15 More NYC Restaurants I Love
As you know, recommending restaurants is basically my favorite thing. Here’s my 1st NYC Restaurants I Love list, and today I’m telling you all about 15 more spots I love—in this section, I made sure to add a few more affordable/fast/casual spots…when we’re traveling, I love to pick a couple big-night-out spots, but we always also need some quick & easy options, and this list has a handful of both. As ever, it’s focused on Manhattan, especially Chelsea & the West Village, but there’s a perfect pre-theater spot and my favorite Brooklyn slice, too.
1. Via Carota Jody Williams and Rita Sodi are legends, and they have several beautiful jewel-box restaurants in the West Village, among them Buvette, on my top 15 list. Via Carota is Italian, and I absolutely love it. The food is delicious, and the space is so gorgeous. It’s hard to get a reservation—I think every time I’ve been it’s been like at 4 on a Wednesday or 11 on a Tuesday–but it’s well worth it. Get a negroni, the green salad (it’s famous!), and a couple pastas and vegetables to share.
Fini Pizza A neighborhood slice shop in Williamsburg, but updated & done at a really high level. The white slice with lemon is PERFECTION.
Shake Shack We love the original at Madison Square Park—it’s one of our favorite places to go when the weather turns just a little warm in the spring. And now there’s one right by the Whitney, under the Highline in the Meatpacking District, and we love that one, too. The Shack Burger is my favorite kind of burger—thin patties with lots of charred smoky edges, creamy sauce and American cheese, a soft bun. Henry and William are both BIG milkshake guys, and Shake Shack never disappoints. When you’re putting together your NYC itinerary, definitely include at least one Shake Shack stop.
Balaboosta You know that Israeli food is my current obsession (see also Shukette & Laser Wolf on the first list…). Balaboosta is a stylish, delicious restaurant on Husdon in the West Village—the food is fantastic and as a bonus, it’s a little under-the-radar, meaning when it’s a night that you forgot to get reservations, you might be able to slide in here and you’ll be so glad you did. Get the whipped feta, the cauliflower, and the tahdig rice. One more thing: Balaboosta is from the same family as Taim, the hummus and falafel fast casual spot—also a great place to have on your radar for some of the best falafel in the city.
S & P Lunch On 5th Avenue, from the team at Court Street Grocers. An old school vibe and very good food. The boys and I like to sit at the counter. If you’re shopping on 5th, this is the perfect place to stop for an old-NYC experience. My go-to order is a Flatiron Delight (the slaw! The swiss! The Russian dressing!) and a Dr. Brown’s Celery Soda.
Bandits I love a good bar, and I love good bar food. This spot is in a great neighborhood, feels a little nostalgic, and serves a vegan tuna melt that I dream about regularly. Great cocktails, solid happy hour drink specials, and very good tater tots.
Freeman's One of our favorites since before we moved to New York—we used to make it a point to eat there every visit, and now we love to go back for anniversaries or special occasions. It’s on the Lower East Side, at the end of a graffiti-covered alley, but inside it feels a cozy country inn, and I love the juxtaposition of it—it feels quintessentially New York.
Tacombi There are a handful of these all over the city—our favorite is in Nolita, but we also love the one on the Upper West Side, and they’re also in the West Village and Flatiron. Really fun environment—loud and bright and buzzy. Very kid friendly—especially when our kids were younger, they liked how you order by checking boxes on a notepad with little golf pencils. Great tacos and burritos, and delicious margaritas. Get the esquites, of course.
Locanda Verde A beautiful Italian spot in the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca—definitely pop over to peek at the hotel lobby and courtyard…soooo pretty. Their whipped ricotta is perfection, and their seasonal ravioli is always good. It’s fancy and delicious, a great special occasion spot, but also low-key enough for a cozy lunch with a friend.
Sullivan Street Bakery A bazillion years ago, when I wanted to learn to bake bread, I started with Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread Recipe in the New York Times…and it’s still the only bread I bake (besides Aunt Mary’s Raisin Bread, of course!). Imagine my delight when we discovered an outpost of Jim Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery right in our neighborhood. I go on Saturdays after stopping at the farmer’s market, and if I need last minute snacks for a gathering, I stop in there for Roman pizza slices, the olive strecchi, and their double chocolate cookies. And if I need a thank you or hostess gift, a box of bomboloni is perfect.
Au Cheval Au Cheval and Shake Shack are my two most beloved burgers in the city—it’s the thin patties for me. Au Cheval was one of our favorite Chicago restaurants, and when we first visited the one in Tribeca, I had the strongest taste-memory collision, almost like being transported back to another self, another place, another time. Every bite is great.
Quality Bistro I always get questions about where to go before a Broadway show, and this is the move, because BUTTER SERVICE. They culture their own butter, and then they roll out a fancy little cart with the butter, grilled bread, salt, chilies, shallots, country ham, leeks, eggplant, chorizo, and probably like five other things I can’t remember. It’s absurd/wonderful. You’re basically having fancy toast for dinner.
Get a reservation before you go to a show. Start with the butter, obviously. Get the french onion soup and the caesar salad to make yourself feel like you’re not having butter for dinner (You’re 100% having butter for dinner.) And then definitely order the pistachio crème brulee. Perfect pre-show dinner.
Coppelia On 14th Street, a delightful mash-up of 24-hour diner and a Cuban restaurant, with reasonable prices. What that means is that our family can get, say, ropa vieja, a waffle and a milkshake, excellent chilaquiles, and scrambled eggs with bacon—and that means everyone’s happy.
Miznon Yes, more Israeli food! At Chelsea Market, a beloved Tel Aviv outpost. It’s loud and loose and fun, and the food is delicious. Get the folded cheeseburger pita, the cauliflower, and whatever cocktail they’re making with arak.
Dead Rabbit Voted best cocktail program in the world several years running, and with good reason. The space itself sort of feels like the set of Hamilton, and also very much like a Belfast pub, which is exactly what it was intended to feel like. If you’re a cocktail person, this is on the must-visit list—they’re complicated but perfectly done, and not fussy. And the food is meticulous—great oysters, perfect scotch eggs. Like the platonic ideal of an Irish pub, all the way down at the southernmost tip of Manhattan.