The most useful list for New York is not of restaurants but of things — specific foods and specific formats that this city does and other cities do not, or do not do nearly as well. Restaurants close; the categories do not. What follows is fifteen of them, each with a place to start, and each of which will still make sense in ten years.
Every one of these has a version near you, and most of them are cheap. Ask Karpo which is closest.
The institutions
One: pastrami on rye at a deli. Katz's Delicatessen on East Houston has been trading since 1888 and is the oldest continuously operating delicatessen in the country; the evening is a better time to go than the middle of the day. Two: appetising — smoked fish, cream cheese and bagels sold as a separate trade from the deli, a distinctively Jewish New York institution. Russ & Daughters on East Houston has been doing it since 1914. Three: a proper bagel, boiled then baked, from a shop that makes its own.
Four: a dry-aged porterhouse at an old steakhouse. Peter Luger in Williamsburg has been one since 1887. Five: a slice of plain pizza from a gas deck oven, folded, eaten standing. Joe's Pizza on Carmine Street since 1975 is the reference. Six: a coal-oven whole pie, a lineage that runs back to Lombardi's on Spring Street, established in 1905 and generally cited as the first pizzeria in the United States.
The neighbourhood anchors
Seven: dim sum in Sunset Park or Flushing, where the halls are larger, cheaper and busier than in Manhattan's Chinatown. Eight: hand-pulled or knife-cut noodles from a Northern Chinese counter — Xi'an Famous Foods grew out of a basement stall in Flushing into a chain across the city. Nine: Cantonese roast meats over rice from a window with ducks hanging in it, which is a complete meal for under ten dollars in Chinatown or Sunset Park.
Ten: a roti in Richmond Hill, Queens, where the Trinidadian and Guyanese communities support a scene with no real equivalent in the United States. Eleven: plov and lagman at an Uzbek room in Rego Park. Twelve: a Greek fish taverna in Astoria, where the catch is brought to the table before it is cooked.
The street and counter layer
Thirteen: a halal cart platter — chicken or lamb over rice with white sauce — which is the city's defining street food and is best from a cart with a queue near a hospital, a university or a late-shift workplace. Fourteen: a chopped cheese from a bodega griddle, ground beef and onions griddled with cheese on a hero roll, a genuinely local sandwich that barely exists outside New York.
Fifteen: an egg cream, which contains neither egg nor cream — milk, seltzer and chocolate syrup, stirred at a soda counter. It is a small thing and it is one of the last surviving artefacts of a whole layer of New York food culture, and the shops that still make one properly are worth going to.
Two honourable mentions that just miss the list. The New York black-and-white cookie, which is a genuinely local baked good and much better from a bakery than from a deli case. And the egg sandwich on a roll from a bodega griddle — bacon, egg and cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup — which is arguably the single most eaten thing in the city and which almost never appears on any list of what to eat here.
How to actually use this
Do not try to do it in a weekend. The list spans four boroughs and several of the items are best at specific hours — the deli in the evening, the dim sum hall before noon, the halal cart at night. A better approach is to treat it as a standing list and pick one item per outing, choosing whichever is nearest to wherever you already are.
The other thing worth saying: none of the fifteen is expensive except the steakhouse. Almost all of them are under twenty dollars and several are under ten. The best eating in New York has never been the most costly, and this list is the clearest possible demonstration of that.
Where to go for each
Manhattan below 14th Street covers the deli, the appetising shop, the slice, the coal oven and the egg cream within a couple of miles. Chinatown adds the roast meats. Queens covers the roti, the plov, the taverna and much of the dim sum and noodles, mostly along the 7 train through Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Rego Park and Flushing. Brooklyn's Sunset Park covers dim sum and roast meats at the lowest prices in the city. The cart and the bodega are everywhere.
If you have one day and want the broadest version: take the 7 train east and get off three times. It is the single best food journey in the United States and it costs the price of a subway fare.
A last note on timing across the list: several of these are morning foods and are simply worse later. Bagels and appetising are at their best before eleven, dim sum before one, and the bakery items in every neighbourhood before noon. The evening items — the deli, the steakhouse, the halal cart, the slice — are the reverse. Ordering the right thing at the wrong hour is the most common way to be disappointed by any of them.
Practical notes
Carry a little cash for carts and older counters. Dim sum is best between about ten and one, when turnover is highest. Delis are more pleasant in the evening than at midday. Weekend subway service changes are extensive, so check the route before committing to Queens or Brooklyn. Groups over four should call the neighbourhood anchors rather than booking online. And order the plain version first at any pizzeria or bagel shop — it tells you everything.
Tags: #NYC #NewYorkCity #PlacesToEat #FoodNearMe #WhereToEatNYC #Katzs #Chinatown #Flushing #Astoria #RichmondHill #SunsetPark #JacksonHeights #NYCEats #FoodieGuide
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know which of these is closest to you right now, what hours it keeps, and whether the queue is worth it today? Ask Karpo before you set off.
