Share your city and win!

Bark is the product of a remarkable journey: Pitmaster Ruben Santana began smoking meats during the pandemic, and a pop-up couldn’t keep pace with demand for his Dominican-inflected Texas barbecue for long. After a stint at Time Out Market, he's opened his first brick-and-mortar: a huge, spiffy new hall in Bushwick, already swarmed with curious diners. And that makes sense because–and I don’t say this lightly–Bark is quite possibly the best barbecue in New York City. The place is big, with two levels of communal tables, a mix of high and low-tops. The room is, like many other barbecue joints, soaring with an almost industrial scale. The place has an easy-to-understand, convenient layout. And there seems to be a high ratio of staff to guests, so cordial, helpful guidance or assistance is never far. The place hums with efficiency.There’s a bar, but they don’t serve liquor–only beer and wine and some soju cocktails. The selections aren’t expansive, but that’s not why you’re here, and they get the job done just fine. I would never make a claim that New York’s barbecue compares to Texas’ for the same reason that a Texan’s claims about bagels would fall on deaf ears. But Mr. Santana obviates comparison with a deft move: blending Texas barbecue with Dominican gastronomy. The two, it turns out, have a beautiful affinity. Rice and beans soak up sauce wonderfully, and maduros (plantains) offer a similar starchy sweet element as cornbread. As far as typical sides go, they’re...

Dinosaur is a mini-chain hailing from Rochester, New York, with a homespun, upstate-roadhouse vibe and a welcoming atmosphere. They've got a nice drink program and a big food menu with a lot of options. As far as barbecue proper goes, they do a few things extraordinarily well. If you're craving brisket or ribs or barbecue chicken and nothing else will satisfy, you can get that here, and they'll do the job. But sandwiches are really where you should look. The pulled pork is good on its own but practically begs for their house sauce—slap that on a soft potato bun with pickles and you're happy. It comes in two other varietals worth knowing: the Memphis style (my choice) is the standard sandwich plus a heap of coleslaw, whose vinegary pop, moisture, and crunch do a lot of good work. The Cuban is delicious too, though it veers away from barbecue territory entirely—saucier pulled pork, ham, swiss, and horseradish mustard piled on a long roll. The room is lively, the servers are efficient and friendly, and the vibes are decidedly fun. This isn't the place for a specifically gastronomic outing. But you’ll enjoy your food and your time if you’re not expecting to have your socks blown off. Dinosaur is a great choice when you've got a crowd with varying tastes, vegetarians included. It's the place to spend time with good company over some tasty food, dependable and crowd-pleasing rather than transcendent.

Beyond the iconic, show-stopping displays—the grizzly bear in the Hall of North American Mammals, the 94-feet long blue whale, the prehistoric Barosaurus skeleton rearing up as if to scare the adjacent Allosaurus skeleton—is an expertly curated, 150-year-old museum that fills visitors of all ages with a curiosity about the universe. Whether you’re interested in the world below our feet or the cultures of faraway lands or the stars light-years beyond our reach, your visit is bound to teach you a few things you never knew. With four floors filled to the brim with artifacts, you could spend a whole day just looking at the taxidermied animals that hail from North America, Asia, Africa, rain forests and the ocean. Or, conversely, spend a day like an anthropologist and study indigenous Americans, Asian cultures, African peoples, Pacific tribes, and, before these rich cultures existed, the evolutionary origins of humans and our near (now extinct) cousins, like neanderthals. Also don't miss the new wing called the Gilder Center, which houses a butterfly vivarium, an insectarium and a 360-degree immersive experience, in an architectural masterpiece.

In NYC, we pride ourselves on amalgamating the world; we're home to people and cultures from just about everywhere. Our culinary scene reflects that cosmopolitanism, providing ready access to nearly any cuisine. For longtime residents, it's always been a little odd that there wasn't much good barbecue to be had. That's the breach Hometown Barbecue stepped into. Rather than presenting a trussed-up or gentrified version of barbecue, Hometown kept it simple. That’s the way barbecue should be. Setting down roots in a big, unfussy space in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the restaurant evokes the joints you'd find in more rustic, less metropolitan locales. It doesn't exactly feel transportative, but they aren't pretending to be anywhere else, and they're not selling you an identity. But there aren't many spaces in the city that feel quite like this. There are smaller tables for more intimate situations and bigger picnic tables for bigger parties. There's a bar where you can get beers and cocktails. It's pseudo-cafeteria style: you order at a counter and receive a tray with your food plopped on butcher paper. That's just fine. The food is really what it's all about here. The brisket is juicy, fatty, smoky, with a nice, sturdy bark. The pulled pork is unctuous without being greasy. The ribs pull cleanly and satisfyingly away from the bone. This is barbecue—good barbecue, not some compromised approximation. The New York City inflection shows up in the menu's variety: you can get chicken, slab...

We really like eating around the city, and we're guessing you do, too. So lucky for all of us, we've packed all our favorite restaurants under one roof at the Time Out Market New York. The DUMBO location in Empire Stores has fried chicken from Jacob’s Pickles, pizza from Fornino, delicious bagels from Ess-a-bagel and more amazing eateries—all cherry-picked by us. Chow down over two floors with views of the East River, Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline.  RECOMMENDED: The best things do in NYC

If you thought getting a table at Per Se was tough, try getting into Rao’s. On second thought, don’t. Rao’s (pronounced “RAY-ohs”) is really a private club without the dues. To eat here, you’ll need a personal invite from one of the heavy hitters who “owns” a table. These CEOs, actors, politicians, news personalities and neighborhood old-timers established a long-standing arrangement with the late, legendary owner Frankie “No” Pellegrino, and that's what ensures a seat at one of the ten tables at the Italian-American icon. In fact, reading this review is probably the closest you’ll get to Rao’s.

Le Sixth was opened in June 2026 by Michelin-starred Chef Philippe Orrico. After years of conquering kitchens in London, Paris, Hong Kong, and beyond, Orrico embarked on his inaugural New York restaurant. Inside, you’ll find a 45-seat dining room and ten-seat bar within the resto’s creamy taupe walls, punctuated by sleek booths, wooden furniture, subtle lighting, and earthy accents. (P.S.: We’d be remiss not to suggest mozying to the back of the restaurant to peek into the kitchen.) The menu features bistro standards with tasty updates that even Francophiles won’t see coming. Consider the beef tartare, which we had in buttery, golden-crisp cones reminiscent of wonton wrappers. Perhaps you’d prefer the unconventional ravioli, teeming with French Comté and mushrooms. The king of starters is no doubt the foie gras crème brûlée, which looked and tasted exactly as it sounds. It was decadently smooth—somehow whipped-like but still rich and custardy without being heavy—with the aroma of caramel. Order the crisp, sharp fennel with fresh dill to cleanse your palate and counter the indulgence. For mains, you can’t go wrong with steak frites. The potatoes would please both crispy and soggy fry lovers, and the meat was impressively charred and salted, but still yielding and soft in the center. The real star was the sauce Champs-Élysées, starring cognac and grapefruit rind. If you’re craving something lighter, try the Atlantic sole with brown butter, capers, and lemons. The mashed...

This elegant addition to the city’s museum scene is devoted entirely to late-19th- and early-20th-century German and Austrian fine and decorative arts. Located in a renovated brick-and-limestone mansion that was built by the architects of the New York Public Library, this brainchild of the late art dealer Serge Sabarsky and cosmetics mogul Ronald S. Lauder has the largest concentration of works by Gustav Klimt (including his iconic Adele Bloch-Bauer I) and Egon Schiele outside Vienna. You’ll also find a bookstore, a chic (and expensive) design shop and the Old World–inspired Café Sabarsky, serving updated Austrian cuisine and ravishing Viennese pastries.

Dominique Ansel honed his skills as executive pastry chef at Daniel for six years before opening this American and French patisserie. Caramelized croissants, miniature pastel meringues and madeleines make up the sweet selections at the counter, in addition to Ansel's madcap creations like milk shot glasses made from chocolate-chip cookies and frozen s'mores on a stick. But the café also serves savory offerings, like avocado toast, quiche, and traditional panini.   

Inspired by the bathing traditions of ancient Greece, Rome and Ottoman civilizations, AIRE Ancient Baths first debuted in New York back in 2012, one of the first businesses to jump-start the city's obsession with all things wellness. Back in the day, public bathhouses were large, extravagant places where people would lounge in various water pools to clean themselves and cure their ailments. This Spanish import elegantly brings that traditional wellness experience to New York with the first overseas location of its luxury bathhouse minichain. (Along with this Tribeca flagship, there's also a sister spot on the Upper East Side.) The basement level of the gigantic three-story space houses the spacious, open room of baths, which consist of hot, cold, saltwater and multijet pools alongside steam and hot-stone rooms where you can lounge. Enjoy serene, candlelit thermal baths, massages, and signature treatments; right now, a thorough, two-hour Ancient Relaxing Massage 45' costs $225 per person.