Manhattan's 37 best restaurants

Sometimes, when you really love a piece of music, it stings a little to hear it in a convenience store or from a passing car. The song was your thing. Its easy for Kochi to feel like your thing, but you’ll want to tell everyone you know to go. “Go to Kochi,” you will shout, “it has a marvelous menu of skewers like doenjang-marinated grilled halibut, slow cooked pork tenderloin and crispy shrimp with charred eggplant sauce, all inspired by Korean royal court cuisine,” you will command, and then everyone will clap. Go to Kochi.  

Click and clack through the regal lobby leading to Crown Shy and know that you’ve made it. This is our top special occasion spot when reservations are available, ideally at a table in view of the elegant open kitchen. Our favorite order is still the reverently presented braised short rib that’s been on the menu since Crown Shy’s opening, a few Crown cocktails topped with all manner of lush botanicals, followed by the sticky toffee pudding for two. On no-occasion nights, we like to sit at the bar and start to feel like something good is bound to happen. Once we order the gruyère fritters, it usually does.

The last reservation we made here was for five doggone forty-five in the afternoon, because it’s too tough a ticket at primetime. And we snapped that early hour right up, as any opportunity to taste Rezdôra’s strozzapreti, tagliolini, cappelletti and other exquisite handmade pastas familiar to Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region is a golden one. We usually order à la carte, but Rezdôra also has one of the most memorable tasting menus in the city.

Sushi Nakazawa is at the top of its class without the prices to match. You can book its exquisitely sourced twenty-course tasting for $120 in the dining room or $150 at the counter. That is still a lot of money! But similar experiences at the best sushi restaurants in the city roll up into the hundreds. Nakazawa’s brilliant sake pairing is an additional $90, which is also relatively affordable compared to its contemporaries. 

The front door of this fine-dining Korean restaurant from the husband-and-wife team behind Atoboy is hidden in the foyer of a walk-up apartment building on the edge of Nomad. Beyond the bar, a flight of stairs brings you to the basement, where you can enjoy snacks on couches in the stone-floor lounge before taking a seat at one of the 14 chairs at the black-granite counter overlooking the kitchen.

Dhamaka was one of 2021's best new restaurants in NYC and in the world, and it’s practically peerless. Boasting recipes from “the other side of India,” its gurda kapoora (goat kidney, testicles, red onion and pao) doh khleh (pork with lime, cilantro, onion and ginger) and champaran meat (mutton, garlic, red chili) are all uncommon in the five boroughs. 

One of NYC's best steakhouses and finest Korean BBQ spots is tops for when it's time to impress. Smokeless grills at each table ensure each bit of beautiful meat is just the right doneness and create a little activity among parties. 

Executive chef Shenarri Freeman’s Cadence quickly became one of NYC’s best restaurants of 2021 after it opened in a gleaming jewel box space last year. It has since moved to a larger, also lovely location right across the street to accommodate the consistent crowds hungry for the vegan soul food spot's can’t-miss dishes like southern fried lasagna. 

This NYC classic first opened in 1994, winning awards and fans over the intervening decades. It presently has two configurations. The bar-adjacent tavern is a little more casual, with à la carte items like roasted oysters, duck liver mousse, fish, chicken and pork mains. The dining room in the back is a confirmed splurge; $165 per person for a seasonal tasting menu that could include courses like marinated scallops, asparagus risotto, roasted duck breast and angel food cake. 

Masa alums Kevin Chen and Jacky Ye brought their industry knowledge and expert knife skills to this two table sushi operation last year, soon securing a spot on our lists of the city’s best. Have a backup plan if the few available seats are occupied, but do not miss the fantastic sushi and sashimi they’re slicing on the spot here.

Executive chef Ayesha Nurdjaja’s follow-up to Shuka was impossibly popular as soon as it opened last year, and the crowds have not cooled since. The seasonal Middle Eastern menu includes the light and brightly garlicky toum, freshly baked breads, a great whole porgy and plenty of sensational red meat plates. 

Chinese hot pot, customarily stewed with thinly sliced meats, vegetables and stock, gets a brothless showcase at this East Village eatery from owner Ning Amelie Kang and chef Qilong Zhao. Ma la means numbing and spicy, and the restaurant’s starring dish is a variation on Chongqing-hailing dry pot, a stir-fry-like spread built with a choice of 52 add-ins.

Situated on Prince Street since 1975, Raoul’s is made for red wine and romance. French by way of Soho with tartare, foie gras, moules frites and roast chicken on the menu, few places still feel as thoroughly Gotham-esque as Raoul’s sumptuous back dining room where the air is always a little electric. 

Enrique Olvera is the megawatt Mexico City talent behind Pujol, regularly ranked one of the 20 best restaurants in the world. His stateside debut Cosme, a bare-concrete Flatiron dining room, was similarly received upon opening and it remains popular today.

Frenchette and its confounding knives have been wildly popular since it first opened in 2018. An abundance of comforting French fare like duck frites smothered in a bearnaise sauce and baked gnocchi showered with ham and cheese is worth the reservation platform two-step. 

Time Out New York Best of the City award winner Sidney’s Five is all about fun, but not in a way where they’re going to make you get up and dance to do trivia or anything. It’s more of a show-don’t-tell type of place, with a ton of martini options (including a cute mini trio!) and delicious andouille corn dogs. It feels like a lowkey party where you don’t know anyone and there’s no pressure for introductions. 

One of NYC's finest and most refined plant-based restaurants, Dirt Candy always innovates. Its five-course tasting changes with the seasons, and might include vegan "caviar," tomato tart with smoked feta and carrot gnocchi. 

Hits at this Peruvian-influenced restaurant and wine bar include a couple of ceviche preparations, duck liver mousse and short ribs with udon noodles in peanut sauce. Wine’s the thing here and the cocktails are terrific, too. Contento’s brick-lined space was designed with an ethos of “accessibility to all,” including at about half of its bar, which is positioned at a height to accommodate wheelchair users. 

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s first meat-free venture looks like Gwyneth Paltrow’s sketchbook: The spacious room is a Goop-y stretch of white furniture, with pops of color courtesy of artisanal ceramic plateware, and rosy wall panels. Each menu arrives with a chart that details the health benefits of various vegetables, and each dish is delicious. 

If you aren't already an amateur food photographer, Kopitaim's beautifully plated dishes will inspire the new hobby. And there are more than enough items to capture. Order a lovely pandan chicken, nasi lemak or belachan wings and don't forget to enjoy 'em while you're racking up the likes. 

Belle Harlem was fashioned to feel like an intimate dinner party when it first opened with an à la carte menu in 2016. Its later shift to tasting menus seems even moreso; when’s the last time you ordered a particular dish at a pal’s pad? Previous hits included mac-and-cheese spring rolls with bacon marmalade, buttermilk fried chicken with lemon-ricotta waffles and filet mignon with charred cream leeks and lollipop kale.

This bright cafeteria is an NYC timecapsule—glossies of celebs spanning the past century line the walls, and the classic Jewish deli offerings are nonpareil. Start with a a legendary sandwich. The brisket sings with horseradish, and the thick-cut pastrami stacked high between slices of rye is peak form. Everything tastes better with a glass of the hoppy house lager; if you’re on the wagon, make it a Dr. Brown’s.

Quick, convenient and satisfying, Mamoun's Falafel has been a MacDougal Street staple from morning until late since 1971. Its classic falafel sandwich in a soft pita with hot sauce and tahineh is a favorite, and shawarma plates, dips and pastries are available too.

Canal Street is bursting with activity, including in its namesake food-hall. Canal Street Market's clear standout vendor is Joe's Steam Rice Roll, the first New York expansion of the Queens favorite. 

For New Yorkers, lining up at Russ & Daughters is a time-honored morning tradition. Pull a ticket, wait for your number to be called, then sidle up to the glass cases to gawk at the stunning sable and sturgeon. The routine hasn’t changed much since the smoked-fish emporium opened more than a century ago.

Globally-inspired soul food takes center stage at Marcus Samuelsson's Harlem bistro. The former Aquavit chef-turned culinary celebrity's present menus include chicken and waffles, pan fried catfish and shrimp and grits. 

Minetta Tavern was one of the toughest reservations in town when Keith McNally gave it his inimitable treatment and reopened the erstwhile writer hangout in 2009. Today, you can still slip into the bar when dinner service begins at 5pm to witness a whirlwind of fast-filling tables, or book a reservation of your own for bone marrow, escargots, steaks, pasta and the much-discussed $38 Black Label burger. 

Kajitsu serves shojin cuisine, meat-free preparations that trace to Zen Buddhism, in a tranquil environment that will put you at ease. Each course is an artful representation of simplicity and seasonality. 

The lunch counter is tiny and cramped, but it’s also one of our favorite places in the whole city. Here, you'll meet people from all walks of life: Your neighbor, the mailman, the person you know you know from somewhere. It's one of the last remaining old New York spots in the neighborhood.

Teranga serves West African–inspired dishes in a fast-casual café at The Africa Center, which is a cultural hub that’s “committed to an integrated approach for understanding all aspects of the African continent, including transforming narratives.” Chef Pierre Thiam’s menus help tell the story.

Sylvia's, a soul food restaurant in Harlem, has been a neighborhood staple since 1962. Today, its operated by "The Queen of Soul Food" Sylvia Woods' family, and it still serves "world famous bar-b-que ribs & fried chicken," traditional collard greens and fried shrimp, catfish or whiting. 

New York City's classic steakhouse, Keens is full of history and trinkets from guests of yore like Babe Ruth, J.P. Morgan and Teddy Roosevelt. It is the obvious destination for a filet, porterhouse or sirloin, but the mutton chop is popular too. 

You’ve got to make it through the reservations ringer to gain access to chef David Chang’s slim tasting menu. The ever-evolving 12 to 15 courses feature dishes like raw fluke in a coating of tangy, mellow buttermilk, poppy seeds and house-made chili sauce or a frozen foie-gras torchon, shaved over lychee puree and pine-nut brittle. Whatever the evening's order, it’s all brilliantly executed.

This spot sports a fashionably cookie-cutter decor—exposed brick, globe lights, hulking marble bar, you know the drill—but the true draw to the space is the talented Ignacio Mattos, the imaginative Uruguayan-born chef cooking in this Mediterranean-tinged spot. 

Crowds started gathering at Via Carota, the first joint effort from chef power couple Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, when it opened in 2014, and interest in the trattoria only seems to keep growing year after year. Try your luck for a spot to see why people keep coming back for pasta, steak, fish dishes and one of Manhattan’s most famous salads. 

Wildair, the 45-seat sister restaurant to chef Jeremiah Stone and pastry chef Fabian von Hauske’s avant-garde tasting-menu den, Contra, is two doors from the original. Wildair is set with sardine-packed bar tables, a fuzzy midaughts soundtrack and neighborhood affability. And though its snacky, à la carte menu has less sharp-edged experimentation than Contra’s, you will catch the occasional low-key innovation.

Steaming rice-noodle bowls of the Yunnan province and tear-springing orders of spicy Szechuan dry pot are a celebration of regional Chinese cuisine at artist and Hunan native Chao Wang's slurp shop.