Guides
Top 40 Best Places to Eat in NYC
A working list of the top 40 best places to eat in NYC — pasta, pizza, ramen, tacos, delis, and the restaurants worth crossing a borough for.
New York doesn’t reward people looking for one perfect meal. It rewards people willing to cross a bridge for a bowl of pasta and then walk fifteen blocks for a cookie. This is the list we keep for that kind of eater — the top 40 best places to eat in NYC, in the order we’d send a friend to them.
The Italian anchors
Carbone in Greenwich Village is the veal parmesan you’ve heard about — enormous, expensive, and correct. Captains in maroon tuxedos work the room and finish things tableside, so dinner runs like a performance. Book weeks out or resign yourself to the bar.
Lilia in Williamsburg is what Missy Robbins built in a former auto body shop, and it’s the pasta restaurant every other pasta restaurant measures itself against. The agnolotti with honey and the grilled sardines are the two orders that get repeated table to table. Her second spot, Misi, sits right on Domino Park — two people should order two vegetables and two pastas and stop there.
Via Carota in the West Village runs no reservations, always has a wait, and is always worth it — the vegetable dishes are what set it apart, especially the cannellini beans with tomato and the charred leeks. Don Angie a few blocks away serves the pinwheel lasagna for two that lives up to the photos.
The bigger nights out
The Corner Store in SoHo does prime aged ribeye as the marquee dish, but the five-cheese pizza rolls with Calabrian honey are what people mention afterward. Gramercy Tavern is an institution that never started coasting — tasting menu in back, walk-in burger at the bar. Eleven Madison Park holds three Michelin stars and has been plant-based since 2021, which remains either the boldest move in fine dining or a mistake depending on who you ask.
Barbuto in the West Village is Jonathan Waxman’s roast chicken with salsa verde and a kale salad, and it’s simple enough that any flaw would show. There aren’t any.
The pizza shortlist
Lucali in Carroll Gardens is candlelight, a menu with two items, and an owner who still snips basil with scissors over every pie. Put your name down in person and drink nearby until they call. Roberta’s in Bushwick wood-fires proper pies in a converted warehouse — the Bee Sting with soppressata and honey is the order.
L’Industrie in Williamsburg is the slice place people line up for — the burrata slice is the one, with the cheese spooned on after the pie comes out of the oven. Pepperoni beats the plain here.
The mid-priced favorites
Thai Diner in Nolita, from the team behind the much-mourned Uncle Boons, has black and white tile and the feel of a diner that took a wrong turn to Bangkok. The massaman curry with chicken leg is the dish. Chez Ma Tante in Greenpoint does pancakes crisp and lacy at the edges, cakey in the middle — they’ve ruined other pancakes for a lot of people.
Di An Di, also Greenpoint, does a rice cake omelette that’s one of the best single dishes in Brooklyn and almost nobody orders it. Ha’s Snack Bar on the Lower East Side has twenty-four seats and a menu that changes constantly — the thick-cut tuna with golden raisin agrodolce is the tell.
The ramen and Asian counters
Ippudo in the East Village is the bowl that taught most Americans what ramen is — tonkotsu simmered until opaque, in a room loud enough that you don’t have to talk. Coqodaq in the Flatiron does the Korean fried chicken bucket for around $38 a person and comes with consommé, banchan, cold noodles, and soft serve.
Wu’s Wonton in Chinatown hangs its ducks in the window and serves the shrimp and chive dumplings for almost nothing. Xi’an Famous Foods started in a Flushing basement mall and spread — the cumin lamb hand-ripped noodles are the flagship.
The delis, the tacos, the burgers
Katz’s Delicatessen has hand-cut pastrami since 1888. Take the ticket at the door, hand it straight to a carver, and tip him a couple of bucks. Russ & Daughters has been running since 1914 — the sit-down café next door serves the matzo ball soup and latkes.
Los Tacos No. 1 in Chelsea Market moves faster than the line looks — order the especial and adobada. Minetta Tavern in the Village makes the Black Label Burger that gets the headlines, but the regular Minetta Burger with cheddar and caramelized onions is the better plate.
The Halal Guys yellow cart in Midtown has held the same corner for 30+ years and still draws a 2am line. Chicken or lamb over yellow rice with white sauce and red sauce — the red sauce is the ejector seat.
Special-trip destinations
Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook is the best barbecue in NYC by a comfortable margin, and it’s a genuine hassle to reach. The beef rib feeds two, the brisket is what everyone else’s brisket is aiming at. Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side sells the best cookie in the city and it isn’t close — six ounces each, crackly outside, nearly raw in the middle.
Dirt Candy on the Lower East Side treats vegetables as main events, and committed carnivores leave satisfied without noticing what was missing. The cocktails are as inventive as the food.
How to use this list
Every restaurant here has been through the same test — worth planning a night around, worth telling a friend about, worth eating a second time. Some are lifers on any NYC best-of list (Katz’s, Peter Luger, Russ & Daughters); others are newer arrivals earning their place. If you’re mapping out a first-time trip, pick one from each category above and you’ll eat well for a week.
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