140 Best Restaurants in New York City, New York

Even with long waits and loud noise levels, most people agree that it's worth the effort (make reservations) to experience restaurateur Keith McNally's flagship, a perfectly New York reproduction of a Parisian brasserie. Like the decor, entrées recreate French classics: Gruyère-topped onion soup, steak frites, and icy tiers of crab, oysters, and other pristine shellfish.

This East Village dining institution, which has been serving standout Moroccan cuisine in a date-friendly, candlelit atmosphere since 1983, still draws crowds for dinner, lunch, and brunch. Start with an order of creamy hummus to share, then dig into one of the classic couscous dishes, tajine stews, or tasty kebabs.

In the Neue Galerie, this stately coffeehouse—open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—offers a Viennese café experience, with art deco furnishings; a selection of daily newspapers; and cases with cakes and strudels. The menu of heartier sandwiches and goulash or sausage dishes is under the direction of German-born executive chef Christopher Engel, who worked at Wallsé and Aureole, earning Michelin stars. Prix-fixe dinners are occasionally followed by a cabaret performance. Museumgoers and locals love to linger over coffee—it's sometimes a challenge to find a seat (a less aesthetically pleasing outpost of the café is in the basement). 

At this casual retro-diner restaurant, weekend brunch brings a line down the street for what many believe to be the best blueberry pancakes in the city, if not the whole country. Lunch and dinner options include a variety of burgers, sandwiches, and salads—and you can get those pancakes at dinner, too, without as long a wait.

The all-American junk-food staple is elevated to high art here, with fresh seasonal ingredients, real fruit, and imported chocolate mixed into the batter. Traditionalists croon over the vanilla-bean doughnut, but there are plenty of exotic flavors to tempt taste buds: the dense, fudgy Blackout is covered in crumb topping; carrot-cake doughnuts have a cream-cheese filling. Choosing is the difficult part: options include cake doughnuts and yeast doughnuts, as well as "doughseeds." There are other locations around the five boroughs.

If you're feeling peckish in this hurried neighborhood, slip into a favorite Manhattan café and bagel bakery that has been serving authentic family-style comfort since 1976. There's a selection of jumbo, kosher bagels onto which toppings are piled high, or choose from a variety of salads, sandwiches, and fresh-baked treats available all day.

Everything and nothing has changed at Katz's since it first opened in 1888, when the neighborhood was dominated by Jewish immigrants: lines still form for the giant, hand-carved corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, soul-warming soups, juicy hot dogs, and crisp half-sour pickles. You get a ticket when you walk in and then get it punched at the various stations where you pick up your food; don't lose it, or you'll have to pay the lost-ticket fee.

The New York outpost of the 134-year-old pizzeria in Naples that the travel memoir "Eat, Pray, Love" single-handedly turned into a must-visit stop on the tourist trail, this West Village pizzeria opened in late 2022 and has managed to quickly become one of the best Neapolitan-style pizzerias in the city. The menu here is much more expansive than the original, treading into all-encompassing trattoria fare, such as pastas and salads, but stick to the classic Margherita pie and you'll walk out of here a very happy eater.

Despite the name—"La Cabra" means "The Goat" in Spanish—this diminutive coffee place is a caffeinated Danish powerhouse that really packs a flavor punch. The coffee supplier for many of the Michelin-starred restaurants in Denmark, La Cabra is anchored in the East Village for extraordinary cumin buns and dazzlingly delicious high-quality coffee in form of espressos and pour-overs. 

A nod to Midtown's famed, former Legacy Recording Studios, this chic eatery with a focus on the cuisine of northern Italy is well worth a far-west-side walk to the edge of Hudson Yards. The culinary dream team here also operates downtown's Charlie Bird and Pasquale Jones restaurants, bringing the talents of chef Ryan Hardy to these deco-style tables. Hardy focuses on the north's coastal regions and offers a crudo tasting menu, as well as more inventive dishes inspired by remote locales across Italy. The small bites and larger plates are sensational, elevated by the tantalizing cocktail program and enormous wine selection. The restaurant has a casual elegance thanks to its homey wood, leather, and brass details, with a compact dining room, lovely U-shape bar, and upstairs lounge (with limited hours).

With its green-and-white-striped awning, this place looks like a vintage grocery store, but don't let that fool you. This a buzzy bistro from restaurateur Andrew Tarlow is a destination for in-the-know foodies, featuring locavore cuisine on two different menus. The grab-and-go daytime menu includes pastries, gourmet sandwiches, and salads, while the sit-down night menu features creative plates celebrating the bounties of local fishermen and farmers. 

Tucked between Park and Madison on 50th Street, this deco-inspired brasserie is a pretty pastel setting for a business breakfast or postshopping lunch and a flirty and chic destination for dinner. The vibes are lavish and retro; think: Miami, Mrs. Maisel, and an ever-so-elegant cruise ship, with curved banquettes, multilevel dining areas, a curved marble bar with tall geometric back, brass accents, globe lights, soft pinks and blues, and altogether lots of visual drama. Once seated, the drama continues with an expertly manned Martini Cart and tableside visits for carving and flambéing (and subsequent oohing and aahing). By night, the elegant crowd is swaying to the music at the lively bar, teetering on the edge of dancing, and you'd want to join them if you weren't saving yourself for the decadent Bananas Foster.

A quaint, whitewashed facade highlighted by a colorful vegetable mural gives a hint of what lies within at this sustainability-minded and kosher café: produce-forward dishes, including farm-sourced grain bowls, shakshuka (eggs in a spicy tomato sauce), salads, and sandwiches like the tasty tofu banh mi, plus homemade baked goods. Indoor seating is limited, but outdoor seating is on a relatively quiet and picturesque side street.

Long a mainstay in the Meatpacking District, Pastis shut down and reopened in this spacious new location in 2019 to much fanfare. The place looks like it's been here for decades and has all the signature Keith McNally elements: smoky mirrors, a long curving bar, floor-to-ceiling windows, and white subway tiles. French favorites are front and center, including toothsome steak frites with béarnaise, mussels steamed in Pernod, and a tasty apple tartlet with phyllo crust. The people-watching is stellar, and there's still a good chance you'll see a celebrity or two. Tables outside in nice weather are prime real estate. Locals and visitors are still drawn to this neighborhood mainstay so it gets busy at mealtimes.

Named for a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, there really isn't anything particularly Brazilian about this diminutive, all-day corner café. In the morning and afternoon, perch yourself at the bar for superlative coffee, excellent egg-y dishes, sandwiches, and variations on the theme of toast. In the evening, the lights go down, the natural wine bottles get uncorked, and the kitchen churns out Mediterranean-leaning snacks to nibble on.