The best soul food restaurants in NYC

At Marcus Samuelsson's Harlem bistro, global soul food takes center stage, artfully mixing Southern-fried, East African, Scandinavian and French flavors. While the former Aquavit chef, now culinary TV star, mostly sacrifices elegance in favor of mass appeal, you'll still find the occasional haute cuisine flourish. Slippery ribbons of house-smoked salmon and gravlax—“lox and lax" on the playful menu—are served with Ethiopian injera fried into chips, in a pretty ho-hum multinational dish. But a paint-splatter smear of purple mustard lends a chefly touch to the final plate.

Apart from these upmarket detours, most of the food is gregarious fun. Dirty rice topped with four plump barbecued shrimp is more international than authentically bayou, the spicy chicken-liver-enriched pilaf flecked with an appealing mix of curry leaves and toasted almonds.

The main courses are even more gutsy. Samuelsson layers on flavors, generously anointing his crispy fried chicken with hot sauce, mace gravy and his own secret smoky spice shake; and piling pickled cipollini and plantain chips atop oxtail slow-braised in Mother's Milk Stout until it's barely clinging to the bone.

All of this food is as relaxed as the setting itself: breezy and cheerful. The sprawling space is inviting and buzzy, the definitive place to be north of 110th Street. Doubling as a gallery space, the restaurant showcases oversize works by notable New York artists, including uptown residents LeRone Wilson and Philip Maysles. Harlem politicos mix at the teardrop bar with downtown fashionistas, everyone happily gorging on rib-sticking food.

When it was opened in 2005 by the niece of the woman behind legendary Sylvia’s, Melba’s was heralded both for its neo-soul sensibility and as an emblem of a Harlem Renaissance developing along lower Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Though praise for its chicken and waffles from Bobby Flay on the Food Network followed, the dish turns out to be surprisingly dry and uninspired; it’s the “neo” aspect of the soul menu that is most successful. Spring rolls filled with black-eyed peas and collard greens are a small revelation, while braising the short ribs with wine brings out a mellow quality that blends well with their tenderness. Reason enough to skip the tour-bus crowds at Sylvia’s.

Sylvia's, a soul food restaurant in Harlem, has been a neighborhood staple since 1962.

The James Beard-nominated, North Carolina-born chef Charles Gabriel recently relocated his excellent fried chicken operation to the Upper West Side, with more offshoots promised for the near future. Pulled pork, barbecue chicken and smoked ribs are also available, along with sides like baked mac and cheese, collard greens and grits. 

Portraits of jazz giants hang on the walls of this perpetually packed two-story Harlem fave. A bottle of Frank’s RedHot dresses every table—a sign of the soul food goodness to come. Indeed, the richly battered catfish or the fried chicken and waffles platters (many named for famous African Americans, including Rev. Al Sharpton, and Doug E. Fresh), served with your choice of white or dark meat, go down peppery-sweet with a splash of the hot stuff. Long spears of delicately fried okra are delivered without a hint of slime, and the mac ’n’ cheese is gooey inside and crispy-brown on top. Titanic helpings of cinnamon-crusted peach cobbler and thickly iced red velvet cake lend the menu a grandmotherly touch.