A New Yorker's Guide to the City's Best Food

New York is a prime destination for those who crave the pulse of a vibrant city, who want excitement, glamor, nightlife, and to score reservations at the hottest restaurants. Longtime New Yorkers like myself can feel a little cranky about this, and while it’s not unusual for us to have little idea where the cool kids are eating these days, that doesn’t mean we don’t care about food. 

While we’re happy to go to Via Carota when friends or relatives are in town, here’s where New Yorkers like to eat.

Galleries and Grand Sichuan

Chelsea’s art gallery district is glamorous and austere. Spend a day wandering in and out of the galleries to see the cutting edge of the contemporary art world. For dinner, head to Grand Sichuan Eastern, beloved among Chelsea residents. It’s an aggressively ordinary-looking Chinese restaurant that serves outstanding Sichuan dishes. 

Grand Sichuan, 172 8th Ave

If there’s a show at The Joyce Theater that night, you may see the dancers eating there post-performance. Cumin lamb is the must-try dish. Be brave and let them make it spicy. 

While Chelsea Market is full of tourists, the food is worth the crowds, especially if you're looking for something extra delicious without the commitment (and price tag) of a full sit-down meal. I’ll gladly wait in a long line for the adobada tacos at Los Tacos No 1 or indulge in a lobster roll at the Lobster Place. The whole roasted baby cauliflower at Miznon is also not to be missed.

Uptown’s Jewel

The Met Cloisters, the medieval branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the escape hatch for stressed-out New Yorkers needing fresh air and birdsong. Located uptown in Washington Heights, it’s a hidden gem that really should be better known and more frequently visited, though a blessing for those in the know. Constructed in 1938, the Cloisters incorporates fragments of five medieval monasteries that frame gardens and art-filled galleries that will transport you to the old world. Situated within Fort Tryon Park, which I firmly believe is New York’s most beautiful park, you can exit the subway at 190th Street and enjoy a sensory walk through the Heather Garden with a backdrop of the Hudson River.  

The Met Cloisters

The surrounding neighborhood has been home to New York’s Dominican community since the early 1980s. After visiting The Cloisters, take a quick taxi ride to El Malecon, a classic that offers the comfort of never changing. Order the whole roast chicken with maduros (sweet plantains) and yellow rice with red or black beans. The star of the meal is the green sauce served with the chicken. 

Mofongo, a classic Dominican dish 

If you want to go deeper into Dominican cuisine, order the mofongo with chicharrones. It’s a mixture of plantains and fried pork, served like a gigantic scoop of ice cream. Share it with someone else, or you’ll fall asleep on the A train as you head home.

East of Italy

New York is the best place to eat Italian food outside of Italy. Millions of Italian immigrants have profoundly shaped the city’s culture and cuisine, and our signature “fughettaboutit” sounds an awful lot like a Naples accent. 

While Don Angie and Carbone are two of the hardest-to-get reservations, locals cherish spots where we can eat top-notch Italian food and always find a table, including Il Posto Accanto in the East Village, Zero Otto Nove on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, or Flora in Park Slope. If you want real Neapolitan pizza, go find Ciro at Song’ E Napule on Houston Street or have an Italian-American chicken parmigiana at Parm.

Parm, 248 Mulberry Street

The Classics

If you live here, the pace can be exhausting, and as our skyline becomes more unrecognizable every day, there’s a lot of comfort to be found in restaurants that have been around for many unliked mayors. There are some true old-timers like Keen’s Steakhouse, open since 1885, or Patsy’s in East Harlem, which has been serving perfect pizza for 91 years.

Far younger but still classic is Decibel, an underground bar serving sake and Japanese snacks in the East Village for 30 years. Somehow, the cool kids still love this place, maybe because it has always felt edgy and cozy, which is the essence of New York. 

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Casa Mono, a Spanish tapas restaurant and wine bar with only 13 tables, has managed to stick around in Gramercy for 21 years by always making room for neighbors who get priority and a swift phone call if a reservation doesn’t show up. 

West of the Theater District

There are plenty of good and not-so-good restaurants around Times Square that know how to get you well-fed in time for an 8 pm curtain. And none of them are inexpensive. If you’re a New Yorker skilled in scoring cheap tickets, you’ll also be grabbing a more economical bite to eat on 9th Avenue. For the best Thai food in New York, go to Wondee Siam and order the mieng ka na, a salad of dried pork, peanuts, red onions, and lime, followed by crispy whole-fried fish. 

After eating all this beautiful food followed by a Broadway show, I may stop complaining about the subway long enough to proclaim New York the greatest city in the world. 

About Danielle: 

Danielle Oteri is an expert on art and architecture in Southern Italy. She was a Lecturer at the Met Cloisters and Program Director of the International Center of Medieval Art. Danielle has written about art, history, food, and travel for Conde Nast Traveler, Gothamist, NPR, The Paris Review, and Roads & Kingdoms. She founded Feast Travel, Arthur Avenue Food Tours, and Cilento Food Tours.