The Best Restaurants in Staten Island

A whole snapper, deep-fried twice for a crunch audible from across the room, arriving upright as if still swimming, tells you everything about what kind of soul food restaurant this is. Six tables on Staten Island, pitchers of rum punch and sangria on nearly all of them, and a dining room that always feels like a party that forgot to wait for a reason. The New York Times named it one of New York's best new restaurants in 2024.

1. The New York Times 2024 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List
3. The New York Times 2024 · New York’s 14 Best New Restaurants of 2024

Murals, sculptures, and flags cover every surface floor to ceiling, so you've found the place before you've read the sign. Lakruwana is a Sri Lankan restaurant on Staten Island where street food drives the menu, the room runs loud and colorful, and the owner works every table like it's a reunion. The New York Times put it on their 100 Best Restaurants in New York City list, which tracks for a room this unignorable.

1. The New York Times 2013 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The New York Times #93 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The menu changes nightly because the cook changes nightly, a rotating cast of nonnas from around the world who each bring their own country's food to this tiny, always-packed Staten Island restaurant. One evening it's Paraguayan chicken soup with cornmeal dumplings; the next, a Japanese seaweed salad with yuzu. The phone rings constantly, the tables fill fast, and Joe Scaravella's little place near St. George Terminal runs entirely on grandmotherly authority.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. The New York Times 2018 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review