The 35 best restaurants in New York

Telegraph

04-04-2025

New York is a smorgasbord of lip-smackingly good eateries, from the trendy and exotic to the quirky and classic. One minute you could be tucking into boiled chicken feet and shrimp dumplings at a downtown dim sum depot; the next, a sizzling cut in a show-stopping New York steakhouse.
All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert to help you discover the best restaurants in New York. Find out more below or for more inspiration, see our guides to the city's best hotels, nightlife, bars, shopping, attractions and free things to do, plus how to spend a weekend in New York.
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Best all rounders
The Grill
This was once the home of the legendary Four Seasons restaurant where famed publishers and other Big Apple movers and shakers would sip their way through a triple-martini lunch in the mid-century ambience of the dining room. It's now run by the people behind Carbone, Santina and Dirty French, among other hotspots, who reinstated its mid-century vibe and revamped the menu when they took over. The menu is classic New York City with lobster à la Newberg and pheasant Claireborne topping the menu. It's not cheap but there are few atmospheric places like this to warrant splashing the cash.
Balthazar
This beloved Big Apple culinary institution is the flagship eatery of prolific British-born restaurateur Keith McNally. It's like a small slice of Paris in SoHo: enter through the curtained doorway and find yourself in a gold-lit space with high ceilings and mirrored walls. The classic bistro options include oysters, steak frites and a good burger. The raw bar is superb, as is the wine list. They do a great breakfast, and have a bakery, too, if you want to avoid the table hustle and grab a Parisian-quality baguette to go. Book well in advance.
Claud
Started by a team of industry folks who met while working at David Chang's elevated Momofuku Ko, Claud is a fancy restaurant without being fancy. The dishes coming out of the kitchen are more like elevated comfort fare that are like flavour bombs on the palate. Menu standouts include escargot croquettes, agnolotti stuffed with chicken liver, a half roasted chicken with foie gras drippings, and a juicy pork chop in a shallow pool of smoked onion jus. The wine list highlights a compendium of little-known and hard-to-find vintages, mostly from France.
Katz Delicatessen
In the early 1900s, the Lower East Side was home to a thriving eastern European Jewish community, and dozens of kosher delis. Today only a few remain, and Katz (opened in 1888) is the best. You may recognise it from the 'I'll have what she's having' scene in When Harry Met Sally. The ordering process is a bit different: after you've been handed a ticket, place your order at the counter, indulge in superlative deli fare and pay at the end with your ticket. Just don't lose that slip of paper or you'll pay a princely sum for the error.
Keens Steakhouse
Despite its name as a steakhouse, the restaurant is famous for its tender and juicy mutton chop, a glistening hunk of mature roast lamb. Not that the steak is anything to ignore – the massive prime porterhouse is still one of the city's best cuts of beef. The walls of this 1885 restaurant are bedecked with historical relics. The upstairs Pipe Room, for example, boasts 50,000 clay pipes hanging from the ceiling, a remnant of a time when patrons would check their pipes. Today, diners can spy the smoking tools of everyone from Albert Einstein and Teddy Roosevelt to Babe Ruth.
Mam
Straddling the vague border between the Lower East Side and Chinatown, Mam is an exceptional Vietnamese restaurant with a unique menu. The focus here is bun dau mam tom, a staple of the cuisine of Hanoi. It arrives on a large platter and is meant to be assembled by the diner. Fried tofu, rice vermicelli noodles, pork belly, sausage and sometimes blood sausage are the supporting cast while the star of the show is the mam tom, a funky fermented shrimp sauce that you dip all the other ingredients into. Sometimes the menu offers excellent Hanoi-style pho as well. There is no booze but ask ahead about bringing your own wine or beer.
Peter Luger
Not everyone agrees that this 1887 steakhouse is the greatest in America, but chomping into a juicy hunk of beef at this amber-lit, wood-panelled gem is certainly an experience. The reason is mainly because the Forman family, owners of this institution since 1950, always get the first choice of cuts from New York's meat markets. Sit in the brass-chandeliered front room, next to politicians, mobsters, celebrities and sports stars, and let one of the famously surly bow-tied waiters tell you what you're having. Warning: it's pricey and bring cash – they do not accept credit cards.
Baar Baar
After working his way through acclaimed kitchens in Delhi and London, chef Sujan Sarkar opened up a place of his own in the East Village, creating a menu that is both elevated and comforting at the same time. Case in point: kulchas – disks of crispy bread – topped with truffles, tender pork ribs bathed in a rich tamarind sauce and fennel-laced shrimp curry. The high-ceilinged dining room, splashed with colour, invites you to sit back, eat slowly and sip one of the Indian-accented cocktails.
Dhamaka
Located inside the revamped Essex Street Market, this unique Indian restaurant is one of the most exciting in the city, serving up dishes rarely found in this part of the world. So, no chicken tikka masala here. Instead, prepare your adventurous palate for gurda kapoora (goat kidney and testicles), turmeric-laced baby shark and saffron-accented braised goat neck. Big spenders should splurge for the whole Rajasthani rabbit (of which there is only one offered per day, so reserve far enough in advance). Chintan Pandya and Roni Mazumdar also co-own lauded Indian eateries Masalawala & Sons in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Rowdy Rooster in the East Village and Michelin-starred Semma in Greenwich Village.
Kafana
'Food' doesn't really come to mind when someone utters the word 'Serbia.' But at this popular Avenue C spot, the food and wine attract a loyal clientele – and not just homesick Serbs. Luscious grilled meat, lamb stew, cheese-stuffed prunes rolled in bacon and chicken liver and karadjordjeva (a long and thick tubular version of pork schnitzel that Serbs have nicknamed 'young lady's dream') will get your cholesterol levels up and your stomach full with satisfying Balkan fare. The list of Serbian natural wines has attracted the oenophiles. Start off with a shot of rakia, the potent fruit brandy that is ubiquitous in the Balkans.
Sofreh
New York may have the second biggest population of Iranians in the United States (behind Los Angeles), but that doesn't mean the Persian dining scene here is particularly dynamic. But then there's this Prospect Heights spot, which is perpetually packed and very much worth trying to nab a table at. Chef-owner Nasim Alikhani's menu is loaded with winning dishes, but the tarragon-laced meatballs wading in a saffron-tomato sauce, fork-tender braised lamb shank and pomegranate-walnut sauce-dolloped sea scallops are particular standouts.
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Best for families
Chama Mama
Until relatively recently, if you wanted to eat the cuisine of the Republic of Georgia, you either needed to get on a long flight to Tbilisi or take a long subway ride into deepest, darkest Brooklyn. Chama Mama changed that by opening up on West 14th Street and Seventh Avenue. Georgian food is one of the most underrated and under-appreciated cuisines of the world. Start off with an order of khachapuri, the delicious cheese bread and/or some khinkali, the broth-holding lamb dumplings, before moving on to excellent mains like shqmeruli, chicken in a garlicky cream sauce and lobio, a pork-studded bean stew in a clay pot. The Georgian wine list here is fantastic.
Website: chamamama.com
Area: Locations in Chelsea, Upper West Side and Brooklyn Heights
Nearest metro: 14th St.
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended
L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele
This august pizzeria opened in Naples in 1870, became world renowned by the book 'Eat, Pray, Love,' opened up outposts in Los Angeles and London, and in December 2022 fired up its burners in New York City. Unlike the original where the menu consists of just two pizzas – the cheeseless marinara and the classic margherita – there are about a dozen pies on the menu here. Still, though, the classics are the best: the margherita topped with flavour-amplifying mozzarella di bufala is one of the best Neapolitan-style pizzas this side of the Atlantic.
Emmett's on Grove
A small slice of Chicago in the Village. Emmett's on Grove doesn't serve that gooey deep dish pizza that everyone outside of the Windy City seems to loathe; instead, they do something much more unusual: making excellent thin-crust tavern-style Chicago pizzas that are rarely seen outside of the Midwestern metropolis. Other feel-good fare includes fried olives, meatball sliders and pigs in a blanket. Save room for the amazing grasshopper, a play on the famous Midwestern cocktail, in which a pile of vanilla ice cream is doused in fernet branca.
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Best for cheap eats
Los Tacos No. 1
Located in the always-bustling food-centric Chelsea Market, this taco stand offers a few different meat options but you really should only order one thing: the adobada taco, also known as al pastor, with pork cooked on a turning spit and shaved off into a tortilla. You won't find a better version on the East Coast; you may even have to go to Mexico City to find something superior. The lack of places to remain stationary while eating is not convenient but once you bite into the tacos here, you will no longer care.
Superiority Burger
Chef Brooks Headly, a one-time punk rock drummer, left his job as a chef at one of the city's Michelin-starred restaurants to open up a diminutive plant-based burger spot in the East Village. To say it was a hit would be an understatement. In 2023, he moved into a bigger location and expanded the plant-based menu. Now it's an even bigger hit, as lines form nightly at 5pm to nab a coveted table in order to tuck into menu items like the collard green sandwich, which is way better than it sounds, and stuffed cabbage, a reference to the Ukrainian restaurant that had operated in this space for several decades before shutting down during the pandemic. Then, of course, there's that veg burger, made from chickpeas, walnuts and quinoa that most certainly lives up to the restaurant's name. Cocktails are potent and good here too.
Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles
A staple on curved Doyers Street for decades, this diminutive spot's name says it all. Yes, there are hand-pulled noodles galore. And yes, they are tasty. Plant yourself in the ramshackle interior – tables scattered about without much care for order – choose one of the two-dozen noodle-based soups on offer, and then wait for your bowl of goodness to arrive.
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Best for fine dining
Acru
Chef Daniel Garwood logged time in the kitchen at two-starred Michelin spot Atomix (as well as lauded restaurants in Denmark, Sweden and South Korea) before opening up this 47-seat New York neobistro in Autumn 2024. The menu leans heavily on Garwood's Australian heritage with a beer-battered fried Australian potato cake topped with uni and scallop and golden tilefish draped in a sheet of lard and layered with crispy chicken skin and grilled mushrooms. The wine list is heavy on French bottles and the cocktail program is one of the most inventive in the neighbourhood. Choose between the a la carte options or the $95 (£75) tasting menu.
Website: acru.nyc
Area: Greenwich Village
Nearest metro: W. 4th St.
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended
Cosme
Superstar chef Enrique Olvera has shown New Yorkers what elevated Mexican is like. The chef of world-renowned Mexico City eatery Pujol serves up comforting yet high-end takes on Mexican classics including the show-stopping must-eat duck carnitas served family-style, which requires you to get stuck into building your own tacos from the juicy duck meat and salsa. And it is essential you finish with the husk meringue with corn mousse for dessert – who knew corn could do such things. Come at lunch when there is often space for walk-ins and the prices are significantly lower.
Jean-Georges
Jean-Georges, located inside Trump International Hotel at Columbus Circle, is helmed by its eponymous Alsatian-born chef, Jean-Gorges Vongerichten, who serves up Asian-inspired Gallic fare. The all-white space with floor-to-ceiling windows, sumptuous leather shell chairs and great views of Central Park and Columbus Circle are the perfect venue in which to try dishes like the signature tuna ribbons or the outrageous crispy confit of suckling pig with smoked bacon marmalade. There are a variety of fixed-price and tasting menu options; opt for the six-course chef's menu ($268/£224), and make a night of it.
Indian Accent
New York is no stranger to good Indian fare but Big Apple palates may not have been prepared when this lauded New Delhi restaurant landed here and started serving stuffed flatbreads, called kulchas, crammed with tender duck and hoisin and fall-off-the-bone ribs brushed with a tart and subtly sweet mango sauce. The chef Manish Mehrotra's take on modern Indian cuisine will be revelatory to even the most discriminating taste buds. The dimly lit interior and understated design help put diners' attention on the plate.
Luthun
Possibly the best restaurant in New York without a Michelin star, Luthun is led by two chefs who have logged time in the august kitchens of ElBulli, French Laundry and the Fat Duck. The handsome 24-seat spot, with exposed brick walls and a chefs counter, features a 10-course tasting menu that reflects the chefs' backgrounds. The menu changes regularly but expect elevated riffs on everything from Indian street food to Vietnamese-accented dishes paired with foie gras. The wine list spins the globe, featuring bottles from budding regions in Slovenia and Virginia, as well as some small, lesser-known winemakers in Rioja.
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Best for walk ins
Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant
This sub-terrestrial seafood restaurant, situated underneath the 1913 Beaux-Arts masterpiece that is Grand Central Terminal, and clad in tiles highlighted by a brick-vaulted ceiling, might seem like an unlikely spot to go for fresh oysters and seafood, but mollusks were once as ubiquitous here as yellow taxis. There are often up to 20 different varieties of oysters on offer, all flown in from different parts of the country. And the venerable staff know their Prince Edward Islands from their Maine oysters. Come before 5pm: it's hard to get a table or sit at the bar in rush hour.
Momofuku Noodle Bar
Perpetual cool kid chef David Chang's first eatery (and most affordable) is still firing on all cylinders. Cosy up to the long bar counter and tuck into the Korean-accented edibles here. First timers – even 51st timers – should start with an order of succulent, melt-on-your-palate pork buns (so popular they're not even listed on the menu anymore) before moving on to the signature smoked pork ramen. Bring a group of your friends and indulge in the fun-sized fried chicken feast, complete with mu shu pancakes, vegetables and sauces (make sure you reserve that in advance).
Hanoi House
Don't be put off by Hanoi House's location on St. Marks Place's row of subpar restaurants in the East Village. This is the real deal. Vietnamese cuisine hadn't had its moment here until 2016 when the pho-boiling burners were first fired up here. North Vietnamese food is rare to find in the United States as most of the Vietnamese who have immigrated to these shores (particularly after the war ended in 1975) are from the south. But Hanoi fare is glorious; try the beef-spiked pho bac, with its rich, deep taste. The Hanoi staple bun cha is a platter of unctuous, tender grilled pork meatballs married with rice noodles and then dipped in a subtly sweet fish sauce.
Sripraphai
For years, Queens in general, and Sripraphai in particular, has been the main place to go in Gotham for high-quality, authentic Thai cuisine. Pronounced 'see-pra-pie', the cult eatery offers standards like pad Thai, as well as some lesser sought fare, such as fried softshell crab and pumpkin in a green curry. The original drab interior has had an overhaul, but the garden, with its Asian umbrellas, potted plants and bubbling fountain, is the place to be. Bring cash – they do not accept credit cards.
Té Company
When is a tea room not a tea room? On the surface, this diminutive, somewhat-hidden-in-plain-sight, tea-centric place seems to be what you'd expect. Elena Liao offers dozens of expertly sourced oolong teas from Taiwan, some of which are hard to find outside of Asia. But then you look at the edible options. Her husband, Portuguese-born Frederico Ribeiro, an erstwhile sous chef at lauded Per Se and El Bulli, makes daily sweet and savoury snacks that tend to be utterly transcendent. Ribeiro cooks what is in season and his mood determines, but generally expect Iberian and Taiwanese creations.
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Best of Brooklyn
Sailor
When it opened in late 2023, there was a stampede to get reservations at Sailor. The restaurateur is Gabriel Stulman who owns Fairfax, Jeffrey's and Joseph Leonard in the West Village, and the chef is renowned British-born April Bloomfield (late of The Breslin and The Spotted Pig). It's not always easy to nab a seat in the 18-seat bar room or the 20-seat dining room but if you managed to snag one, you're in for a memorable meal, as Ms. Bloomfield serves up well-executed rustic fare like half-roasted chicken that falls apart at the touch of a utensil and lemon-accented crispy veal sweetbreads.
Lucali
Owner and Carroll-Gardens local Mark Iacono makes the pies here himself from behind an open-plan kitchen: think thin, crispy crust, with a simple sweet homemade tomato base, melting mozzarella and dash of fresh basil leaves. Expect a wait (there's a perpetual queue) but when you've finally got a coveted spot, sit back, chat to your neighbours over candlelit tables, and pretend you've been invited into someone's home. Jay Z and Beyoncé are regulars and trek over from Manhattan to taste the goodness. It's bring your own, so get a bottle of wine from nearby Scotto's Wine Cellar.
Roberta's
If there's an epicentre of hipster foodie-ism this Italian-accented eatery in sparse, industrial Bushwick is it. Skinny jeans-clad waiters, many sporting thick moustaches and retro ironic eyewear, deliver good thin-crust pizza, hearty bowls of oxtail ragu pasta and plates of grilled seasonal vegetables. The multi-room space includes an outdoor seating area for the warm-weather months. The small bar area is a convivial place to park yourself for the night whilst grazing on Italian snacks and sipping cocktails.
St. Julivert Fisherie
Husband and wife team Alex Raij and Eder Montero are the owner-chefs behind this gem of a restaurant. The pair run a few lauded Basque-themed restaurants in New York (La Vara, Txikito and El Quinto Pino) and so it's no surprise that St. Julivert doesn't stray much from Iberia. The focus here, as the name suggests, is the coastal swaths of Spain, zigzagging between tradition and creative, with a few detours to Italy and other parts of the Spanish speaking world. Squid carbonara and the turmeric-laced crispy tuna bake will bring you back for more.
Laser Wolf
Food-loving New Yorkers used to regularly schlep the 99 miles to Philadelphia just to feast on chef Michael Solomonov's Israeli fare. But now they can save some money on petrol or train fare by pointing themselves to Brooklyn. Set atop the Hoxton, Laser Wolf fires up excellent charcoal-grilled skewers and an excellent char-grilled eggplant, but the main event is at the beginning when the server places the various salatim at your table: an array of ultra-creamy hummus, Turkish celery root, harissa-spiked beans, babaganoush and other snacks – all of which come with every meal and are free to order seconds.
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Best for the Big Apple Italian experience
Legacy Records
Talented chef Ryan Hardy, who also runs the kitchens at hotspots Charlie Bird and Pasquale Jones, cooks up seaside Italian fare at this handsome Art Deco-inspired spot near far west Manhattan development Hudson Yards. The cocktail programme is under the direction of Jeff Bell from lauded cocktail bar P.D.T. (stands for Please Don't Tell) and the wine is under the command of heavily awarded sommelier Arvid Rosengren. The space once housed a legendary recording studio of the same name and the art bedecking the walls reflects the musical heritage.
Lilia
Chef Miss Robbins has gone from Spiaggia in Chicago, where two of her loyal followers were Barack and Michelle Obama, and Michelin-starred acclaim at Manhattan's A Voce, to settling into this Williamsburg restaurant. In the exposed-brick setting, tuck into cacio e pepe fritelle (fried balls filled with gooey cheese and pepper), bowls of gnocchi slathered in broccoli pesto and fettuccine intertwined with spicy lamb sausage ragú. The wine list, which leans heavily towards Italy, is a good one, but so are the cocktail offerings, including potent varieties of the Negroni and the boulevardier.
Mario's Restaurant
Few visitors know that the real Little Italy is in the Bronx. After strolling Arthur Avenue, lined with scores of Italian bakeries, restaurants, coffee bars and fine-food delis, grab a table at 100-year-old Mario's – a true red-sauce joint if there ever was one. The style is over the top: white columns, paintings of the Old Country and waiters in tuxedos humming Dean Martin tunes. The kitchen is famous for its Neapolitan fare, including stuffed clams and more varieties of veal than should be legal. Try the veal scaloppine alla pizzaiola with a glass of Barolo.
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How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller's taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
About our expert
David Farley has called New York's West Village home for the last 15 years, where he makes a habit of helping lost, google map-wielding tourists to navigate the neighbourhood's tangle of confusing streets, trying to steer them away from tourist trap restaurants and bars.