The Best Seafood in Manhattan, by the Record
The best seafood in Manhattan, by the professional record: Forbes Travel Guide, AAA, and Michelin Guide have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Le Bernardin comes out on top.
César and Penny hold the next two places. Michelin Guide shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with AAA next.
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Rank 1. Le Bernardin
Seafood
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.
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Rank 2. César
Seafood
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.
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Rank 3. Penny
Seafood
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.
- 50 Best #19 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Food & Wine The Top 15 US Restaurants
- Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
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Rank 4. Crevette
Spanish-French Seafood
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.
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Rank 5. Smithereens
New England Seafood
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.
- VinePair Sommelier of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Nikita Malhotra
- The Infatuation #7 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
- Punch Best New Bartenders · Logan Rodriguez
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Rank 6. Dame
Seafood
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.
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Rank 7. Cervo's
Iberian Seafood
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.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
- The Infatuation #24 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
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Rank 8. Oceana
Modern Seafood
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Rank 9. Oceans
Seafood
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.
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- Eater The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
- Eater The Best Restaurants in Midtown
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Rank 11. San Sabino
Italian-influenced Seafood
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Rank 12. Quique Crudo
Seafood Cocktail Bar