584 Best Restaurants in New York City, New York

The two pricing scenarios at this Italian spot make bustling Becco a prime Restaurant Row choice for time-constrained theatergoers: one includes an affordable all-you-can-eat selection of salad, antipasti, and three pastas served hot out of pans that waiters circulate around the dining room; the other adds a generous entrée to the mix. The pasta selection changes daily but often includes gnocchi, ravioli, and fettuccine in cream sauce. The entrées may be braised veal shank, grilled double-cut pork chop, and rack of lamb, among other selections. Decor is somewhat basic here, and the exposed brick amplifies the volume during busy hours, but the convivial vibes prevail.

The world's most famous French chef, Alain Ducasse, brings to New York a Right Bank bistro—with cozy, red-velour banquettes and wall lamps illuminating each table—plucked straight from the City of Light, with a menu that celebrates beloved French dishes rather than reinvents. And that's okay, especially when onion soup, pate, filet mignon and other classics are so well executed. It's not exactly cheap for bistro fare, but it is a delicious reminder that beloved flavors of Paris also sparkle in Manhattan.

Grab a quick pick-me-up at either of Birch's two Upper East Side caffeine dealers (the other is at  171 E. 88th St.), but don't be fooled if you hear it called a chain—despite the company's now many locations, this is a local business that roasts all of its coffee beans in small batches just across the East River in Long Island City, Queens. Varieties of single-origin coffee and espresso change by the season, and as an added bonus they sell Dough Donuts, baked and delivered fresh daily.

The truck that launched a foodie craze, Birria-Landia specializes in Mexican birria, a rich, tomato-y savory stew made with traditional goat or beef. Here, it's served folded into double-layered tacos, between two crispy ones with melted cheese called mulitas, or in a bowl in "consommé" form (also serving as a dip for those tacos). There will inevitably be a line, but that also means a number of other businesses have popped up along the block to service the line with candy, snacks, and traditional Mexican drinks like horchata. The fall-off-the-bone meat is best paired with a few slices of radish, some cilantro and a spicy sauce, and ferociously gobbled, standing up near the truck the moment it's handed to you out of the window. 

New York is known for bagels, which tend to be doughy and delicious, but the Montreal-style bagels served here have a denser, sweeter dough, with “toppings” (sesame, poppy seed, salt, everything) that are more generous than on Big Apple versions. The all-day menu includes sandwiches with cream cheese, smoked salmon, whitefish salad, or baked eggs, with additional lunch choices like a BLT, roast beef with horseradish cream cheese, and a tuna melt.

Chef Laurent Tourondel may no longer be involved with his namesake steak house, but this classy space, decked out in beige with resin-top black tables, still draws crowds. The no-muss, no-fuss menu with a variety of steaks and other options is nonetheless large, and so are the portions of starters such as crab cakes with celery-infused mayonnaise and ruby tuna tartare with avocado and soy-lime dressing. A veal chop crusted with rosemary and Parmesan lends new depth to the meat. Sides and desserts, like a killer peanut-butter chocolate mousse with banana ice cream, are all superior.

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.

Opened in 1992, Blue Ribbon still has a reputation not just as a top-notch restaurant serving French-influenced standards like escargot, French onion soup, and steak but also as a serious late-night foodie hangout. Literary types, chefs, and designers—generally a good-looking gang—tends to fill this dark box of a room until late (2 am these days though it used to be open 'til 4).

A welcome addition to the Battery Park City dining scene, Blue Smoke is easily one of NYC's most satisfying barbecue joints. (We'd expect nothing less from famed restaurateur Danny Meyer.) Count on delectable brisket, ribs, fried chicken, and hearty sides to satisfy your carnivorous cravings, and don't miss the tender Alabama white wings, sauced with a blend of mayo and miso for the perfect tangy umami flavor. The dining room is urban-rustic and can get a bit noisy, especially when the neighborhood's after-work crowd files in, but the genial team is sure to keep you happy and full.

Chef Carlos Swepson puts a contemporary spin on classic American soul food, with down-home dishes like biscuits and sausage gravy, jumbo shrimp and grits, turkey meat loaf, seven-cheese macaroni, and fried-chicken sliders. Owned and operated by Swepson and his wife, Markisha, the casual yet smart eatery serves brunch all day, every day in a comfy space directly above the entrance to the B and C trains at 116th street. There's also a DJ spinning R&B, techno, and soul on the weekends during brunch and dinner. 

Until recently, the Vietnamese dining scene in New York was, at best, mediocre and uninspiring. But all that's changed and this Vietnamese spot (which has a second location in SoHo) is part of the reason why. The long menu has all the Vietnamese staples—variations on the theme of banh mi sandwiches, beef and chicken pho—but also excellent lemongrass-spiked beef burgers in a bao bun and banh xeo, a Vietnamese crepe stuffed with shrimp, pork belly and veggies.

If not for the pandemic, the folks behind this young restaurant might still be slinging saltenas (like an empanada, but hand-braided and filled with a rich, savory stew) out of the food hall in Manhattan's Columbus Circle subway station. But now, they've moved away from the office crowds to serve the work-from-home masses, with satisfying peanut soup, salad and grain bowls with barbecued meats or jackfruit, and inspired ice creams with purple corn and cherimoya. It's window-serve only, with a few outdoor picnic tables for seating in the front, so if the weather's nice just look for a small crowd mingling outside the venue to find it.  

Named for the bustling food market in Barcelona, Boqueria was part of the city's first wave of tapas restaurants when it opened back in 2006 and its popularity has never waned, thanks to the seasonal, creative, and delicious food. There are leather banquettes lining the main room and a few seats at the bar, but if you want to make friends, opt for the communal table running down the center of the dining room. This original spot in the Flatiron District is so popular it's spawned offshoots around New York City, as well as in Nashville, DC, and Chicago.

Never mind that you're in the middle of a shopping mall—soups and sandwiches don't get much more luxurious than at acclaimed chef Thomas Keller's low-key lunch spot (one floor down from his extravagant flagship, Per Se). It draws long lines for good reason; fork-and-knife open-face tartines, like the tuna niçoise, are delicious. Share a mason jar of salmon rillettes—cooked and smoked salmon folded around crème fraîche and butter. For lunch fare with this much pedigree, the price is actually a bargain. Grab dessert, a fresh macaron or éclair, from the nearby bakery window.

Drop in for the famously decadent babka (a yeast bread with layers of chocolate or cinnamon), rugelach (flaky, crescent-shape cookies), or any of the other baked goods, but stay for a coffee and a light meal. The front counter is for breads, cakes, and cookies; the back counter turns out sandwiches, quiches, and salads.

Half the fun of this 1920s-style soda fountain is the setting, with swirl-top stools and vintage apothecary drawers and penny-tile floors from the long-closed Longos Pharmacy. The other is a dream menu for sweet tooths. Nostalgia comes in classic Brooklyn egg creams and sparkling sodas, and novelty lands in supersize sundaes like Mr. Potato Head (with potato chips), Breakfast in Bed (with candied bacon) and Affugazi Affogato (with espresso).

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. 

Neighborhood crowds clamoring for coffee and freshly squeezed juice line up for brunch at this TriBeCa mainstay, but Bubby's is good for lunch and dinner, too, if you're in the mood for comfort food like mac 'n' cheese or fried chicken. The dining room is homey and cozy, with big windows; in summer, patrons sit at tables outside with their dogs. Brunch options include just about everything, such as sourdough pancakes, huevos rancheros with grits, matzo-ball soup, and divine biscuits.

This one-of-a-kind, college-style burger bar, clad in wood paneling and looking like a rec room straight out of Happy Days, sits inside a luxurious Midtown hotel. Tucked away in a lobby corner of the Thompson Central Park, with only a neon burger marking its entrance, it does such boisterous business that lines sometimes snake through the lobby. Inside this pocket joint, you can find semi-surly, grease-spattered cooks dispensing paper-wrapped cheeseburgers, shakes, and crispy fries. These burgers are straightforward, cheap, and delicious—just be ready to order once you're at the counter, or they'll send you back to the start of the line. (There are two more locations, one inside Moynihan Train Hall, the other in Brooklyn's Industry City.)

Named for the small waterway between Brooklyn and Governor's Island, this American bistro draws epic brunch lines and a legion of neighborhood families (the Clown Sundae is legendary among Carroll Gardens kids). But when day turns to night, Buttermilk Channel transforms into a surprisingly serious restaurant with an excellent French and American wine list.

Di Palo's has been an integral part of Little Italy since Savino Di Palo opened a small shop making fresh mozzarella and ricotta in 1910. That store grew into Di Palo's Fine Foods (at 200 Grand Street), which sells all manner of gourmet Italian products, and now Savino's great grandchildren have opened this spacious, though rather nondescript wine bar, serving those excellent products paired with lovingly selected Italian wines.

Chef Ignacio Mattos's sequel to his much-lauded Estela, nearby, is an airy, high-ceilinged spot that's called a café but is more of a paradise of satisfying Italian fare. Pasta lovers melt over the perfectly prepared cacio e pepe, but the kitchen also turns out expert fish and meat dishes: perhaps a caramelized fennel-spiked pork chop, pork milanese, or hake with cauliflower and capers.