The Best Restaurants In Midtown

This Midtown institution, open for nearly 40 years now, is a well-oiled machine that’s been fine-tuned to perfection. The service here skews north of impeccable, but the seafood—shrimp custard with geoduck and uni, for example—is the main reason why this is still an amazing place to eat. If you’re looking for a highlight-of-the-presidential-term, upscale restaurant experience where you won’t feel like an idiot for spending hundreds of dollars, this is it.

The Grill is from the Carbone and Dirty French team, and while the food is excellent, it’s the experience of eating here that makes it unique. The cavernous dining room (once the Four Seasons) is in the Seagram Building, a landmarked skyscraper. The menu is as high in production value as the space, with dishes like a vichyssoise topped with a mound of caviar, a four-inch thick slab of prime rib, and a pasta that involves a tableside duck press.

Keens has been around for more than 130 years, and the ceilings of this Midtown steakhouse are covered with the smoking pipes of former regulars like Teddy Roosevelt and Babe Ruth. You may be tempted by the comically large 32-ounce king’s cut of prime rib, but you should focus your attention on the drenched-in-butter porterhouse and their famous mutton chop. Be sure to save room for the ice cream sundae, which has a thick layer of fudge at the bottom.

From the moment you glimpse the dry-aging room through the front window at Gallaghers to the time you walk out lugging a heavy bag of leftovers, you’re going to be very happy. We recommend ordering classics at this old-timey steakhouse: Start with a round of Hemingway daiquiris with a wedge salad, then move on to a porterhouse with some creamed spinach. The New York-style cheesecake is about as real as it gets.

This upscale Italian restaurant in Midtown East—from the chef who opened Marea and Ai Fiori—was made for business-casual power lunches, but that description sorely undersells the food here. Luxury ingredients are deployed thoughtfully and to their full power in dishes like a red prawn crudo with caviar. You really can’t go wrong with any pasta here, especially the garganelli with velvety truffle butter.

This pan-Asian spot from the Marea team is right next door to the MoMA, and it has fittingly striking design. The main dining room features sweeping rainbow-colored blades across the ceiling that might remind you of strings on a giant harp. For your next big night out, head here for some of the city's best soup dumplings, and don’t even try to decide between the sambal-smothered skate and the incredibly moist Hainanese chicken—just get both.

This revamped Midtown restaurant still has a big sunken dining room that features plush red booths and a wraparound mural of Jazz Age celebrities, but now it's run by the people behind 4 Charles Prime Rib. Hearty and unpretentious, the food includes everything from pasta and fried chicken to steakhouse staples like a dry-aged porterhouse. Notably, they serve the same cheese-smothered burger that you’ll find at Au Cheval, and you should eat one in the walk-in-only tavern area.

This upscale spot is one of our favorite places to eat seafood pasta in NYC, simply because the options go way beyond the usual suspects like linguine and clams or frutti di mare spaghetti. The headliner is the tender octopus and bone marrow fusilli, with a red wine-spiked tomato sauce that gets a boost from some garlicky breadcrumbs. Even if you only order one dish and a glass of wine at the bar, you'll have a meal that will occupy your thoughts for a long time.

The original Los Tacos No. 1 is in Chelsea Market, and they do some of the city’s most reliably great tacos. This location of the casual mini-chain is across from Grand Central, though you can also find their tender carne asada and homemade tortillas in Times Square and near Penn Station. As far as quick, mid-workday lunches go, this is among the best that Midtown has to offer.

Standouts at this Rockefeller Center Italian restaurant from the team behind Estela include the housemade ricotta and a plate of plump anchovies with peppers and butter. The gold and marble details of the interior are plenty appealing, but we like to grab a table on the large patio, where your neighbor's huge shopping bag from their trip to the Lego store won’t infringe on your personal space.

This Rockefeller Center brasserie is from the Frenchette team, so it’s no surprise that the food here is French, and that the large Art Deco space is packed every night. Think of the best filet you’ve ever had—it'll get bumped to second place after you try Le Rock’s ridiculously tender bison. The giant profiterole covered in warm chocolate sauce is yet another reason why you’ll want to keep coming back.

This food hall booth near the UN serves four $15 dishes from 11am-3pm weekdays. Their flavor profiles are larger than life—with thrumming heat and surprising salty, funky, and bright layers. Our favorites are the ohno kaukswe, a comforting coconut-chicken noodle soup, and the nan gyi kaukswe, a noodle salad with tender minced chicken. After eating lunch here, make a pilgrimage to the main location of Burmese Bites at the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst to try the full menu.

We love that you get to try so many different things at Yakitori Totto. Kid… candy store… you see what we’re saying. Definitely go for some juicy tsukune and tender chicken hearts, as well as non-chicken options like pork neck (mostly fat, not complaining). It’s fun to come solo and sit at the counter right in front of the grills, though coming with one or two other people does mean you get to order a greater variety. Choose wisely.

When you walk into Patsy’s, the first things you’ll see are a statue of Frank Sinatra and a signed headshot of Liza Minelli, so you know this place is legit. This red-sauce joint has been around since 1944, and Old Blue Eyes himself was a regular. Stick to the classics, like rigatoni fra diavolo, and anything parmigiana. On their dessert cart, underneath a cloudy cloche, is one of the best carrot cakes we’ve had in a very long time.

This upscale, two-floor KBBQ spot is perfect for a group meal that isn’t too hectic, with leather-padded banquettes, gentle mood lighting, and sets of beef and pork starting around $150. Like its sister restaurant, founded by the owner’s grandfather in Busan, this place specializes in short rib. Even the non-marinated version is lush and flavorful, with a bouncy feel thanks to all the fat.

Some of the best KBBQ in NYC is located a block north of Bryant Park, in a narrow room with a relentlessly upbeat K-pop soundtrack. Don Don, from the chef behind Mari and Kochi, doesn’t serve beef, chicken, or shrimp. They focus exclusively on dry-aged pork, and when you try some crispy jowl fresh from the grill, you’ll understand why. Get a sampler platter, and order at least one non-BBQ dish, like the Jeju-style noodle soup topped with pork belly.

To get to Sakagura, you walk through the lobby of a very normal office building, pass a security guard, then head down a flight of stairs. This place is an izakaya from the people behind Sake Bar Decibel and Rai Rai Ken, and most people will be impressed that you know how to find it. The food here consists of sashimi, udon, soba, and small plates like Japanese fried chicken, and it’s all relatively affordable. Book in advance.

Most of New York’s great steakhouses are housed in dim, wood-paneled rooms where windows are few and far between, but this spot in the Deutsche Bank Center turns that trope on its head. Here, you eat your red meat in an elegant, airy space overlooking Central Park. At $185, the porterhouse is one of the priciest in the city, but it’s cooked perfectly, seasoned well, and comes with an unparalleled view.

This Caribbean food truck is parked on the corner of 48th Street and Park Avenue almost every day. Their “mini” lunch special, starting at $12, gets you a small styrofoam box filled to the brim with excellent-tasting things like oxtail or jerk chicken, plus rice and peas. If they ask if you want gravy, say yes—it’s for your own good.

When you step into this dark basement restaurant in Midtown East, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to a sake den in the East Village. Try to snag one of the five seats that are less than a foot away from the grills. (There’s a thick glass partition so you won’t leave smelling like smoke.) The main reason to come is the yakitori, with most skewers around $4. Our favorites are the chicken thigh with scallions and the roe-filled smelt.

This Northern Indian restaurant opened in 1999, takes up an entire townhouse on East 49th Street, and has likely catered thousands of UN lunches over the years. Their namesake dal bukhara is the best thing here, made with black lentils and cooked so that some bites are chewy and others are smooth and creamy. If you eat meat, try something with lamb.

You might be skeptical of a sceney restaurant run by the guy who’s single-handedly responsible for millions of popped collars, but the food here is surprisingly good—especially the burger, corned beef sandwich, and strip steak. If you’re lucky enough to snag a reservation (which are only taken over the phone), you’ll earn the right to sit in a subterranean dining room with a massive collection of equestrian art and ample opportunity for celebrity sightings.

Every New Yorker should visit this one-of-a-kind, red-and-green jewel box of a restaurant, opened in 1926, at least once. With Picasso and Chagall works (some of them real) gracing the walls, it’s like an art museum that also happens to serve around 50 different vodkas. Before a performance at Carnegie Hall, live your Anastasia fantasy over afternoon tea, or indulge in a caviar martini and a herring tasting platter that’s nearly as delicious as the people-watching possibilities in the scarlet banquettes around you.

This cavernous seafood spot inside Grand Central Terminal is a true New York institution, where not much has changed since it opened in 1913—and where you should come to eat raw bivalves at least once a year. Our advice: Ignore the dining room and sit along the counter instead, skip most of the menu, order dozens of oysters, and sip stiff, sloshy martinis, preferably dirty.

Hainan Jones is officially our favorite vendor at Urban Hawker, and we’re not alone. Wait times for their Hainanese chicken rice can approach an hour, and they sometimes run out long before closing. You can get your chicken roasted or fried, but we prefer the classic poached version. The uber gingery rice and broth that come on the side are plenty flavorful by themselves, but the spicy chili and sweet sesame soy sauce help the dish realize its full potential.

NY Kimchi isn’t a typical Midtown steakhouse. At this subterranean spot from the Golden Diner team, the 24-oz. T-bone comes with doenjang butter, and the house martini is made with a splash of kimchi brine. Some tables have grills for KBBQ, but the real standouts here are the raw bar items and traditional Korean dishes. Come for a fun group meal, and order kimchi jjigae for the table.

Don’t let the words “revolving restaurant from the ’80s inside a Times Square hotel” deter you. Suavely remodeled, The View is a blast. Take a rocket elevator up 48 floors to the slowly spinning lounge and dining room, which offer live piano, crisp martinis, and horseradish-slicked burgers. It’s NYC with jazz hands—perfect for entertaining out-of-towners, but a fun portal to Big Apple nostalgia for New Yorkers, too.