, and the ambitions firmly on the plate. Dry-aged steaks anchor the menu, with oysters close behind. No spectacle, no trend-chasing, just that particular outer-borough calm that suggests the room has been quietly holding its ground for a very long time and sees no reason to stop.

1. AAA Approved