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.

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

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.

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. 

With 30 years and 13 restaurants under his belt, Danny Meyer has built one of the most recognizable gastro empires in New York. The latest project to join his ranks, a partnership with Blue Smoke lieutenants Mark Maynard-Parisi and Jean-Paul Bourgeois, is a Southern-twanged cocktail lounge that puts the restaurateur onto the drinks scene for the first time in his decades-long career. The sleek Chelsea drinkery is decked out with homey touches (the back game room is filled with retro boards including Life and Yahtzee) and a rustic, reclaimed-wood bar helmed by Nicholas Bennett (Booker and Dax), turning out first-rate down-home sips that don’t mimic the real deal but instead redefine ’em.

ORDER THIS: Stiff drinks ($14) like a house-bottled whiskey-and-cola, cracked open and poured tableside. Kissed with herbal amaro, it’s potent enough to sip slowly throughout the night. Equally hefty are the orange-spiced rye-Cardamaro Flagg Day and the supremely smoky Gun Metal Blue, just barely splashed with curaçao and peach brandy. Bennett’s New York Sour gets a welcome froth from sudsy egg white, while his riff on the Hurricane, dubbed the Storm’s Brewin’, whirls the grenadine-rum pairing with apple, lemon and passion fruit.

GOOD FOR: Laidback Gothamites and homesick down-South transplants. The cozy country vibes come courtesy of lived-in leather booths, vintage ceramic plates scrolled with grandma-style florals and even a “porch” stage for bluegrass and jazz musicians. But the rural touches are balanced by urban elements: The renovated-warehouse space is rigged with concrete floors and exposed brick walls. Bourgeois’s bar-bite menu does the same Mason-Dixon line blurring, turning Louisiana meat pies into crunchy, Cajun-spiced Natchitoches spring rolls with addictive chili-soy sauce ($10) and boiled peanuts into a creamy, lemon-zipped hummus ($15). Crispy waffle-cut gaufrette chips come zipped with equal parts salt and vinegar ($4).

THE CLINCHER: The bar’s impeccable service is chock full of good ol’ Southern hospitality. Despite a standing-room-only crowd on a recent night, the waitstaff did not waver. Friendly without getting overly chatty, attentive without hovering, the team delivered grub and glugs with nary a hiccup. Expect a constant stream of water refills, your booze-sopping bites arriving in steady stages and follow-up rounds promptly premeditated. This may be Meyer’s first stand-alone bar, but he’s already raised it.

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.

Jacob's Pickle helped the Upper West Side shed its sleepy restaurant reputation by offering gastropub fare we could get behind, so, naturally, we invited it to hold court at Time Out Market New York. We tasted its food, reviewed the restaurant and had no hesitation in recommending Jacob's Pickle for a spot at the market. Here’s why:

You'll find that the bar's 25 taps offer uptown brew geeks plenty to get excited about. The all-domestic lineup is broken down by state, with a stable of Northeast breweries (Pretty Things, Allagash) complemented by cross-country favorites: the silky Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale ($7) from Cigar City in Tampa, plus Stone's Cali-Belgique ($8)—a hoppy Californian IPA brewed with Belgian yeast. The cocktail program, heavy on infused spirits and pickle juice, is too spasmodic, meddling with the Manhattan (made here with sage-infused Four Roses bourbon and apple-cinnamon bitters; $13) while also offering $12 mason jars of spicy brine margaritas. If it's booze you're after, stick with a Dickel Back ($12)—a double shot of George Dickel No. 12 chased with a glug of house brine.

Upper West Siders looking for a respite from fratty bars and faux-Irish pubs. With table service and a huge back room, Jacob's is spacious and adaptable enough to bring a mixed crowd.

A sizable menu swings among predictable comfort foods (a dish called "the obligatory mac and cheese" is a little too on the nose), Southern-fried staples (house-made biscuits, creamy grits) and nods to the neighborhood (matzo ball soup for the Jews, grilled-salmon salad for the Real Housewives). The namesake pickles don't disappoint, especially the meaty, fried Kirby cukes ($9). The crumbly biscuits don't hold up well in sandwiches ($14--$16), but we liked them smothered in sausage-and-mushroom gravy ($9). Portions are reminiscent of the Cheesecake Factory, so sharing is advisable—on the way out, you can augment your doggie bag with jars of pickles, preserves, growlers and bags of biscuits from the refrigerators up front.