The most challenging question to answer, whether it comes from a lifelong New Yorker or a first-time visitor: “Which restaurants should I visit in New York City?” If you want to do New York Travel, you must know of it.
There are more than 25,000 restaurants. So surely, finding the best restaurants among them is confusing. This best restaurants in New York City guide will help you find the top restaurants in NYC.
Here you can find a list of the best restaurants in New York City. After visiting them, you will go there again and again. While you are doing travel, ensure that you have this list. While testing the food, don’t forget to visit the best places in New York City.
Since tourism numbers have increased, the best tables in the city are once again highly sought after. And don’t forget to choose the best seasons to visit in New York City.
So, let’s dive into the list and check out their specialty!
- Kochi
- Crown Shy
- Dhamaka
- Gage & Tollner
- Gramercy Tavern
- Le Bernardin
- Rezdôra
- Atoboy
- Sushi Nakazawa
- Ugly Baby
- Clover Hill
1. Kochi
Inspired by plates presented to the Korean royal court, chef Sung Shim (Le Bernardin, Per Se) debuts a fine-dining spot with a nine-course tasting menu. The $75 meal will include baby-blowfish tempura, rice cakes with pear, and black sesame ice cream pops.
Kochi offers a nine-course tasting menu, supplemented by an abalone course, an homage to Korean royal cuisine, inspired by street food. Using seasonal ingredients, Kochi presents jewel-like dishes to diners.
Korean cuisine is full of facets, from delicate flavors to the riot of textures and techniques in the bibimbap.
Ordering everything on the menu is usually daydreams, but at Kochi, it’s possible. Courses include charcoal-grilled Spanish mackerel and braised short ribs.
2. Crown Shy
Crown Shy is Chef James Kent’s first solo project. A neighborhood seasonal restaurant elevated by fine dining training and technique influenced by James’ upbringing in downtown New York.
It is located on the ground floor of the Art Deco masterpiece 70 Pine Street, the dining room and bar occupy multiple rooms with an abundance of 16-foot-ceiling windows leading to an open kitchen.
Crown Shy’s food is rooted in European techniques but draws inspiration from worldwide. It includes flavors from childhood, traveling, and New York City cuisine.
3. Dhamaka
Dhamaka is an Indian restaurant in New York City. Chintan Pandya and Roni Mazumdar of Unapologetic Foods run the restaurant. The founders aim to highlight regional Indian dishes rather than northern or southern Indian foods.
Dhamaka is not a restrained restaurant. It’s one of abundance and vitality. He shares dishes we rarely see on American menus, like the restaurant’s acclaimed rabbit dish from Rajasthan, which must be ordered in advance, based on India’s regional cuisines.
There is also doh khleh, a chili-laced pork salad with cilantro and ginger from Meghalaya near Bangladesh. Moreover, there’s chenna poda from a state in eastern India below Kolkata, a baked cheese dessert.
Some dishes, like the exceptional goat neck dum biryani served in a pot sealed with thin flatbread, are bigger. Check with your server about the number of items to order.
4. Gage & Tollner
Gage & Tollner was a cornerstone of Brooklyn restaurant culture for more than a century. The space is as lovely as we thought, with hearty, decadent menu offerings and occasional throwbacks. Here, bar seats are reserved for walk-ins, which makes entry easier.
Holiday Magazine announces the first annual Restaurant Awards, recognizing Gage & Tollner as “one of the world’s best seafood restaurants” and the only Brooklyn restaurant to make the list. G&T received this award for three more decades.
5. Gramercy Tavern
Gramercy Tavern, one of America’s most beloved restaurants, has offered its guests a warm welcome, contemporary American cuisine, and unmatched service since it opened over two decades ago. Chef Michael Anthony’s ever-evolving seasonal menu showcases the restaurant’s relationships with local farms and purveyors.
It’s a fun night-out vibe in the dining room and tavern spaces up front, with a great bar. There’s a $165 five-course tasting in the dining room that includes sirloin or roasted duck breast, or you can eat a la carte in the (also lovely) tavern section for under $38.
6. Le Bernardin
Le Bernardin has been one of the best restaurants in New York City and the world for decades. What you want to do here is get all in for superstar Eric Ripert’s tasting menu. The fish that dominates his prix fixe is mainly untouched, save for the most delicious flourishes, so put yourself in the very capable hands of his sauciers.
And don’t skip dessert—not at a restaurant the New York Times has recommended since 1986. The services are also what you’d expect from a restaurant of this reputation. Everyone is so attentive it can almost be overwhelming (in a pleasant way, but in a positive way).
Eric Ripert’s temple to fine dining still holds onto four-star status from the New York Times. Since 1986, the classic French restaurant has served seafood, from tuna tartare to halibut to Dover sole. And yes, a vegetarian-friendly menu rivals the pescatarian one, with courses centered around hearts of palm, artichokes, and white asparagus.
7. Rezdôra
Rezdôra is one of the best restaurants in New York City and a 2021 Michelin Star recipient from Chef Stefano Secchi and Partner David Switzer. It is located in the New York Flatiron neighborhood.
The menu celebrates Emilia Romagna cuisine and is centered around house-made pasta, a nod to the restaurant’s name, which translates to “head of household”-usually a nonna who hand rolls pasta. Traditionally prepared meat, fish, local vegetables, and Northern Italian wines complement the offerings.
Dinner at Rezdôra feels like an entirely different culinary experience, even for pasta night veterans. Individual plates are available. But its $98 regional pasta tasting is an exciting tour of the restaurant’s most delicious. Prime-time reservations are still tough to get, but you should be able to check in for weekday lunch.
8. Atoboy
ATOBOY is a restaurant in the NoMad area that focuses on Korean-inspired cuisine. Chef Junghyun Park’s array of modern Korean small plates is presented in five courses for $75. Their fried chicken with spicy peanut sauce and gochujang sauce is available for $28.
Tasting menus are one of the most enjoyable ways to sample as much as possible. Still, some are too rigid and prohibitively expensive. Park’s prix-fixes are cheaper than most, and you’ll choose from a few options for most courses.
9. Sushi Nakazawa
This city is full of expensive omakase. Sushi Nakazawa has all the exquisite quality and reverent ambiance of its tip-top price peers for a slightly less account-clearing sum. It is not unusual to see $300+ chef selections from the best restaurants in New York City.
However, reservations at Nakazawa’s counter are $180 for 20 palate-changing courses such as fatty tuna, sea urchin, and yellowtail. There is a $150 peaceful dining room, and the perfect sake pairings are $90. Nakazawa followed his eponymous top with Saito in 2022.
Some traditionalists found Sushi Nakazawa’s mix of American and Japanese sensibilities offputting. But it helped introduce Tokyo-style omakase, in which the chef decided what you would eat based on a close reading of the ocean’s seasons and, to some extent, pure whim.
It was for New Yorkers who weren’t necessarily Japanese culture students. You didn’t need to know that shiny-skinned fish are called Hikari-mono or that kohada come into season in April to enjoy a meal at Sushi Nakazawa. You just watched it happen.
10. Ugly Baby
Ugly Baby is a Thai restaurant that will test your heat tolerance. It was an immediate hit when it opened in Carroll Gardens in 2017. Half a decade later, its popularity still holds.
If you’re craving classic Ugly Baby dishes, you’ll be happy to know they’re still around. The shrimp, squid, and salted egg yolk-loaded khoong muk kai kem and the lamb pedudon with duck and copious herbs (which happens to be the spiciest thing on the menu) are both worth adding to any preset menu. These plates are some of the most delicious things here, which makes sense since they’re what made us adore the restaurant in the first place.
Ugly Baby could have stuck with these exemplary dishes and still been a top-tier restaurant in NYC. And yet, they keep reinventing the menu—a feat that reminds us of when Paul McCartney collaborated with Rihanna, and none of us were surprised that it worked.
11. Clover Hill
The best restaurant in New York City, situated on a picturesque Brooklyn street.
Restaurants five times as large wish they could do what Clover Hill does in its postage-stamp kitchen. Chef Charlie Mitchell cooks on a quiet, residential street in Brooklyn Heights with irresistible suaveness and confidence. He makes the most of top-rated ingredients, delicious sauces, and thoughtful combinations.
From Long Island fluke ceviche jolted with lime zest and sweet melon to Peekytoe crab salad wrapped in corn gelée and set in a pool of warm, silky corn velouté, expect to find vibrant, seasonal eating that never feels fussy or demanding. Under a watchful vintage mirror above the bar, the charming bistro setting, lit with flickering candles, oozes romanticism.
Conclusion
In conclusion, New York City is a culinary paradise with an incredible array of restaurants that cater to every palate and craving. The city offers a diverse and vibrant dining scene, from fine dining establishments helmed by renowned chefs to hidden gems serving delectable street food. You can also choose the best hotels in New York City to stay.
The best restaurants in New York City are not only known for their exceptional food but also for their unique ambiance, impeccable service, and the ability to capture the essence of this vibrant metropolis.
With its rich culinary heritage and constant innovation, New York City deserves its reputation as a global food capital. So, prepare your taste buds for an unforgettable journey and savor the culinary delights in the best restaurants in New York City.
