5 Restaurants That Never Disappoint In NYC, According To A Local

The stakes are always high in NYC. Simply getting where you're going can unwind into a labyrinth of train line switcharoos, unplanned transfers, and day-derailing delays. If that point B happens to be a restaurant, prepare for a whole other litany of potential snags. If you can even get a table to begin with, that hot new restaurant might actually be expensive, crowded, and not even any good in spite of those occasional signals of quality. With all these potential pitfalls, finding reliable restaurants is essential for happy dining in New York City. Unfortunately, it takes serious time and effort — trying new restaurants and making repeat visits to your favorites — to find these gems. Luckily for you, having covered NYC's food and restaurant scene for the better part of two decades, I've done the legwork for you. 

I take chances on new, totally untested locales more often than most, both for work as a food writer and critic, and because of my own lifelong love of restaurants. I've been covering New York City's hospitality industry in one way or another — in magazines, newspapers, television, and digital media — since 2008. I've been working overtime for just as long to make sure my personal dining dollars are only allocated to the best of the best. It's only natural I'd have a mental bench of destinations that never go wrong.

Whether it's a milestone event — a birthday, an engagement, or a night out after a big breakup — or you just need a little order at the end of a chaotic week, each of these spots are reliably excellent in their own ways. These are the ones to book or pop into when everything has to go right. Plus, they're all nice enough to make you forget about the vexing journey you took to get there.

Gramercy Tavern comes to mind again and again when I aim to recommend a restaurant that effortlessly exemplifies the polish of Manhattan at its peak. The majority of our tens of thousands of restaurants could, frankly, be anywhere, but Gramercy Tavern's assertive sense of place makes it consummately reliable as a culinary symbol of this alternately vexing and majestic metropolis. It's handsomely appointed and lined in wood with a big, distinguished bar up front in the tavern section and gussied up tables with white tablecloths in the back dining room. Depending on how your week has been, it can either redeem all that lies outside or punctuate its greatness.

That I had my engagement dinner in the fancier of its two halves several years ago does put a particularly sentimental patina on my view of the whole operation, but I've also made reservations (and even just ducked into the tavern on rainy days) plenty of times since. The dining room's tasting menu is now special occasion priced at $175 per person before drinks, tax, and tips, and includes courses such as hiramasa, squid ink caramelle, and lamb. The tavern's price tag edges closer to the every day with à la carte items such as chicken liver mousse, grilled swordfish, and burgers, with no mains over $38. It's the kind of restaurant a person should visit if they only have one day in NYC, and one they'll want to come back to again and again.

Gramercy Tavern is located at 42 East 20th Street in Manhattan.

Crown Shy conjures the same notions that Gramercy Tavern evokes: That New York is a magical place where everyone and everything is aligned to make your dreams come true. It's compulsory for moments when you need to toss your hat into the air and believe you're gonna make it after all. That's just what great restaurants do. However, Crown Shy is on the more modern side than similarly oriented Gramercy Tavern, swapping all the cozy lumber for a sleek design in a soaring space that I never tire of clicking my heels through. Every visit to its long, marble bar and every seat, positioned what seems like a star's distance from the soaring ceiling, feels important.

The Gruyère fritters, fried spheres filled with marvelous melted cheese, are compulsory. Seafood options, such as oysters and a scallop ceviche, are also available to start. A pan-seared cod, citrus-marinated grilled chicken, and pork katsu are among the mains. The sticky toffee pudding for two has also been one of my favorites since my first visit to the place when it opened in 2019; one of those risks that turned out to pay dividends for many, many returns.

Crown Shy is located at 70 Pine Street in Manhattan.

That Ingas Bar appears both here and on my list of restaurants I always take visiting friends to is a tremendous credit, considering all of the options citywide. But Ingas isn't just one of the premier places I want to flaunt for my pals. It's also one where the mood is always up and everything's always running smoothly. It's just the perfect nicer-than-normal neighborhood restaurant. Ingas is among a relative few rarefied places that can make life seem a little easier; another tenant of excellent hospitality.

Ingas isn't a burger place, but it has one of the best burgers in NYC. The fries are great too, and they're actually plated with the burger; a shamefully increasing rarity in a town that's wont to sell them as a separate side. I also love the duck, the trout, and its celery Victor, a particularly savory salad with anchovy and Parmesan. When it does remove one beloved menu item, it's usually replaced with another, and the hot sauce collection rivals any other in town. It seems to grow more and more popular with every passing weekend, but I also always seem to get a spot at the bar. Do not assume my same bar seat luck, however. Make a reservation for your best chance of trying any of it.

Ingas Bar is located at 66 Hicks Street in Brooklyn.

I've been a Cafe China fan across two locations in a neighborhood I hate. As Midtown goes, however, Cafe China's stretch on the southeastern edge isn't the worst. The tome of Sichuan plates inside is vast, varied, and expertly prepared enough to make anyone forget about the tourists, traffic, and Spider-Men outside. Cafe China would be just as wonderful on any block, but it's crucial for the unwelcome instances when the world cruelly colludes to send you to the DMV express or whatever else nearby. It's also pretty, with a few different seating areas: There's a main floor, where swaths of pale green are illuminated by dainty light fixtures; a kind of mezzanine with a few seats that overlook it all; a larger adjacent space; and a few private rooms.

I never pass up Chungking chicken; its crispy bits are bathed in a crimson collection of peppers and further emboldened by mala peppercorns. Ergo, I have very likely had every commercially available take in NYC. This one is my favorite. While some competitors' Chungking chicken seems to lose a bit of that critical crunch and heat from order to order, Cafe China's Chungking chicken just stays clucking great. All of that quality control goes for Cafe China's mapo tofu, too. I also think about the spicy cumin lamb when I am, inconveniently, a whole river away, as well as the soft-shell crabs and the perfectly executed cocktails.

Cafe China is located at 59 West 37th Street in Manhattan.

Another darling Brooklyn address, Sofreh serves home cooking that lands like a hug (if your home were idyllically adept at Iranian cuisine). The back half of the long, thin, breezily pale space faces a tiny open kitchen turning out big flavors. Petite is the general theme across everything (except the plates); the tables are, accordingly, intimately spaced, so bring your appetite but leave any secrets at home.

There are plenty of instances when close quarters prove a nuisance, but Sofreh makes it all seem snuggly instead of cramped, with an inviting warmth that can't be faked. That warmth is consistent even at less opportune times. My husband and I once slipped in right under the wire for what must have been the last seating of the night — not my favorite way to be a conscientious guest — but we were still unrushed to the point of feeling like old friends.

To start, Sofreh's eggplant and whey dip with crispy onions on top is a giddy addition to the scoopable food genre. The saffron rice is also all but required; you might need a few takeout boxes to accommodate the terrifically tender braised lamb shank and the comforting dried lime and herb beef stew. The cocktails are also considerably more unique than most of what you see elsewhere, including the saffron vesper with vodka, gin, Lillet, saffron, and a rosewater tincture.

Sofreh is located at 216 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.