The New York City dining scene is like no other in the world, changing almost daily. Our critics, reporters and editors are dining out constantly, bringing you more restaurant coverage than ever before, including our weekly starred reviews, our chief critic Ligaya Mishan’s annual ranking of the 100 best restaurants in the city, and the Where to Eat newsletter.

But we also want to tell you where to eat right this second — today, tonight, this weekend. That’s where this guide comes in. Updated monthly, it gathers recommendations from our entire team in one spot. Here’s what you’ll get:

A mix of old and new restaurants, and longtime standouts that we’re loving at the moment.

Restaurants recently reviewed by Ligaya and our contributing critics, Mahira Rivers and Ryan Sutton.

Highlights from the Where to Eat newsletter, written by Luke Fortney and Becky Hughes and edited by Nikita Richardson.

And don’t forget to save your favorites: You’ll always be able to find your saved recommendations under the You tab on The New York Times app, even as this list changes.

NoMad | Indian, Pakistani | $$$

★★

More — more flavors, more textures, more life — is the theme at this New York outpost of the blockbuster London restaurant. Amber-lit and extravagantly appointed in gold, silver, crystal, lacquer, etched brass and embossed leather, the two-story space pays homage to an actual ambassador, the maternal grandfather of the sibling owners, Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi. Beneath the gleaming surfaces, the food, too, is the real thing: rich and vivid, drawing on the traditions of undivided, pre-Partition Punjab. Some dishes are so elaborate that a third shift comes in overnight to get all the details right. LIGAYA MISHAN

1245 Broadway (West 30th Street), Manhattan; 607-247-8870; ambassadorsclubhouse.com/newyork

East Village | Vietnamese | $

★★

Few restaurants take baking as seriously as this Vietnamese spot. The chef Nhu Ton, an owner of Bánh on the Upper West Side, spent years refining her bánh mì after repeated trips to Vietnam. The result is crisp-crusted baguette that’s baked throughout the day to house pork liver pâté, wobbly slices of head cheese, barely set eggs and battered tofu slathered, radically, with peanut pesto. On bread this good, anything and everything belongs. LUKE FORTNEY

99 Third Avenue (East 13th Street), Manhattan; 833-674-5878; banhanhem.com

Williamsburg | Seafood | $$$

★

Daylight saving time hasn’t set us back to 5 p.m. sunsets just yet, which means there’s still time to pop into Bar Susanne along the Williamsburg waterfront, order a heaping pile of the restaurant’s excellent pencil-thin fries and admire the grand East River views. But don’t stop there. The rest of the menu shows off the unique and unpredictable cooking style of the chef Jackie Carnesi while celebrating the East Coast catch: Think littleneck clam aguachile or scallops dressed in sweet corn purée. Order the ice cream sundae for dessert. MAHIRA RIVERS

6 River Street (South Fourth Street), Brooklyn; 718-938-3765; barsusanne.com

Lower East Side | Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, French | $$$

★★

Bistrot Ha is every inch a bistro, clattery and electric. The young chef-owners, Sadie Mae Burns and Anthony Ha, started out cooking from a retrofitted Mexican paletas cart, as a side gig to their official restaurant jobs, before opening the wildly popular and claustrophobically tiny Ha’s Snack Bar around the corner in late 2024. Now they have a little more room to stretch out. (But only just: Tables are tight.) The cooking, drawing from French tradition and Mr. Ha’s Vietnamese heritage — fish sauce is a steady pulse through the meal — is often brilliant, sometimes erratic, and never less than original. LIGAYA MISHAN

137 Eldridge Street (Broome Street), Manhattan; no phone; instagram.com/has_dac_biet

West Village | European, Mediterranean | $$

★

New York already had such an amazing supply of affordable pollo a la brasa spots, but in 2026 we saw the rise of pricey neighborhood rotisseries. Namely, Gigi’s (see below) in Greenpoint ruffled some feathers with its $40 half chickens. And soon after, Cleo opened in Manhattan with a rare specialty: tender birds seasoned with a warming seven-spice blend and finished in citrus butter. The chef Juliana Latif nods to her Levantine heritage at this cute bistro, serving za’atar corn ribs and haricot verts with minty chermoula. But hey, if you’re feeling extra fancy, maybe splurge on the crisp chicken skin with caviar? RYAN SUTTON

621 Hudson Street (Jane Street); no phone; cleodowntown.com

Chinatown | Mexican | $$$, $

★★ | ★

A former Chinatown bus depot is a fitting address for this experimental restaurant, which takes northern Mexico as a point of departure for exploring the world. The chef Fidel Caballero grew up shifting between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez in the bordering Mexican state of Chihuahua, and he brings that liminal sensibility to the kitchen, stuffing enmoladas with Peking duck, turning esquites into a near risotto and dusting dishes with pulverized chapulines. The tasting menu is a bit too rigid to convey the zanier side of the restaurant’s charms; better to go à la carte, and to double up on the gorgeously blistered and chewy tortillas, fried to order on an upside-down wok. (For a chill neighborhood vibe — and a killer brisket burger — check out the restaurant’s nearby drinking hole, Bar Chucho.) LIGAYA MISHAN

3 Allen Street (Canal Street), Manhattan; 646-964-4836; corimanyc.com

37 Market Street (Madison Street), Manhattan; no phone; instagram.com/barchucho.nyc

West Village | English | $$

★★

At this loud, chummy pub, the chef Jess Shadbolt (of the acclaimed Mediterranean-leaning restaurant King, next door) honors her upbringing in Essex and Suffolk, England. The classics appear — brined unripe walnuts alongside cold roast beef, faultless fish and chips, the greenest mushy peas — with a few sly modulations, like bubble and squeak hidden inside a perfectly crimped pasty and butter marbled with Marmite. Rack up enough pints of Guinness, pulled in proper two-part, two-minute pours, and you might get your name engraved on a pewter tankard. LIGAYA MISHAN

213 Avenue of the Americas (King Street), Manhattan; no phone; deans.nyc

West Village | wine bar | $$$

★★

The reservation game in New York City is not much of a game at all — it’s not very fun and you hardly ever win. Thankfully, Demo in the West Village always seems to have availability while still guaranteeing a bustling dining room of stylishly cool people, a well-priced natural wine list and, best of all, precise, imaginative cooking. The chef Quang Nguyen and his business partners, Jacob Nass and Ian Henderson-Charnow, along with the chef Dina Fan, have successfully channeled the gutsy, chef-driven wine bars of the 2010s. Dishes like lengua tonnata or lobster au poivre give substance to a talented kitchen’s ambition. MAHIRA RIVERS

34 Carmine Street (Bleecker Street); no phone; demowestvillage.com

West Village | Steakhouse | $$$

One does not simply walk into the Eighty Six. You show up early. You stand in line. You put your name down. You stand some more. But once you pass through the heavy green doors, the wait is the last thing on your mind. The dirty martini arrives with a parade of olives. The cheesesteak appears on house-baked bread. And the steaks — certainly the best part — are bone-in, citrus-fed and dry-aged from cuts that haven’t been popular since last century, around the time “eighty-six” entered the American vernacular, by some accounts, within these same four walls. LUKE FORTNEY

86 Bedford Street (Barrow Street), Manhattan; 917-540-8686; the86.nyc

Gigi’s rotisserie chicken may be the talk of the town, but in many ways, chicken isn’t even the most interesting thing about this Greenpoint newcomer. Sure, the chefs have solved the age-old problem of dry, bland meat, but you’d do just as well with the umami-packed roasted maitake mushroom with buttery pomme purée. Or a well-curated cheese plate paired with a racy 2024 Mosel Kabinett from the bookishly long wine list. To top it all off, the atmosphere is cool, drop-in casual and genuinely unpretentious. MAHIRA RIVERS

138 Franklin Street (Greenpoint Avenue), Brooklyn; 347-223-4836; fulgurances.com

East Village | Caribbean | $$$

★★★ | ★★

All the rigor of fine dining, without the fuss: The mood at this forward-thinking Caribbean restaurant is breezy and exuberant. To the right is the main dining room, where a prix fixe menu juxtaposes tradition and innovation — say, pepper shrimp reimagined as crudo, anointed with explosive drops of fermented Scotch bonnet, or goat shoulder dismantling itself in a sauce of dried scallops revived by rum. This is nominally three courses, but somehow expands. (“Fill yuh belly,” the menu exhorts.) To the left is the smaller, more freewheeling bar, for excellent daiquiris poured over feathery shaved ice, and butter-glossed patties that leave a trail of shards. The chef Paul Carmichael’s cooking is personal, distinct, precise and refined, but never overly convoluted. The work is invisible to the diner, who gets to just sit back and love life. LIGAYA MISHAN

8 Extra Place (East First Street), Manhattan; 646-790-8747; momofuku.com/restaurants/kabawa

Greenpoint | Barbecue | $$

New York has not, historically speaking, been a barbecue town. That hasn’t stopped Chuck Charnichart of Barbs B Q in Lockhart, Texas, or her mentor Jonny White, formerly of Goldee’s in Fort Worth from trying. In August, the two pitmasters turned a slim building in Greenpoint into a barbecue shack you can smell up and down McGuinness Boulevard. Texas, this is not: The meats — turkey, pork ribs et al — are cooked in an electric smoker. And everything is sold in $45 set meals, no substitutions! Blasphemy? Not after the brisket arrives with a girdle of rendered fat. LUKE FORTNEY

55 McGuinness Boulevard South (Engert Avenue), Brooklyn; no phone; instagram.com/kirbees_greenpoint_brooklyn

Chinatown is one of the few neighborhoods in New York to retain its character against the pressures of development and gentrification. Still, the battle is far from won. So when the restaurateur Annie Shi (part of the team behind King and Dean’s) opened this tiny wine bar on the historical Doyers Street, she was thoughtful; she didn’t want to disrupt her surroundings or compete with older businesses. The menu is tightly edited — no dumplings, no roasted meats — and nothing that emerges from the kitchen is strictly literal. The chef, Patty Lee, takes ingredients classically reserved for stir-fries and gives them star billing, as with cool panels of celtuce interleaved with kombu jelly or raw chrysanthemum greens under a wild mass of crisped burdock strands like an ossified bird’s nest. LIGAYA MISHAN

15-17 Doyers Street (Pell Street), Manhattan; no phone; leiwine.nyc

Boerum Hill | American | $$

★

The motto at Lonnies should be come for the burger, stay for the steak. The roughly 16-ounce prime rib on the dinner menu at this buzzy neighborhood restaurant, from the couple behind Inga’s Bar, is priced at a competitive $48. If that’s not your thing, know that some of this kitchen’s best work is produce-driven and fleetingly seasonal, like sweet watermelon paired with briny black olives. Grab a stool at the bar (there’s two) amid regulars sipping on smooth gin martinis and settle in for a cozy dinner, or weekend brunch. MAHIRA RIVERS

112 Bond Street (Pacific Street), Boerum Hill; 347-529-4130; lonniesnyc.com

Don’t let the late-night hours of this pizza parlor-slash-Bushwick bar fool you. Come dinnertime, Lucky Charlie is a serious destination for crisply charred New York-style whole pies that emerge, sizzling, from one of Brooklyn’s oldest coal-burning ovens. The framed midcentury ephemera on the walls and toe-tapping playlist of golden oldies is a hat tip to the neighborhood’s Sicilian American past. The food is just as memorable: Nino Coniglio, a longtime pizza man, puts forth a concise menu of snacky appetizers, oven-baked pastas and exemplary classic pies adorned with your choice of up to three toppings. MAHIRA RIVERS

254 Irving Avenue (Bleecker Street), Brooklyn; no phone; luckycharliebk.com

Upper East Side | South Indian, Sri Lankan | $$

★★

Lungi is part of a vanguard of Indian restaurants to open in the past decade that are devoted to the cuisines of the south. But its sweep is broader, reaching across the Gulf of Mannar to Sri Lanka, a nation whose food is still rare in this city, outside an immigrant enclave on Staten Island. Rarer yet, perhaps, is finding a restaurant on the generally sedate Upper East Side that is so uncompromising in its deployment of chiles. The chef Albin Vincent is exacting in his calibrations of spice and attuned to texture, whether slow-cooking lamb, beef and goat into luxuriant shambles or teasing a batter of fermented rice and coconut milk into the lacy-edged, blooming pancakes known as hoppers. LIGAYA MISHAN

1136 First Avenue (East 62nd Street), Manhattan; 212-256-0073; lungirestaurant.com

West Village | Seafood | $$$

Much like “Paddington 2” or “Top Gun: Maverick,” you can love Mary’s Fish Camp without ever having seen the original. After a heartbreaking closing in 2024, this West Village restaurant returned this summer under the same Mary Redding. Look out for new dishes and old favorites like her superbly salty smoked trout dip, clam rolls spilling over with fried bellies and Canadian steamers poking out of their shells like wagging tongues. Consider the lobster roll? Hard to when there are cod sandwiches stacked on warm ciabatta and shrimp burgers zapped with sambal aioli. We are so back. LUKE FORTNEY

626 Hudson Street (Jane Street), Manhattan; 212-933-4414; marysfishcamp.com

At this serious-minded Italian spot — which was shuttered by a fire last year and reopened in July — the chef Stefano Secchi, of the acclaimed Italian restaurant Rezdôra, turns his gaze from north to south, Emilia-Romagna to Campania, with its surfeit of sun and mineral-rich volcanic soil. These are not the heaping plates of red-sauce joints, but each bite is so rich, you won’t go hungry: baby gem lettuces under a flurry of Parmigiano and charred onion powder; ragù Genovese, deep and hearty, each batch representing three days’ labor; a tart of ultrabright Sorrento lemons, the tang softened by olive oil crémeux and torched meringue. The dining rooms don’t have quite as much character as the sibling restaurant’s, but no matter: The food tells you exactly where you are. LIGAYA MISHAN

913 Broadway (Fifth Avenue), Manhattan; 646-212-0913; massara.nyc

Long Island City | Korean | $$$$

★★★

Nothing quite prepares you for the meal that unfolds at this darkly elegant tasting counter, entered via a half-invisible door. Fermentation is the mission and passion of the chef, Hooni Kim, and boosting health is his primary goal, not deliciousness, he will tell you, with a bit of a wink — because everything, it turns out, is delicious, and marvelously so. There are no experiments here, no modern adornments. The menu hews to tradition, with dishes that are rustic and rigorous at once, like a small yet bountiful bowl of stewed beef and doenjang simmered with vegetables, a doppelgänger for an Italian ragù, spooned over tofu made just an hour before. LIGAYA MISHAN

5-28 49th Avenue (Fifth Street), Queens; no phone; mejunyc.com

east Village | Pakistani American | $

Many have tried and most have failed to improve upon the dime-a-dozen delis found in every borough of our city. Sharp Cheddar has no place on a bacon, egg and cheese. Chicken over rice, another bodega essential, can’t cost $20. The reason Nishaan gets a pass: This is the only place in town — and likely, the world — to find a Pakistani chopped cheese with kebab spices. Or a halal cheese steak with tamarind chutney. Or French fries loaded with crunchy bhel puri. It’s your move, corner deli. LUKE FORTNEY

160 First Avenue (East 10th Street), Manhattan; 646-370-3610; eatnishaan.com

Park Slope | Indian | $$

★★

As an influx of new Indian restaurants shows off the grander and more ostentatious side of South Asian dining, the team behind Pangat in Park Slope has taken the opposite approach, opting for homey comfort and conviviality. The bric-a-brac décor and dressed-down service make an unassuming setting for the eclectic, and electric, menu of Maharashtrian specialties, including fiery chicken curries and riveting versions of Mumbai’s famous street foods. On certain weekends, the chefs Soham Deshpande and Aarti Awate, along with the general manager, Isha Thakkar, repurpose their dining room for a festive, reservations-only thali communal feast. MAHIRA RIVERS

369 Fifth Avenue (Sixth Street), Brooklyn; 347-422-0059; pangatny.com

Lower East Side | Vietnamese | $

Our local Vietnamese restaurant scene has been warped light-years into the future by the chefs Jerald and Nhung Dao Head, the duo behind the Chinatown restaurant Mắm and this newer, next-door coffee shop. At lunchtime, a small crowd squats around low plastic tables crowded with demi-baguettes and fish sauce lattes, as if sitting malasana. What are they all eating? Brittle pork belly bánh mì on Fridays; on weekends, bánh mì chảo, sputtering in a sauté pan with hot dog, ham and an over-easy egg. That superb house-baked bread is the only utensil you need. LUKE FORTNEY

72 Forsyth Street (Hester Street), Manhattan; no phone; instagram.com/phe.nyc

East Village | Wine Bar | $

★★

Penny and Claud are wine-focused restaurants by Chase Sinzer and Joshua Pinsky. They’re lovely spots for full, fancy meals. But what makes their sister spot Stars so vital is that it’s just a small room with a zinc counter, a top-tier bar à vins for sipping thoughtful pours from Sophienwald stems. Sure, the small plates are great — like the sandwiches of rare-cooked shrimp — but the wine list is where things get truly exciting. Pair an electric Seehof riesling with shiso-topped apples, or enjoy a Corta y Raspa palomino alone, just for its clean salinity. Also, there are always 88 bottles under $88. RYAN SUTTON

139 East 12th Street (Third Avenue), Manhattan; no phone; stars-ny.com

Hell’s Kitchen | Singaporean | $

★

The chicken entree is thriving in restaurants right now and this no-frills shop in Hell’s Kitchen offers one expert chef’s version. Raymond Kiang is a second-generation chicken rice chef from Singapore who relocated to New York to open the food hall stalls Hainan Jones and Lou Yau Kee. Now, at his own place, Mr. Kiang serves tender poached chicken with the silkiest skin atop aromatic jasmine rice slick with chicken fat. For less than $20, a cupful of clear chicken broth and a trio of homemade dipping sauces round out a quintessentially Singaporean meal. MAHIRA RIVERS

790 Ninth Avenue (West 52nd Street), Manhattan; 646-992-4343; unclerayschickenrice.com

Chinatown | Japanese | $$$$

★★★★

The world falls away at this hushed, almost hermetic kaiseki counter off a former shopping arcade in Chinatown. Or perhaps it would be more precise to say that the world suddenly comes into focus, in its most minute, under-noticed pleasures. Time rules the menu: What is served depends on not just the season, but the micro-season. The chef Isao Yamada tracks how ingredients change almost by the day, growing into themselves, peaking then mellowing, and shows us their beauty and worth at every stage. LIGAYA MISHAN

16 Elizabeth Street (Bayard Street), Manhattan; 646-429-8759; yamadanewyork.com

West Village | French | $$$$

★★

Manhattan suffers from no shortage of generic brasseries with steamy mussels and steak frites. But what draws fashionable crowds to this chic West Village bistro, is something much rarer: the sun-drenched cuisine of the South of France. In a simple room decked out in checkered tablecloths, Maxime Pradié, sends out precise and elegant Provençal fare. The menu changes daily, but diners might encounter fried fennel drizzled in honey, geometric niçoise tarts with precisely arranged anchovies, soft fettuccine with pesto Genovese and ice cream with so much Tahitian vanilla it appears ashen. RYAN SUTTON

72 Bedford Street (Commerce Street), Manhattan; 646-770-9038; zimmisnyc.com

Williamsburg | American, Seafood | $$$

★★

The chef Ned Baldwin, a fisherman’s son, comes to the sea by blood and love, and reminds us that New York is one of the world’s great port cities, with a hint of brine always in the air. The food at this soaring seafood spot is anchored in the familiar but appealingly off-kilter. Chewy surf clam in aguachile and red shrimp tartare strewn with kimchi dust appear alongside impeccably charred squid and plush naked mussels. Even the desserts defy expectations, like a Basque cheesecake funked up with taleggio, and chocolate cake with black garlic to intensify the darkness. LIGAYA MISHAN

312 Maujer Street (Waterbury Street), Brooklyn; no phone; zolirestaurant.com