Top 20 American Restaurants in New York City
New York City is a boiling pot of great fare as explained at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. The best American restaurants in the city are packed with fresh produce, sustainable meat, and modern plating. This article will look to shine a spotlight on these restaurants by listing the top 20 American restaurants in New York City.
- Empire Diner
Located in the heart of West Chelsea, the iconic Empire Diner has been a neighborhood and industry staple since 1976. This landmark building with its storied past is back and better than ever as articulated at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com.
- Eleven Madison Park
Swiss chef Daniel Humm mans the kitchen at this vast Art Deco jewel, which began life as a brasserie before evolving into one of the city’s most rarefied and progressive eateries. The service is famously mannered, and the room is among the city’s most grand. But the heady, epic tasting menus are the true heart of Eleven Madison Park, a format that spotlights Humm’s auteur instincts.
- ABC Kitchen
As per RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com, everything at ABC Kitchen, including the antique armoires, reclaimed-wood tables, and chandeliers, is gathered from area artisans. Though the restaurant’s sustainable ethos is outlined on the back of the menu like an Al Gore polemic, the cooking, based on the most gorgeous ingredients from up and down the East Coast, delivers one message above all: Food that’s good for the planet needn’t be any less opulent, flavorful or stunning to look at.
- Gramercy Tavern
Gramercy is the restaurant that transformed Danny Meyer from a one-shop restaurateur to a full-blown impresario, made Tom Colicchio a star, and launched a citywide proliferation of casual yet upscale American eateries. It’s delicate constructions of vegetables and fish that dominate now. The influence of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant given to ingredients-worship, is evident as soon as the first course (of the main dining room’s mandated three-course prix fixe) is rolled out.
- Roberta’s
Opened in 2008 by Chris Parachini, Brandon Hoy, and Carlo Mirarchi, Roberta’s features its own rooftop garden, a food-focused Internet radio station, and a kitchen that turns out excellent, locally sourced dishes, such as delicate bibb lettuce with red-cherry vinaigrette or linguine carbonara made with lamb pancetta.
- Contra
With Contra, young guns Jeremiah Stone, and Fabian von Hauske draw inspiration from Paris’s néo-bistro movement, which champions affordable set menus served in casual spaces according to RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. Their own narrow room verges on spare, stripped down to elemental forms like bare brick, scuffed wooden tables, and a slab-oak bar.
- Olmsted
Olmsted’s focus on hyper-fresh produce should come as no surprise, given chef Greg Baxtrom’s résumé—before opening this seasonal Prospect Heights spot, the chef put in kitchen time at renowned ingredient-driven restaurants like Chicago’s Alinea, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and Atera.
- Blue Hill
During fresh pea season, bright green infuses every inch of the menu in this restaurant, from a velvety spring pea soup to sous-vide duck breast as soft as sushi fanned over a slivered bed of sugar snap peas as captured at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. From start to finish, there’s a garden on every plate—from buttery ravioli filled with tangy greens to just-picked cherries under a sweet cobbler crust.
- The Dutch
Like the diverse crowd, the food—from virtuoso Andrew Carmellini—is eclectic: His rollicking menu reflects our increasingly free-form eating habits with loving homages to Chinatown, the barrio, Little Italy, and the full range of midtown, from its oyster bars and old chophouses to its taquerias and noodle-shop dives.
- Betony
Despite the luxe reworking—matched with a pleasant though militantly stiff waitstaff and those fussy trappings left over from the space’s days as the oligarchic Brasserie Pushkin—chef Bryce Shuman thankfully hasn’t lost his sense of fun. That mirth is felt from the get-go, kicking off with a play-with-your-food plate of English-pea puree spackled with sesame and olive oil and served with a single rainbow kale leaf that the waistcoated server instructs to use as a utensil.
- Estela
As covered at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com, the fashionably cookie-cutter décor at Estela—exposed brick, globe lights, hulking marble bar, the works—suggests you’ve stumbled into another bustling rustic restaurant-cum-bar that’s not worth the wait. Far less common are talents like Ignacio Mattos, the imaginative Uruguayan-born chef cooking in this Mediterranean-tinged spot.
- The Farm Adderley
At this friendly Ditmas Park spot, patrons can dine in the large, exposed-brick main room or, in warm months, a lovely garden area. The excellent seasonal American menu highlights locally sourced ingredients and the kids’ menu features healthier takes on classic kiddie fare, like organic hot dogs.
- Narcissa
John Fraser—chef-owner of Michelin-starred Dovetail—is the latest adopter of the vegetable high altar, and his carrots Wellington at Narcissa sends up a fittingly sublime hymn as described at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. For a dish that sounds like the token vegetarian option at a bad 1980s wedding, this Wellington is entirely novel. The sweet, brined carrots are tinged hauntingly bitter by a coffee-cocoa rub, their juicy flesh downright pampered by buttery puff pastry and silky sunchoke puree.
- Upland
California cuisine has always been a curious thing. It’s local but globally inflected, lean but filling, as driven by its ingredients as by the chef seasoning them. The vague concept is more an aura than anything else, a Golden State glow that radiates throughout Upland, a glossy tribute to chef Justin Smillie’s hometown nestled at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.
- The Finch
This hospitality-driven seasonal American spot in a renovated 120-year-old Clinton Hill brownstone is the brainchild of chef-owner Gabe McMacking, who put in kitchen time at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Gramercy Tavern, and Roberta’s. The menu is updated regularly: Recent dishes include chicken-liver mousse with pickled ramp, shaved lamb tongue with black garlic and snap peas, and a swiss-chard lasagne with garlic-scape-pine-nut pesto.
- Cookshop
Cookshop came about through a longstanding desire to more fully incorporate the range of ingredients available in the Northeast, whether it was farm animals, agricultural products, or the emerging artisanal cheese movement as discussed at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com.
- PJ Clarke’s
Since 1884, PJ Clarke’s has been serving up the same things; fresh food, frosty drinks, and good, old-fashioned conversation. This restaurant prides itself on offering top-notch customer service.
- Ted’s Montana Grill
The founders of Ted’s Montana Grill, Ted Turner, and George W. McKerrow imagined a restaurant where friends and family could sit down to an experience founded on the ideals that have made America great as outlined at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com. Where important ingredients like simplicity, honesty, and authenticity would create classic American dishes.
- BLACKBARN
The BLACKBARN Restaurant is an American bar restaurant located in the heart of New York City, overlooking Madison Square Park. When looking for an American bar restaurant in NYC, or a fine dining restaurant near NYC, BLACKBARN is the place to be.
- The Smith
The Smith’s purpose is to make people happy. Since 2007, it has served food that people crave. The Smith is passionate about taking great care of its employees, guests, and community, and the team here is obsessed with building a positive, empowering, and supportive culture.
These are some of the best American restaurants in New York City, with more on this topic, and much more, to be found over at RunRex.com, guttulus.com, and mtglion.com.