If there’s one thing New York City is going to do it’s going to be give us endless opportunities to stuff our faces with the absolute most delicious food–our city really doesn’t hold back in that department. The only downside: the options can definitely can be a bit overwhelming.
From waterfront dining and the city’s most beautiful restaurants to the most romantic restaurants and outdoor dining (shall we go on?) figuring out where to make your next reservation is sure to make your head spin.
Thankfully, the New York Times–more specifically restaurant critic Pete Wells–put together a list of New York City’s top 100 restaurants for 2024 based on his decade of reviewing. And he isn’t holding back either.
Wells is giving us everything from upscale, smooth leather seat dining to spots where you’ll use your hand as a table and eat while standing up on the sidewalk, but that’s the beauty of NYC!
As for the number one best restaurant in all of NYC, that title (once again) goes to…drumroll please…Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi in NYC’s Upper West Side.
Go ahead, ask Resy to ping you when a table at Tatiana becomes available. You might as well learn Icelandic while you’re at it, because you’re going to be waiting a while. Deep into its second year, after much of the hype about Mr. Onwuachi’s spirited rundown of Black cooking styles in New York (Southern, Caribbean, West African, bodega-esque) has blown over, Tatiana remains among the very few places in town where reservations are truly hard to come by. It’s quickly becoming an institution. Is it maturing, too? The truffled chopped cheese is now a satisfying and rather lush steak sandwich, a more fully realized recipe even though it may no longer quite qualify as a chopped cheese. Service can still register as under-rehearsed. Yet the people working at Tatiana, many of them newcomers in the restaurant trade, convey genuine warmth and enthusiasm, which I’ll gladly take over the chilly formalities that prevail in other restaurants that charge this much or more for dinner. Mr. Onwuachi clearly wants you to have fun at Tatiana, but I suspect he also wants you to ask why there aren’t more places like it.
As for the top restaurants in NYC’s other boroughs, Brooklyn’s best is Blanca (offering upscale New American tasting menus in Bushwick), Queens’ best is Trinciti Roti Shop (for Trini chicken curry doubles and aloo pies), The Bronx’s best is (once again) La Piraña Lechonera (Puerto Rican in the South Bronx and 6th overall) and Staten Island’s best is Shaw-naé’s House (soul-food spot serving “soul fries” where mac and cheese, fried chicken, and collard greens are piled over French fries).
The full list is as follows:
1. Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi (American, Caribbean, Creole – UWS)
2. Blanca (Seasonal, Tasting Menu – Bushwick)
3. Le Bernardin (French, Seafood – Midtown)
4. Atomix (Korean – Rose Hill)
5. Via Carota (Italian – West Village)
6. La Piraña Lechonera (Puerto Rican – South Bronx)
7. Semma (Indian – Greenwich Village)
8. Superiority Burger (Diner, Vegetarian – East Village)
9. Yoshino (Japanese – NoHo)
10. Torrisi (Italan – NoLita)
11. Estela (New American – NoLita)
12. Una Pizza Napoletana (Pizza – LES) (obviously, they are the best pizzeria in the country after all!)
13. Ci Siamo (Italian – Chelsea)
14. ABCV (Vegetarian, New American – Union Square)
15. CheLi (Chinese – East Village & Flushing)
16. Jeju Noodle Bar (Korean, West Village)
17. The Four Horsemen (New American – Williamsburg)
18. Trinciti Roti Shop (Trinidadian & Tobagonian – South Ozone Park)
19. Jean-Georges (French – UWS)
20. Mam (Vietnamese – LES)
21. Casa Mono and Bar Jamón (Spanish – Union Square)
22. Kono (Japanese – Chinatown)
23. Queens Night Market (Various cuisines – Corona)
24. Café Carmellini (American, French, Italian – NoMad)
25. Sailor (American, English, Mediterranean – Fort Greene)
26. Eyval (Iranian – East Williamsburg)
27. King (Italian – South Village)
28. Le Coucou (French – SoHo)
29. Zaab Zaab (Thai – Elmhurst)
30. Atoboy (Korean – NoMad)
31. Houseman (New American – Hudson Square)
32. Shion 69 Leonard Street (Japanese – TriBeCa)
33. Gramercy Tavern (New American – Gramercy)
34. I Sodi (Italian – West Village)
35. Daniel (French – UES)
36. Szechuan Mountain House (Chinese – East Village & other)
37. Koloman (French, Viennese – NoMad)
38. Claud (New American, French – East Village)
39. Rezdôra (Italian – Flatiron)
40. Okdongsik (Korean – Koreatown)
41. Misi (Italian – Williamsburg)
42. Frenchette (French – TriBeCa)
43. Ernesto’s (Spanish – LES)
44. Forever Jerk (Jamaican – East NY)
45. Raku (Japanese – East Village & SoHo)
46. Clover Hill (Tasting – Brooklyn Heights)
47. Aquavit (Scandinavian – Midtown East)
48. Gage & Tollner (Seafood, Americana – Downtown Brooklyn)
49. Don Peppe (Italian American – Ozone Park)
50. Shaw-naé’s House (American, Soul Food – Stapleton Heights)
51. Barbuto (New American, Italian – Meatpacking District)
52. Yoon Haeundae Galbi (Korean – Koreatown)
53. Foul Witch (Italian – East Village)
54. Dhamaka (Indian – LES)
55. The Grill (Americana – Midtown East)
56. Contento (Peruvian – East Harlem)
57. Mercado Little Spain (Spanish – Hudson Yards)
58. Le Rock (French – Midtown)
59. Great N.Y. Noodletown (Chinese – Chinatown)
60. Village Cafe (Azerbaijani – Gravesend)
61. Aska (Scandinavian – Williamsburg)
62. Txikito (Spanish – Chelsea)
63. Craft (New American – Gramercy)
64. Lodi (Italian – Midtown)
65. Falafel Tanami (Israeli – Midwood)
66. Barney Greengrass (Deli, Diner – UWS)
67. Le Crocodile (French – Williamsburg)
68. Chongqing Lao Zao (Chinese – Flushing)
69. AbuQir Seafood (Egyptian, Seafood – Astoria)
70. Birria-Landia (Mexican – Jackson Heights & others)
71. Shukette (Middle Eastern – Chelsea)
72. Hainanese Chicken House (Malaysian – Sunset Park)
73. Mark’s Off Madison (Italian – Midtown)
74. Ayat (Palestinian – Bay Ridge & others)
75. Dirt Candy (Vegetarian – LES)
76. Llama Inn (Peruvian – Williamsburg)
77. Oiji Mi (Korean – Flatiron)
78. S & P Lunch (Diner, Deli – Flatiron)
79. Mariscos El Submarino (Mexican – Jackson Heights)
80. Temple Canteen (Indian – Flushing)
81. Foxface Natural (New American, Seasonal – East Village)
82. Kafana (Serbian – Alphabet City)
83. M. Wells (Québécois, French – LIC)
84. Hakka Cuisine (Chinese, Chinatown)
85. Wildair (New American – LES)
86. 188 Bakery Cuchifritos (Puerto Rican, Dominican – Fordham Heights)
87. Hav & Mar (Seafood – Chelsea)
88. Eulalie (American, French, Southern – TriBeCa)
89. Hamburger America (Diner, Sandwich – SoHo)
90. Laghman Express (Uyghur – Bensonhurst)
91. Mapo Korean BBQ (Korean – Flushing)
92. Cha Ka Qellu (Albanian – Belmont & other)
93. Vendors at Junction Boulevard (Mexican, Ecuadorean – Corona)
94. Shopsin’s General Store (Diner – LES)
95. Hyderabadi Zaiqa (Indian – Midtown)
96. Caleta 111 (Peruvian – Richmond Hill)
97. Zum Stammtisch (German – Glendale)
98. Lakruwana (Sri Lanken – Stapleton Heights)
99. Ewe’s Delicious Treats (Nigerian, West African – New Lots)
100. Randazzo’s Clam Bar (Italian American, Seafood – Sheepshead Bay)
Read more about each of NYC’s top 100 restaurants on New York Times’ website here.