New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells wrote in 2017 that there were few restaurants on the Upper West Side – which extends from Columbus Circle to 110th Street – where you could go to impress friends. Well, it wasn’t true then, and it certainly isn’t true now, as the neighborhood has one of the most impressive and diverse collections of dining establishments in the city. Latin American and Jewish restaurants are some of the oldest, but there have long been French, Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican, and Indian, and recent arrivals include Palestinian and African diaspora eateries.
The neighborhood’s many great museums have spawned their own restaurants, too – and good ones. If you’re visiting the dinosaurs at the National History Museum, you can have an excellent meal without leaving the premises. Yes, across the Upper West Side you can find dozens of cuisines at every price level, whether you are prepared to spend $10 or $100. Here are 10 of my favorites, running from south to north, both new and old. Please mention your favorites in the comments, and after your meal, don’t hesitate to stroll up Broadway – with its landscaped dividers and welcoming benches, it may remind you of Paris.
Bar Masa
Bar Masa
Robert Sietsema.
This offshoot of the city’s most expensive sushi restaurant – where a meal can ring up at $1,200 – costs far less. The bar itself is serene, the stools padded and comfortable, the lighting soft, and the menu a cheaper synopsis of dishes often offered at Masa itself. The place is especially easy to get into at lunch, and if you select three dishes carefully, you can get by for about $100. Hint: Make sure you include a noodle or rice dish to fill yourself up, something featuring raw fish to test the waters and maybe a special. 10 Columbus Circle, fourth floor
Old John’s Diner
Old John’s.
Robert Sietsema
When I walked into Old John’s, it was filled with metallic Mylar balloons to celebrate its 75th anniversary. It’s a traditional diner but it updated its menu and prices a few years back. Besides the usual burgers, pancakes, and egg breakfast, it has a rollicking French dip sandwich with both Swiss and fresh mozzarella and a free cup of soup, a good fish and chips, and even a pasta with duck ragu. Main courses $16 to $29. 148 West 67th St.
Charles Pan-Fried Chicken
Charles Pan-Fried Chicken.
Robert Sietsema
There’s no better Southern fried chicken in the city, the coating thin and crisp, the individual pieces juicy and filled with strong chicken flavor. This is a result of the chicken being prepared the old-fashioned way, in cast iron skillets instead of deep fryers, allowing the cook to turn each piece individually and regulate temperature more precisely. All the soul food sides available, at very modest prices: three pieces, two sides and cornbread, $18.95. 146 West 72nd St.
Gray’s Papaya
Gray’s Papaya
Robert Sietsema.
Gray’s is the city’s foremost destination for hot dogs – one of the city’s most iconic eats; and no place is more famous for frankfurters in Manhattan. The eatery located right over the 72nd Street express stop since 1973 enjoys a constant flow of adoring visitors, who munch on natural-skinned franks, which have an incomparable beefy flavor. Spoon on the sauerkraut and squirt on the mustard – which together reflect the weenie’s German and Alsatian ancestry. Hot dogs $3.25. 2090 Broadway
Saravanaa Bhavan
Saravanaa Bhavan.
Robert Sietsema
No better destination for vegetarians and vegans on the Upper West Side than Saravanaa Bhavan, an India-based chain that specializes in dosas, uthappams, vegetable curries, various rice-based dishes and the tray meals called thalis. Carnivores, too, will love its spicy and starchy South Indian food, much of which is concocted from adventitiously fermented rice and lentil batter, and about as earth-friendly as menus get. Dosas average $18, curries $17.49 to $18.49. 413 Amsterdam Ave.
Barney Greengrass
Barney Greengrass.
Robert Sietsema
Barney Greengrass, dubbed the Sturgeon King, was founded in 1908, making it the oldest restaurant on the Upper West that I know of. Stride into the right storefront, and you’ll see an antique glass case filled with neat arrangements of preserved fish – including some you may not have tried, including sable, pastrami salmon, and schmaltz herring. The dining room on the left is idiosyncratically lined with New Orleans wallpaper. Go for any of the preserved fish plates or cheaper sandwiches and scrambled egg dishes, and poke around for the oddities, like “Nova Scotia heads and wings broiled with onions.” Dishes range from about $16 to $72. 541 Amsterdam Ave.
Moon Kee
Moon Kee.
Robert Sietsema
When Moon Kee opened in 2023, it shocked a neighborhood already loaded with specialty Chinese restaurants, this being a facsimile of the kind of Hong Kong-style Cantonese restaurants found in Chinatown there was no need to hop on the subway anymore. There’s an excellent dim sum service, though it doesn’t roll around on carts, along with Hong Kong’s famous clay pot rice dishes, as well as congee, Chinese BBQ, and the usual stir fries. Dim sum $7 or $8, main dishes $18 to $32. 2642 Broadway
Hinds Hall
Hinds Hall.
Robert Sietsema
Hinds Hall – an offshoot of Bay Ridge’s Ayat – is not the Upper West Side’s first Palestinian restaurant, but it is the most ambitious so far. Not only are the expected Middle Eastern standards like chicken shawarma, baba ganoush, and lamb kebabs presented, all with pitas hot out of the oven, but so are larger, more ambitious dishes. These include mansaf (lamb chunks with fermented yogurt sauce) and maklouba (a layered dish of chicken, eggplant, carrots, and potatoes), the latter two in servings fit for two or three people. There are plenty of vegetarian choices, too. Most entrees $19 to $44. 949 Amsterdam Ave.
Banh Shop House
Banh Shop House
Robert Sietsema
This restaurant rewrote the book as far as Vietnamese menus go, and became a foodie destination in the process, offering many dishes for the first time, some invented, others rare dishes rarely seen in the city. For example, the dry version of pho – with the rich broth served on the side – was a revelation that suggested the evolution of the national soup from a simple bowl of rice noodles; while the banh mi sandwiches put forth in profusion sometimes used unexpected ingredients, like beer-battered fried chicken and peanut pesto. The premises is lighthearted and colorful, with an open kitchen running parallel to the seating area. Sandwiches, $13.95 to $14.95; main courses, $17.95 to $24.95. 945 Amsterdam Ave.