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$$$ | Greenwich Village |
Perpetually packed, Italian-leaning Charlie Bird is the brainchild of sommelier Robert Bohr, who was in charge of wine at vino-mad Cru, and chef Ryan Hardy, who made a name for himself at Little Nell in Aspen and has been the private chef for Jay-Z and Beyoncé (not surprisingly, the restaurant has a hip-hop theme). The menu is divided into small and large plates, vegetables, a "raw" section, and pasta. The uni-loaded duck-egg spaghetti marries surf 'n' turf in a deeply satisfying way, while the Roman pasta dish cacio e pepe is one of the best versions this side of the Atlantic.
5 King St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- The preferred spot of "cool kids" everywhere
- Hip-hop on the Hi-Fi
- Varied menu
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. No lunch Tues.--Thurs., Reservations essential
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$$$ | Greenwich Village |
This British-leaning eatery began life as a pandemic-era pop-up mostly serving fish-and-chips. It didn't take long for the city's fooderati to figure out that oh-so-English snack was nearly revelatory here, maybe the best version outside of England. Today, Dame is a permanent fixture on MacDougal Street and serving more than just ultraflakey fish and crispy chips. The menu changes regularly but expect excellent dishes like pan-seared monkfish paired with lentils and bacon, smoked whitefish croquettes, and flakey fish pie. For a meatier take on British food, check out sibling restaurant Lord's, a few blocks away at 506 LaGuardia Place.
87 MacDougal St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Fish-and-chips
- Seafood-heavy menu
- Eccentric wine list
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed weekends. No lunch
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$$ | Greenwich Village |
Few guidebooks list this classic New York pizzeria, yet the jam-packed room and pleasantly smoky scent foreshadow a satisfying meal. There's a full menu of Italian classics, but pizza is the main event, and the thin-crust beauties are cooked in a coal-fired oven, to emerge sizzling with simple toppings like pepperoni, sausage, and eggplant. Monday through Thursday, you can call ahead to reserve a table; weekends, be prepared to wait and salivate. If you like the whimsical paintings that plaster the walls, ask the waiter the price: they're for sale.
106 W. Houston St., New York, New York, 10012-2529, USA
Known For
- Classic Big Apple pizza
- Wacky art on the walls
- No reservations on weekends, so long waits
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch
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$$$ | Greenwich Village |
It shouldn't take more than one bite of tender barbecue squab to understand why it's so hard to get a reservation at this casually elegant restaurant, whose menu strays widely from Italian standards and hits numerous high points in dishes such as rabbit with Brussels sprouts and house-made pancetta. This is the perfect spot for a raucous celebratory dinner with flowing wine and festive banter. But be forewarned: if anyone in your party is hard of hearing or bothered by loud rock music, choose someplace more sedate.
110 Waverly Pl., New York, New York, 10011-9102, USA
Known For
- Palate-pleasing house-made pastas
- Loud, questionable music
- Great Italian wine list
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch Sun., Mon., Credit cards accepted, Reservations essential
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$$ | Greenwich Village |
There's something about Bar Pitti that, in this city jam-packed with Italian restaurants, feels much more authentically Italian than its pasta-serving brethren. Maybe it's the servers who prefer speaking Italian if they find out you can say a few words, and who show up at your table with a chalkboard scribbled with the daily offerings (written in Italian, of course). Perhaps it's the simple, but flavor-bursting pasta dishes; maybe it's that they only take cash. Or perhaps it's all of the above. In warm-weather months nab an outdoor table and don't be surprise if an A-list celeb is sitting at the next table.
268 6th Ave., New York, New York, 10014, USA
Known For
- Frequent celebrity diners
- Fresh-off-the-boat Italian staff
- Sidewalk dining
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Recommended Fodor’s Video
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$$$ | Greenwich Village |
This tasteful den of a restaurant—formerly a speakeasy—on a quiet side street maintains an impeccable reputation for excellence and consistency under the leadership of chef Dan Barber. Part of the slow-food, sustainable agriculture movement, Blue Hill mostly uses ingredients grown or raised within 200 miles, including the Four Season Farm at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Barber's second culinary project in nearby Westchester County. The chefs produce precisely cooked and elegantly constructed dishes such as wild striped bass with potato-and-clam chowder and house-cured guanciale (pork jowl), and a smoked-tomato soup with American caviar.
75 Washington Pl., New York, New York, 10011-9174, USA
Known For
- Pioneering farm-to-table program
- Lush, well-executed dishes
- Sophisticated setting
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch, Credit cards accepted, Reservations essential
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$ | Greenwich Village |
If the Czech Republic and Texas had an edible baby and that baby were born in Brooklyn, it would taste a lot like the bite-sized sweet and savory cakes served at this diminutive shop. Kolaches were brought to Texas by Czech immigrants and have been a staple of Lone Star State cuisine ever since. Grab a few, plus a coffee, and enjoy them in nearby Washington Square Park or Father Demo Square.
185 Bleecker St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Delicious kolaches
- Good coffee
- Inexpensive
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$$ | Greenwich Village |
Chef Michael Toscano was a huge hit of a chef when he was the top toque at Perla. He moved to Charleston but now he's back at this eponymous restaurant in the same space where Perla once was. The interior hasn't changed too much; the marble-topped red oak bar is still there and so are the comfy banquettes, but Toscano added paintings by former Perla employee Isaac Mann that are a feast for the eyes. The chef produces flavor-popping Italian dishes such as pappardelle with duck ragu and shaved foie gras and lumache pasta with roasted tomatoes and pistachios that happens to have a buried treasure of stracciatella at the bottom, giving it a supremely delicious, creamy texture.
24 Minetta La., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Pork belly–wrapped pork chop
- Addictive pasta dishes
- Warm ambience
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. No lunch
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$ | Greenwich Village |
You can think of kati rolls as South Asian tacos: griddled parathas (flatbreads) stuffed with savory-spiced grilled meat, shrimp, paneer, chickpea mash, or spiced mashed potato. They're the only things sold at this tiny, popular spot cheerfully festooned with Bollywood posters. This is an excellent and inexpensive lunch option, but lines often form on weekdays, and there are only a few seats, so a good plan is to take your kati roll to a nearby park bench. There are also locations at 39th Street and 6th Avenue, at Third Avenue and E. 43rd Street, and on 2nd Avenue at St. Marks Place.
99 MacDougal St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Tasty kati rolls, mostly to take out
- Cheap late-night eats
- Long lunch lines
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Reservations not accepted
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$$$ | Greenwich Village |
It's not Peruvian or Japanese—rather, it's Nikkei cuisine! From the people behind the acclaimed Llama Inn in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, comes this buzzy spot, highlighting the cuisine of the Japanese community in Peru. The minimalist, almost austere setting is the perfect venue in which to enjoy the food, as it puts the attention on the plate. The small-portioned but taste-exploding dishes tend to add up, so expect to spend a pretty penny for items like uni-and-matcha-topped hamachi tiradito (or sashimi) and ponzu-laced tuna ceviche, among other (mostly) raw seafood bites.
359 6th Ave., New York, New York, 10014, USA
Known For
- Serving under-represented Nikkei cuisine
- Ultrafresh raw fish with Japanese and Peruvian ingredients
- Can be pricey
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch
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$ | Greenwich Village |
From Beirut to the Big Apple—this diminutive spot doles out flavor-popping versions of Lebanese flatbread. Savory options include hummus, za'atar (spice), and roasted chicken with caramelized onions as toppings on thin-crust crispy flatbreads. The Nutella versions adds a sweet finish. Order yours to go, and eat it in Washington Square Park, two blocks to the north.
193 Bleecker St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Crispy flatbreads
- Creamy hummus
- Friendly service
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$$$ | Greenwich Village |
By converting a moribund 80-year-old Italian restaurant into a cozy hot spot, restaurateur Keith McNally created yet another hit. Try early and often to score reservations, so that you can sample creations like truffle-spiked roasted chicken breast, bone marrow on toast, expertly aged steaks, and the celebrated Black Label burger, a gorgeous assembly of meat with caramelized onions and an added layer of cheese. The barroom, with its original details intact, is great for people-watching. Landing a table in the back room, with its original mural depicting West Village life and wall-to-wall photos of famous and infamous customers from eras gone by, makes sweet-talking the reservationist a worthy endeavor.
113 MacDougal St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Classic New York dining
- Original details and mural
- Tough to get a table
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch Mon.--Wed., Reservations essential
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$$ | Greenwich Village |
The owners of nearby Saigon Shack couldn't help but notice the insanely long lines at their Vietnamese restaurant, so they opened up Pho Bar in late 2018. But this modern space with a wooden floor and tables isn't an annex: Pho Bar kicks it up a notch with excellent takes on the Vietnamese noodle soup, including versions with oxtail, short rib, and soft-shell crab.
82 W. 3rd St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Creative variations on pho
- Long wait times
- Airy, comfortable atmosphere
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$$ | Greenwich Village |
Neapolitan dialect for "Sono di Napoli," or "I'm from Naples," this diminutive 15-seat eatery is run by Ciro and Austria, a charming couple from Naples. The thick-crust pizzas are decidedly Neapolitan and very good, but arguably better are some of the pasta dishes, particularly the paccheri alla Genovese, a pasta dish of slow-roasted beef that most Naples denizens eat at home for long Sunday lunches with nonna (grandma).
146 W. Houston St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Gregarious and warm service
- Neapolitan pizzas
- Terrific meatballs
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$ | Greenwich Village |
This Portland import is housed in a handsome, historic building with a perfectly preserved, pressed-tin ceiling. The java here is top notch, and the atmosphere is great for lingering. The one perpetual issue is that seats are often occupied by the laptop set. In warm weather, grab one of the outdoor tables.
30 W. 8th St., New York, New York, 10011, USA
Known For
- Full-flavored coffee
- Cozy atmosphere
- A legion of laptop-pecking folks
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$$$ | Greenwich Village |
An homage to the genre of jewel-box-size restaurant-bars in Tokyo that play vinyl while patrons sip Japanese whiskey and eat feel-good fare, this subterranean, 12-seat spot offers three seatings per night—6:30 and 8:30, and on Thursday to Saturday, 10:30—for a seven-course Japanese-influenced tasting menu. The offerings change with the season and the chef's whims, but expect dishes and libations such as a shiso-wasabi mojito, nuggets of pork katsu paired with shishito peppers, and a caviar sandwich. Take it all in while tunes from Ray Charles to the Beastie Boys to Prince and everyone in between ooze off the vintage vinyl spinning in the corner.
127 MacDougal St., New York, New York, 10012, USA
Known For
- Changing fixed-price menu
- Vintage vinyl on the Hi-Fi
- Intimate experience
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. No lunch
