From the steaming soup kitchen in Chinatown to the star-spangled gourmet temple overlooking Madison Square Park, the culinary energy here is second to none.
Loud, colorful, passionate - that's how New Yorkers like it when it comes to food. From haute cuisine to food trucks: New York City thrives on taste and surprise.
Want an example? "Katz's Delicatessen" stacks the warm pastrami slices for almost 30 dollars so generously that they spill out of the rye bread sandwich - an institution on the Lower East Side and a prime example of how traditional street food still reflects the soul of the city after more than 130 years.
New York tastes of diversity: pizza in Little Italy, dim sum in Chinatown or Afro-Cuban Cubanitos in Brooklyn; recently, Asian-Pacific cuisine has also conquered the culinary scene. And then there is the Swiss Daniel Humm, chef and owner of the world-famous three-star art deco temple "Eleven Madison Park": in 2022, after a radical turnaround, the restaurant became the first in the world to be awarded three Michelin stars for a completely plant-based menu. Fish and meat will be available again from fall - and of course the honey-lavender-glazed duck.
Fresh stars such as "Semma" in Greenwich Village - the best restaurant in the city for the New York Times in 2025 - celebrate uncompromising authenticity. Here you can enjoy pure South Indian cuisine, with gunpowder dosa (a classic crêpe made from rice and lentils filled with potato masala) as the signature dish. Chef Vijay Kumar cooks the food of his childhood, unadulterated, with flavors and heart. It is the only Indian restaurant in NYC with a Michelin star.
Reservations? In some places it's a tough sport; at "Rao's" in East Harlem they are completely impossible - here you have to "own" one of the ten tables, or you know someone. A legendary place with mafia-myth status; once ennobled by the famous New York Times critic Mimi Sheraton.
- Bagels and appetizing:
Lox, whitefish and pickles in the "LES store" - go early, choose "hand-rolled".
- Chinatown and Flushing:
Hand-pulled noodles and Xiaolongbao - take the subway line 7 to Flushing, hop on small stores, pay cash.
- Queens Spice Crawl:
Jackson Heights for momos, chaat and tacos - one dish per stall, followed by mango lassi to go.
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