The 13 best restaurants and bars in the Bronx

This cozy neighborhood bar sits just a stone’s throw from Van Cortlandt Park. It’s definitely a locals haunt, but it also just has a welcoming vibe that makes it just as good an option for out of borough-ers and out of towners alike. Just as great for dining as it is for general boozing, the brunch menu is filled with twists on the hallowed weekend meal’s greatest hits: think mango mimosas, BBQ eggs Benedicts and breakfast burgers.

This Boogie Down saloon isn’t just the best beer bar in the Bronx—for our money, it’s unrivaled anywhere north of midtown. Uptowners have the bar’s co-owner Chris Giudice to thank: In less than four years, the brick-walled joint has become a bona fide craft headquarters, hosting boisterous guest-brewer events, doling out growlers and attracting loyalists who attempt to sample and rate 100 different quaffs for the bar’s Beer Club (members get 50% off beers for life). And thanks to a lineup of 16 domestic-leaning taps, a rotating cask and more than a dozen frequently interchanging bottles, hitting the hundred mark isn’t all that difficult.

Located deep in the belly of Bronx’s historic Arthur Avenue, the beer bar's on-trend offerings (cider, half-pints, canned craft beers) and handsome, modern digs (salvaged-wood counters, white-tile walls) have provided a jolt of youthful energy to this longtime uptown fixture. Ten taps pour a rotating selection of all-local brews (of course). Alongside bevs, David Greco—also owner of fellow neighborhood favorite Mike’s Deli, where he worked as a boy under his father—oversees an extensive menu sourced from within The Arthur Avenue Retail Market.

The pro-breakfast-for-lunch crowd will delight over Charlie’s “permanent brunch” (available seven days a week), which includes a $22 90-minute bottomless cocktail option. Menu selections are simple and straightforward—think standards like pancakes, omeletes, steak & eggs—but are also rich with flavor and soul.

Dominick’s would like you to make one thing clear: the real Little Italy is in the Bronx. At Charlie DiPaolo’s pinewood dining room—arguably the most popular on Arthur Avenue—neighborhood folks, out-of-towners and tracksuited wise guys feast on massive platters of veal parmigiana, steaming bowls of mussels marinara and linguine with white clam sauce at long, crowded tables. There’s no written menu, but you can trust your waiter’s advice.

An homage to the birthplace of hip hop, Beatstro is a celebration of the culture and history of the South Bronx. The menu is influenced by cuisines native to the neighborhood’s longstanding Puerto Rican and Black populations, with dishes like peaches & cream French toast, low country inspired shrimp & grits, pernil, and chicken & waffles served alongside “dranks that would make Big Pun proud.”

With over six decades of beloved service in the neighborhood under their belts, Louie and Ernie’s has more than earned a top spot on this list. Go for the sausage pie, filled juicy, fennel-spiked chunks of sausage from the S&D Pork Store a few blocks down are held in place—well, just barely—by a bunch of salty melted cheese. It's a hot, creamy mess of pizza-and-pork deliciousness. Yes, you will need a napkin—and a nap afterward.

At this small Bengali outlet, the chef greets us with a warm “What can I get for you, brother?” We settle on the chicken curry, loaded with large hunks of yielding meat in a thick, rich sauce, along with lau chingri, squares of herb-laced squash tossed with shrimp. One customer recommends the goat biryani, calling the grains of rice perfumed with a heady mix of cardamom and mixed with cubes of gamey meat a perfect example of Bangladeshi food. 

This Morris Park beacon is famous among chowhounds for its brick-oven pizza, and that’s not all Patricia’s does right. Antipasti options include buttery stuffed artichoke, crispy octopus, and creamy Buratta . You can’t go wrong with the Spaghetti Frank Sinatra, which is chock full of shrimp, clams, black olives, capers and fresh tomatoes. As for dessert, go for the chocolate-polenta cake and be sure to order an espresso,which is served with a tiny bottle of anisette, along with it for a perfect night cap.

Put your hungry self in the capable hands of Roberto Paciullo, a Salerno native who runs a no-frills eatery in the Bronx’s venerable Italian enclave. Grab a seat at one of the wooden tables, and let Paciullo create a proper four-course feast from the blackboard specials. Tasty, tentacle-heavy grilled calamari has the meaty consistency of steak; tinfoil-baked radiatore come bathed in a vibrant red sauce or olive oil; and short ribs ossobuco shines in a rich chili-pepper-and-beer red wine sauce and paired with risotto and cannellini beans. It’s all blissfully simple.

If a vibe were a place, Rosa’s would be it. From the Insta-ready backdrop at the entrance to the picture-perfect dishes on offer, you’ll leave this Wingate Hotel outpost feeling fly—and full (the sweet potato waffle sliders are especially divine). While the bottomless mimosas max out after 90 minutes, brunch is available all day (from 3 to 8:30 P.M. on Fridays, and from 11 A.M. until 8:30 P.M. on Saturdays and Sundays).

While there are a plethora of beer makers and purveyors in the neighborhood, there’s something really special about the Bronx Brewery. Known for their regularly updated special releases and meticulously curated onsite events, you are sure to have a good time no matter the day of week or time of year that you visit. Come with an appetite so you can soak up the beer with rich and cheesy empanadas and pizza from local makers Empanology and Empie.

This colorful taqueria is named for the Nahuatl (an Aztecan language) word meaning “tortilla.” Sip a creamy, cinnamon-dusted horchata while a cook in the open kitchen works to the sound of Mexican rock & roll, stuffing flatbread rounds with plump shrimp, garnishing them with diced onions, cilantro and lime juice. Not a fan of shrimp? A long list of additional fillings—including funky, crackling tripe and subtly gamey goat —seriously ups the authenticity quotient.