The Best Seafood in Manhattan

Eric Ripert's three-Michelin-star seafood temple in Midtown runs on French technique and a quiet confidence that doesn't need to announce itself. The menu moves from nearly raw to lightly cooked, and the room, all white tablecloths and soft jazz, fills nightly with people who dressed for the occasion. The thinly pounded yellowfin tuna over foie gras toast is the dish that gets talked about. The sommelier just won North America's Best Sommelier Award, which tracks.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. AAA Five Diamonds
3. Michelin Guide 3 Stars

A former printing house in SoHo now holds one of the more decorated new tasting menus in the country: two Michelin stars and a spot on the World's 50 Best, all within its first year. César Ramirez builds a 13-course seafood-focused menu from a lifetime of detours, Mexico, Chicago, French kitchens, and long stretches in Japan, with sauces precise enough to settle any argument. The room is spare and the counter seats face the kitchen, which is exactly the point.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
3. The 50 #98 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants

Two marble counters run the length of the kitchen, fronted by mounds of ice holding oysters, clams, and Champagne in roughly equal proportion. Penny is an all-bar seafood restaurant above Claud in the East Village, and the whole point is watching things get shucked, sliced, and dressed in front of you. It landed on North America's 50 Best Restaurants list. Most seats are walk-in, so arrive before doors open if you'd like one.

1. The 50 #19 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
2. Food & Wine The Top 15 US Restaurants
3. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

White tablecloths and cream walls give Crevette the look of a classic European brasserie, but the cooking runs along the coasts of Spain and France with enough color to make you forget Manhattan is outside. This is a proper seafood restaurant, lively and full, with the bar pulling its own crowd. The team behind Lord's and Dame keeps the room humming and the martini list pointed.

1. Artful Living The Top 5 Most Stylish Restaurants in America
2. The New York Times 2025 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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

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

1. AAA Approved
2. Eater The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. The New York Times 2026 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Grub Street The 43 Best Restaurants in New York

1. AAA Three Diamonds

A raw bar lines the front of this chic seafood Mexican spot on the Upper West Side, signaling that walk-ins and solo diners are part of the plan. The menu leans marisquería, meaning the starters section deserves your full attention before anything else. The lively bar does cocktails and zero-proof drinks equally well, and the crowd tends to be locals who already know to book ahead, or didn't bother and headed straight for a stool.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The raw bar and sushi counter crown the back of the room, which tells you where things are headed before you've sat down. This is polished, seafood-forward fine dining on Park Avenue South, where the sourcing swings local and global and the preparations range from ceviche and towering platters to Japanese-inflected entrées. The Alaskan black cod with sake glaze and yuzu dashi is the kitchen at its most assured. Dress up a little.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A seafood osteria on Sixth Avenue that also happens to be a caffè, bakery, pasta lab, and gelateria, which could easily be a mess but somehow feels like a well-run corner of northern Italy. The kitchen leans on pristine fish and vegetables, with a nod toward Japanese technique that earns its place rather than announcing itself. Raw preparations are a reason to linger, and the wine list keeps markups reasonable. Ranked 34th on 50 Top Italy's list of Italian restaurants worldwide.

1. 50 Top Italy #34 · The Best Italian Restaurants In The World

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

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

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

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. Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now

1. Eater Where to Eat Brunch in New York City

1. The New York Times 2019 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

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

1. The New York Times 2015 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2015 · 1 star · Restaurant Review