The 18 best Harlem restaurants in NYC

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Husband-wife team Kenichi and Keiko Tajima garnered critical kudos for their poultry-focused Harlem nook, until it closed abruptly in 2014 after its lease expired. Following the widespread success of their summer pop-up at a Tasting Social event space in East Harlem, the duo made the relocation permanent, serving their full all-fowl menu within the 31-seat, jazz-soundtracked dining room. As with the O.G. Mountain Bird, every manner of bird is broken down and judiciously used—ostrich tartare is paired with capers, cornichon and a foie gras terrine, and a head-to-toe chicken tasting plate incorporates heart bourguignonne, wing lollipop and liver mousse.

Everyone from neighborhood families to leather-clad bikers makes the pilgrimage to this perpetually packed Harlem smokehouse. Nestled under railway tracks, the bluesy, bare-brick hall slings jalapeño-crowned Texas brisket; fleshy, pull-off-the-bone pork ribs; and thick-battered fried green tomatoes drizzled with cayenne-buttermilk ranch dressing. The meats, nursed over hickory in four computerized smoking pits, are South-worthy on their own, but even more so when slicked in the smoky-sweet house BBQ sauce: The secret-recipe condiment magically transforms a notoriously tough Boston butt cut into one of the city’s most lusciously viscous pulled porks.

Some of the city's most popular restaurants serve food that satisfies on a visceral level—consistent, accessible, easy to like. Places where the music, crowd, drinks and space explain, as much as the menu, why it's packed every night. It’s a scene that sums up the instant and overwhelming success of Marcus Samuelsson's Harlem bistro, Red Rooster. The restaurant's global soul food, a "We Are the World" mix of Southern-fried, East African, Scandinavian and French, is a good honest value. But it's outshone here by the venue itself, with its hobnobbing bar scrum, potent cocktails and lively jazz. Like an uptown Pastis, the sprawling space is inviting and buzzy—the place to be, north of 110th Street.

Owned by Sylvia Woods, known around these parts as the "Queen of Soul Food," the Harlem restaurant has been a neighborhood staple since 1962, doling out down-South specialties including chicken-and-waffles, saucy barbecue ribs and cowpeas with rice.

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. CEOs, actors, politicians, news personalities and neighborhood old-timers have a long-standing arrangement with legendary owner Frankie “No” Pellegrino, and that's what ensures a seat at one of the ten tables. In fact, reading this review is probably the closest you’ll get to Rao’s.

The wildly popular Levain Bakery has been drawing the pastry-loving masses since 1995. Its 3,000-square-foot facility in Harlem does double duty as a retail shop and the center of its mail-order production. You'll find their massive, chunky cookies in homespun flavors like chocolate chip walnut, oatmeal raisin and dark-chocolate peanut butter chip.

This noodle house keeps a huge swath of uptown—everyone between 107th and 145th Streets between Riverside Drive and Central Park West, to be exact—sated with its handmade Hakata-style ramen. You can opt for shio (veggie- and chicken-stock based), shoyu (chicken stock and soy sauce) or the silky warmth of tonkotsu pork-bone stock. The creamy pork-bone stock for the spicy tonkotsu ramen is simmered on high heat for six hours to release the flavor of the marrow and is seasoned with house-made spicy soybean, roasted garlic and spicy sesame oil.

The slices of Margherita at this 1933 East Harlem original are super thin and shorter than you’ll typically find, which means the average person—okay, fine, we—can easily wolf down five to six slices each, especially when they’re fresh from the oven with that bubbling, browned cap of creamy mozzarella beneath that zippy sauce.

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 Michelle Obama) go down peppery-sweet with a splash of the hot stuff. Long spears of delicately fried okra are delivered lightly crisped, and the baked mac ’n’ cheese is gooey on the inside and bubbly-brown on top.

Tucked into the no-man’s-land between the Upper East Side and Spanish Harlem, this craft-beer cubbyhole has the sort of community-hub vibe that makes you want to settle in and become part of the furniture. The well-priced suds (including rotating craft brews and cheap cans) and slapdash setup appeal to a neighborhood crowd, but it's the madcap bar food that makes it destination-worthy. Try the NY State Cheddar, a grilled cheese featuring an unstoppable combo of braised pork belly, fried egg and house-made kimchi.