New York City food

(updated Aug 2024)

Intro

Lots of folks ask me for tips on food in my neighborhood and NYC in general so here's a few of my very Lower East Side-centric tips. There's tons of info online about the restaurant scene here – you don't need me to tell you that Masa and Le Bernardin are great places to eat, but check out EaterNY or the Michelin Bib Gourmand list if you want to read up on some places for yourself.

A great watch on the plane ride here is The Sturgeon Queens – a documentary about the legendary Russ and Daughters appetizing shop and the Lower East Side's culinary history. Lots of celebrity cameos including Ruth Bader Ginsberg!

Doing schmaltz shots with Nikki Russ at the Russ and Daughters Cafe!

Food

Covid burned through New York City's dining scene like a terrible wildfire. So many favorites are gone that updating this list brings an actual tear to my eye, but some promising things are rising from the ashes.

My favorite things right now are:

Saigon Social is making some delicious Vietnamese food. The softshell crab banh mi is amazing, as are the garlic noodles.
The pork-filled pineapple bun from Mei Lai Wah in Chinatown is one of my favorite snacks.
Kisa serves "KBBQ for 1" meals that are popular with Korean taxi drivers (where a big group for BBQ isn't possible)
Raku on 6th Street in the East Village has fantastic hot and cold Udon
Okiboru for amazing Tsukemen. Late lunch is a good time to avoid the line here.
Mr. Taka Ramen is one of the best ramen places in the city. Nakamura is great too, as is Ivan Ramen, whose rye flour noodles are a fantastic nod to the chef's Jewish background.
Kings County Imperial opened an outpost on Delancey. Their soup dumplings are amazing.
Dhamaka is making some of the best Indian food in the city, and their cocktails are super tasty, too. The baked-in-bread goat neck biryani is a must-try. Book early!
Te Company* reopened their tea salon, so go join them for an incredible selection of Taiwanese tea and the most amazing pineapple linzer cookies and cakes. Also, their leek bun is the closest thing to Hu Jiao Bing you'll find in the city.

goat neck biryani at Dhamaka

Mei Lai Wah pork-filled pineapple bun

Kisa serves a bit of Korean Taxi Driver culture - it's 'KBBQ for 1'

Lower East Side Jewish brunch

The Lower East Side is the spiritual home of the bagel. Kossars on Grand Street is the best bet for getting fresh warm bagels in the morning, but Davidovich in Essex Market is a decent stand-in. A few steps from Kossars is Pickle Guys. I love their "new pickles" and the half-sours. Also the pickled radishes and the pickled pineapple.
Doughnut Plant is next to Kossars. Their crème brûlée donut is amazing. So is the coconut-filled one.
Black Seed has Montreal-style bagels if you're into that sorta thing.
Russ and Daughters has bagels and an amazing selection of lox, smoked whitefish and pickles to go with your bagels. They also have fresh squeezed orange juice. Get the chocolate babka. You're on vacation, it has no calories, right? If you wanna go all the way to 11, make the chocolate Babka into French toast.
Put all of those things together and you have an amazing Lower East Side breakfast.
If that's too much work, you can just go to the new Russ and Daughters Cafe and have them make it all for you. (Get an order of Babka French Toast for the table to share!)
If you want less fish in your jewish breakfast (or lunch), Katz's Deli is awesome if you can get there in between the tour buses (I recommend 11am). Do NOT lose the ticket they give you when you enter! Get the pickled green tomatoes with your reuben!

bagels with whitefish and pickles

the classic with lox – Russ and Daughters has a dozen kinds...

Babka french toast, the traif is optional :)

Katz's pastrami reuben

Drink

Sadly, the most important cocktail bar in the world – Angel's Share – was a casualty of Covid. Their head bartender opened Martiny's, a bar with a similar feel but larger and way more upscale. Another of their alumni opened the very popular Double Chicken Please. Then, in July 2023, the original owner reopened Angel's Share in a new location in the West Village but without the old bartender. I don't know which place is really the spiritual successor to the original, but they're all great (and hard to get into!)

Superbueno is a fantastic Mexican cocktail bar. Bar Goto is also good. On a cold weeknight, I love sitting by the fireplace and drinking Armagnac at La Lanterna*. On a warm summer afternoon I love taking the L train out to Nowadays* for some outdoor picnic-y drinking. (Their Mister Sunday parties are legendary!)

If you're buying liquor, September Wines has a small but very well curated selection. Astor has everything.

Amazing Mexican cocktails at Superbueno

Quick note on NYC liquor: Wine shops can sell wine and liquor, but not beer. Grocery and corner stores can only sell beer. But be careful! They sell things that LOOK LIKE wine but are actually wine-flavored malt liquor – you do NOT want to drink Chateau Diana, or worse, bring it to a dinner party.

My Top Picks by Category

(i put an asterisk* if it's outside the Lower East Side/East Village area):

Dim sum: Golden Unicorn, Nom Wah, Tim Ho Wan, 3 Times, Vanessa's for take-away. We finally have a Din Tai Fung now (midtown).

Golden Unicorn if you want cute little piggy pork buns
Pizza: Scarr's, Rubirosa, Williamsburg Pizza. The infamous Artichoke Pizza should only be eaten at 3am drunk.

Only eat Artichoke pizza when you're really drunk :)
Sushi: Takumi for cheap-but-good BYOB omakase, Kanoyama, Nakazawa*
Izakaya: Toriya, The Izakaya, Azasu, Sakagura*
Ramen: Mr. Taka (their black tan tan men is so good!) Ippudo is great but insanely crowded. Nakamura, Ichiran*, Cocoran, and Marufuku are good alternatives. Okiboru for tsukemen.
Mexican: Los Tacos No 1, Son del North, Factory Tamal, For All Things Good*, Cosme*
Chinese: Yin Ji Chang Fen, King's County Imperial, CheLi, or Vanessa's Dumpling for cheap
Thai: Som Tum Der, Thai Diner, Fish Cheeks
Greek: Snack Taverna*, Kyclades Taverna, or Pylos
Filipino: Pig and Khao, Gugu Room, Mama Fina's

The Sissig at Pig and Khao is fantastic!

Malaysian: Kopitiam recently expanded to a much bigger space and has an even bigger menu now.
German: Cafe Katja or Lorelei
French: Le French Diner is great. Lucien is decent, but I go there more for a late-night Fernet than I do for dinner. I've heard good things about Dirty French, but I've not been myself.
Korean: Kisa, Soogil, and Mono+Mono are ok, but honestly just take the subway to Koreatown* and go to New Wonjo. If you want fancy K-town: Gaonnuri or Yoon Haeundae Galbi.
Indian: Dhamaka or Bungalow
Brunch in NYC usually involves all-you-can-drink mimosas. No liquor can be served on Sundays until 10am, but that doesn't matter because brunch doesn't really get going until 1pm and then it bleeds into football and early dinner. If you're going for all-you-can-drink, you don't need any recommendations because they all serve crap sparkling wine and you're going to be puking your food up on the sidewalk by 4pm anyway.
Now, if you'd like a civilized brunch: Clinton Street Bakery's blueberry pancakes are amazing. Balthazar's brunch is legendary (we were seated next to Anna Wintour last time we were there!) - Definitely book in advance.
24 Hour Diner: Remedy. I actually like their Cuban sandwich even though I shouldn't
"I need a drink after seeing a Broadway show!": Jimmy's corner* ($4 cocktails!), Uncle Charlies*
Ice cream/Gelato: Morgensterns, il laboratorio del gelato, SoftSwerve, Urban Dessert Lab
Bakeries: Banh by Lauren, Partybus, Librae, Dominique Ansel, Ali Mama, Patisserie Tomoko*
All of the above in buffet form: the Queens Night Market
"I miss the Soup Nazi thing! Where can I go where the staff will treat me like shit!": Shopsin's in the Essex Market. Mr. Shopsin died so you won't quite get the legendary surliness anymore, but his son(?) will give you bossy side-eye and tasty mac and cheese pancakes.

Mac and Cheese pancakes at Shopsin's

Important note for visitors from other countries:

Please, please, please if the service isn't already included, TIP your waitstaff at any restaurant with table service. 20% is customary. There’s a place on the credit card receipt to write one in, or you can leave it in cash on the table.
Unless you order your food at a counter, you don’t seat yourself in a restaurant. A host will seat you or will make eye contact and say “sit wherever you want".
In bars, it’s customary to leave at least $1 per drink as a tip when you're paying cash (more if it's a cocktail). If you're paying by card, just do 20% like you do everywhere else. The law doesn’t require shots to be measured, so tipping well on your first drink is usually to your own benefit!
While walking around town if you accidentally bump into anyone, immediately turn around and say, “excuse me”. I've seen several tourists in Soho end up in unpleasant altercations for not doing this.
New Yorkers are surprisingly friendly and helpful as long as you’re not delaying one who’s in a hurry.

Other resources

I’m briankusler on Instagram and I basically only post food pix with corresponding restaurant check-ins
My very outdated Google map is here: https://goo.gl/85KNhE
Michelin's Bib Gourmand (i.e., their "cheap" eats list) for NYC is here.
My Sydney food page is here.
My Tokyo food guide is here.
My Taipei page is here.
My Montreal page is here.
My Mexico City page is here.

* Not in Soho/LES/East Village

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