Favorite NYC restaurants (2023 edition)
I’ve lived in New York for more than 17 years now, and have seen many restaurants come and go, so thought I’d do something fun today and go through some of my current and old favorites. I’ll list them by neighborhood since that seems the most organized. I will say that although I live on the Upper East Side and have my local spots, a lot of my favorite restaurants are downtown as I love any excuse to traipse around the West Village. Some limitations here: I don’t really like Chinese food, so Chinatown is not really explored here though I know there are some (obviously) great gems. Sushi also usually isn’t my go-to for a dinner out, so there aren’t any on my list.
this is the little owl, on the corner of the Friends apartment exterior
Ok, here we go:
Upper East Side
AOC East - French with great, cozy ambiance. I love the grilled salmon with ratatouille, the sautéed Brussels sprouts, the lamb burger and fries
Felice 83 - Italian, across the street from AOC and so delicious. Any pasta is great, but their cacio e pepi and pesto gnocchi are my favorite, and the burger is also top notch. For an appetizer, the ricotta crostini is my number one pick
Gracie Mews Diner - classic NYC diner with one million options. I like their paninis, French fries, and for breakfast/brunch blueberry pancakes with a scrambled egg or bacon
Joneswood Foundry - British pub with amazing food. I love the salmon burger, regular burger, French fries and their sticky toffee pudding is by far the best dessert.
JoJo - a Jean-Georges (French) restaurant with gorgeous, cozy ambiance. This is a great date night spot and I’m a big fan of any fish dish (the black sea bass being the most recent), and the duck is also great. As a carrot cake lover, JoJo has a WONDERFUL one for dessert
Tandoor Oven - this is our local Indian spot and it’s so good. We usually get the garlic naan, chicken tikka masala, palak paneer, etc.