I'm a food writer and here's where I like to eat in New York
New York is the quintessential city break location. It’s fun, it’s loud, and it’s full of some of the best things you can eat and drink in the world.
As is the case in any of the globe's great cities, it can be difficult to find the spots that cultivate both style and substance. When wine glasses gleam through countless glass-fronted restaurants and there's a fashionable coffee shop on every block, being in-the-know about the best spots to seek out appears to get trickier with every year.
With this in mind, while there are plenty of brilliant watering holes in the more frequented parts of the Big Apple, one of the best ways to find a truly unique and delicious experience is to head East. Avoid the Magnolia Bakery crowds in the West Village, and explore the Lower East Side and Brooklyn, where some of the city’s most stylish spots can be found.
The design-led restaurants
If you’d like a side of gorgeous interiors with your dinner, Williamsburg’s Mesiba is hard to beat. Inspired by Tel Aviv’s celebrated Bauhaus architecture, the space boasts a centrepiece marble bar with beautiful bronze veining, curved lines, textured plasterwork and lush green plants. Mesiba, which means ‘party’ in Hebrew, is a lively spot for Levantine cuisine and creative cocktails. Order a selection of dishes (the tuna sashimi with habenero oil, almonds and labneh can’t be missed) and finish with a glass of anise-forward arak – a Middle Eastern distilled spirit that’ll get you in the mood to ‘mesiba’ at the nearest cocktail spot.
Japanese food, sushi in particular, is something that New York City does very well. While there are plenty of spots to choose from, there are likely none with such a theatrical nature as Sake No Hana. Guests descend a metal, glass and leather pair of staircases into the moody space, where the design is inspired by the Lower East Side’s 1980s punk scene and ‘yankii’ a Japanese subculture centred around American rock music. Here, you’ll find attitude-packed Japanese cuisine like sizzling yakitori skewers, Wagyu beef and platters of nigiri, king crab rolls and spicy tuna. Pair with a sake or two for namesake points – it'd be rude not to.
The city slicker bars
To find some of the best bars in New York, you need to cast your gaze up, up and up. For properly good cocktails and a stylish atmosphere, take the elevator up many floors above the hot city streets to Lillistar. Poised perfectly for views of the East River and Williamsburg Bridge, this playful rooftop spot’s rattan lounge furniture and lotus-shaped lighting takes inspiration from the laid-back lifestyle of Australasia. Sip Balinese-inspired tropical cocktails under the festoon lighting on the terrace, or dance with the bright young things next to the DJ booth.
For a plusher spot, move through the heavy velvet curtains enclosing Silver Lining, a sultry piano bar where the drinks are good, and the live music is even better. Sink into an armchair, sip on a classic cocktail and foot-tap to local acts and international special guests (who might just sing your favourite 90s tunes).
After singing your heart out, head over a couple of blocks to a spot so sought after, you can’t make reservations. Hidden behind an unassuming windowfront advertising a tailor is Attaboy, a speakeasy bar that requires you to ring a doorbell to enter. Don’t be mistaken – this isn’t a trendy new spot. Attaboy is run by veteran bartenders from the space’s original speakeasy inhabitant, Milk & Honey, which served stylish cocktails to lower east-siders from 1999 until 2020. There’s no menu – so let your bartender know what you’re craving, and they’ll mix you something that’ll knock your socks off.
Back across the mighty Williamsburg bridge, The Four Horsemen, a spot run by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, is where the locals go to peruse the thoughtfully curated wine list. The list here errs on the natural side, so be prepared to get funky. On the weekends, it’s choc-a-block full of effortlessly stylish Brooklynites, so you’ll need to reserve a table ahead of time. Grab a glass of wine, a few plates of charcuterie and settle in for the night.
The speciality coffee shops
Find a moment’s serenity from pounding the pavements of the East Village inside tiny Vietnamese coffee shop, Le Phin. The crowd is a mixture of digital nomads looking for a calm place to plug in, and in-and-out locals hankering for a phin (Vietnamese filter) coffee with house-made pandan syrup hit. The invariably friendly owner, Kim Lê, worked as a professional coffee grader before opening the cafe, so you can be sure you’re going to get a brilliantly brewed cup here.
It’s well worth riding the L train over to Williamsburg to visit Partners Coffee, a spacious roastery and cafe space just off Williamsburg’s eclectic Bedford Avenue. This spot is popular with the local creative set and serves the company’s signature fruity Bedford blend in flat whites, black sesame iced lattes and beyond. The space also holds Partners Brew School, where keen coffee-heads can learn about everything from perfecting your brew to creating the perfect latte art.
The artisan bakeries
Take a morning walk around the Lower East Side and catch glimpses of the mechanics behind the restaurants you’ll visit later – stacks of avocado boxes being unloaded into white vans and live fish flip-flapping in wholesalers on the edge of Chinatown. Make your way up to the top of Bowery, peeking inside at the legendary hands of the Katz’ Delicatessen staff building mile-high pastrami sandwiches on the way, and make your way to Librae, New York’s first Bahraini-owned bakery. Za’atar replaces cinnamon in the pastries, pistachio nuts and rosewater find their way into the croissants and muhammara fills the focaccia. Load up on pastries and cold brew before heading out into the city again.
For bagels, it has to be relative new kid on the block, Apollo Bagels. The industrial-style counter and simple menu is a nod to more trad bagel joints, but the feel (and crowd) is distinctly modern. Choose from plain, sesame and everything (the ‘everything but the bagel’ seasoning that is practically the official perfume of the city’s bagel shops), served hot and tangy from the oven. Grab a batch to take away and schmear with scallion cream cheese and whitefish spread at your leisure or opt for a cream cheese and impossibly juicy heirloom tomato with za’atar ready-made breakfast (or lunch, or dinner...).
The bakery tour shouldn’t stop there. Over in the sleepy streets of Williamsburg there's a bakery that’s more scandi-gran than scandi-cool, and it’s better for it. Imagine taking a seat in a talkative plate-collecting great aunt’s living room and you’re halfway there when you enter Williamsburg's Bakeri. The banana bread is the proper stuff, laced with spices and a nuttiness you could never pull off at home. Take a chocolate, raisin and oatmeal cookie for the road, you won’t regret it.
The smart hotels
If you’re spending your weekend hopping between the lights of Manhattan and streets of Brooklyn, Moxy’s Lower East Side outpost is perfectly placed.
You’re close enough to the action of more traditional New York City pursuits like catching a Broadway show or wandering the echoey gallery spaces lined up in Chelsea, but only a few subway stops away from the street art, ferment-focussed bakeries and lively bar scene in Brooklyn. The rooms are compact but cleverly designed – ideal for city breakers with an adventurous spirit and love of all things stylish.
The floor-to-ceiling windows in the rooms bring you the views (but not the sounds) of the city as you unpack your weekend bag, and the beds offer more than adequate respite for intrepid travellers.
The day-to-night cafe-bar in the lobby offers a breezy space for catching up on emails or grabbing a quick breakfast before heading out to explore, and there are five genuinely enticing options for drinking and dining across the hotel. Start with sunset rooftop drinks at The Highlight Room before a sushi and Wagyu feast at lively Japanese restaurant Sake No Hana, then a digestif with a side of live music at Silver Lining piano lounge. For a wild night, head to subterranean bar Loosie’s Nightclub ‘til late.
For wannabe Brooklynites, Moxy's newest location, Moxy Williamsburg, is the place to be. The light-filled lobby contains quirky art, a well-stocked bar and a mix of guests and locals tapping away on MacBooks. The rooms are the usual Moxy style (compact, comfortable, clever storage solutions like the under-bed suitcase section) with their own bathroom colourway and views of industrial Williamsburg.
The glass-fronted 216-room boutique hotel boasts a Balinese-influenced rooftop bar with frozen cocktails galore, an Israeli Bauhaus-themed Levantine restaurant with a party atmosphere, and the superbly sound-systemed Jolene Soundroom for night owls.
The best way to spot this playful place to rest your head? The specially commissioned pop-art style mural you'll see coming over the Williamsburg Bridge.
Feeling inspired? Jump on a flight. Norse Atlantic Airways flies daily from London to New York, with return fares from £329.
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