The first-ever list of North America’s 50 Best Restaurants is here, and it’s ripe with lower Manhattan representation. Published late last month by the same company whose annual roundup of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is considered a gold standard in fine dining, the North America list contains a whopping 13 restaurants in New York City — more than the next two highest-performing cities combined — including the No. 1 spot, Atomix in NoMad, which has two Michelin stars. Not all of them, however, needed Michelin acclaim or strictly prix fixe menus to earn their place — these five restaurants on the list, all of which are located near NYU, are among the continent’s best by sheer force of outstanding food.
Via Carota | $$$
51 Grove St.
Ranked No. 18 on the list, this 11-year-old celebrity hotspot never seems to go out of style. You’ve probably walked by the iconic Via Carota on your way in or out of Washington Square Park — at first glance, it might look like another one of the West Village’s cookie-cutter Italian restaurants. But Rita Sodi and Jody Williams — the duo behind several other acclaimed restaurants in the area, like I Sodi and The Commerce Inn — offer a rustic, humble yet intriguing menu at Via Carota. Its robust selection of vegetables features grilled artichokes with aioli ($24), roasted carrots over a bed of tangy yogurt ($23) and a crisp radicchio salad with hazelnuts, honey and a brie-like cheese ($24). Don’t miss the simple yet elegant tonnarelli cacio e pepe ($27), one of the restaurant’s most famous dishes.
Penny | $$$
90 E. 10th St.
One block away from Third Avenue North, No. 40-ranked Penny serves up some of the best seafood in New York City. Since it opened in March 2024, the largely walk-in restaurant — sister of Claud, which resides downstairs — has just over 30 seats and a 20-item menu of raw seafood, small bites and larger plates. Come with a group of friends to maximize the bang for your buck: Start your meal with the Ice Box ($39) — described by The Infatuation as “the seafood tower’s cooler cousin” — for fresh oysters, countneck clams, mussels, crudo and Argentinian red shrimp. The bulk of the menu is filled with dishes that pair classic presentation with new, exciting flavors: Think char-grilled squid generously stuffed with swiss chard and tuna ($21) and thinly shaved tuna — a take on traditional beef carpaccio — topped with sweet onions and green olives ($29).
Kono | $$$$
46 Bowery
Perhaps the only New York City restaurant where you can eat a wagyu slider while listening to Sheck Wes’ “Mo Bamba,” No. 23-ranked Kono offers one of the most exciting tasting menus in lower Manhattan. The $175 dinner focuses almost exclusively on yakitori, or Japanese charcoal-grilled skewers, typically chicken. Chef Atsushi Kono takes pride in highlighting many different parts of the bird, from gizzards and cartilage to skin and thigh. A meal at Kono — which is just under a 10-minute walk from Lafayette Hall — starts with small bites, including a flower-shaped wafer sandwich filled with shaved truffle, and ends with a palate cleanser of chilled udon noodles in a clarified chicken broth. For Kono, who is also a breakdancer, cooking is, similarly, an art form. You’ll find him at the center of the dimly-lit restaurant’s main table, grilling skewers to the beat of hip hop music as dinner service goes on.
Corima | $$$$
3 Allen St.
At No. 36, this fine dining restaurant on the border between Chinatown and the Lower East Side is one of only two Mexican restaurants in New York City with a Michelin star. Chef Fidel Caballero opened Corima in January 2024, and offers both a $125 prix fixe and an a la carte menu — opt for the latter for a cheaper evening, which allows you to share a few small plates with friends. The pillowy sourdough tortillas are a must, made with Sonoran wheat and chicken fat and accompanied by a butter of recado negro, a Yucatan paste of charred chiles and other spices. Several of the dishes on Corima’s frequently rotating menu incorporate Japanese influences, like the delicate, matchstick-like corn soba with a skatewing dashi. Finish the night with black sesame chocolate bonbons, and a floral sorbet of nopal, or cactus, with sorrel and kiwiberry.
Café Carmellini | $$$
250 5th Ave.
Andrew Carmellini’s Italian-French-inspired restaurant inside The Fifth Avenue Hotel is more than a cafe — its golden architecture, plush royal blue booths and bulb chandeliers parallel the classic elegance of its food. About a half-mile from Gramercy Green, No. 39-ranked Café Carmellini offers upscale breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. Snag a morning reservation for a posh brunch of smoked salmon benedict with caviar on a housemade English muffin ($33) and an avocado tartlet with soft scrambled eggs ($32). Stunning pastas, like the flower-shaped duck-duck-duck tortellini ($36) and the caramelle with summer corn ($34), are standouts on the lunch and dinner menus, alongside work-of-art appetizers like the sushi-resembling Japanese sardine toast ($24) and the crab and meyer lemon mille-feuille ($33).
Contact Lauren Ng at [email protected].