What to eat in New York: 8 dishes and where to find them

What to eat in New York starts with the dishes immigrants turned into the city's everyday food: the folded pizza slice, the bagel with lox, pastrami on rye and the chicken over rice of the street carts. Add soup dumplings in Flushing, a chopped cheese in East Harlem and a slab of Brooklyn cheesecake, and most of it costs under $30 a head.

New York's canon was built by Jewish delis and appetising shops on the Lower East Side, Neapolitan bakers in Greenwich Village, Egyptian cart vendors in Midtown, Puerto Rican and Yemeni bodega cooks uptown and, more recently, Chinese restaurants in Queens. None of it needs a reservation; most of it needs patience in a queue.

Deciding what to eat in New York also means using the subway: the plates below run from the Lower East Side to East Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens. Prices are in US dollars, as reported by menus and recent reviews; expect tax and tip on top at sit-down places.

New York's best food rarely needs a reservation; it needs a subway ride and a queue.

What to eat in New York first: a slice at Joe's Pizza, Greenwich Village

The New York slice is a wide, thin wedge from an 18-inch pie, crisp underneath and soft enough to fold lengthwise. Joe's Pizza has sold it from 7 Carmine Street, between Bleecker Street and Sixth Avenue, since 1975, and the plain cheese slice is the one to order.

A plain slice costs about $4; Time Out puts the average whole pie at $28. Eat it standing at the counter or on the pavement, which is how most New Yorkers do.

Bagel with lox at Russ & Daughters, Lower East Side

Russ & Daughters has run its appetising shop at 179 East Houston Street since the early 20th century: smoked and cured fish, cream cheese, herring, babka. The classic order is a bagel with cream cheese, Gaspé Nova smoked salmon, tomato, red onion and capers.

Take a number at the counter. Count on roughly $15 to $20 for a smoked salmon bagel; sliced fish to take away is sold by weight. The sit-down Russ & Daughters Cafe on Orchard Street serves the same fish at table prices.

Pastrami on rye at Katz's Delicatessen, Lower East Side

Katz's, founded in 1888 and now at 205 East Houston Street, cures beef navel, rubs it with pepper and coriander, smokes it and steams it before hand-carving it thick. The sandwich comes on rye with mustard and nothing else, with a plate of pickles on the side.

Since 2025 the pastrami sandwich has cost $28.95 before tax, around $30 at the till. It feeds two people. Keep the paper ticket you get at the door: losing it costs $50.

Soup dumplings at Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, Flushing

Xiao long bao are Shanghai-style dumplings with a pork filling and a spoonful of hot broth sealed inside a thin, pleated wrapper. Bite a small hole, sip the soup, then eat the rest with black vinegar and ginger.

Nan Xiang, at 39-16 Prince Street in Flushing's One Fulton Square, has held a Michelin Guide recommendation for nine consecutive years and added a spicy mala beef version in January 2026. Budget $20 to $30 a head for dumplings and noodles; the 7 train stops two blocks away at Main Street.

Chicken over rice at The Halal Guys cart, Midtown

Chicken over rice is chopped griddled chicken on yellow rice with lettuce, pita, a white sauce and a red chilli sauce. The Halal Guys began as a hot dog cart in 1990 and switched to this platter in 1992.

The original cart still trades on the south-east corner of 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue, late into the night. A regular platter costs about $10 to $11. Go easy on the red sauce.

Chopped cheese at Hajji's, East Harlem

The chopped cheese is the bodega's own sandwich: ground beef and onions chopped on the flat-top with melted American cheese, then piled into a hero roll with lettuce and tomato. Blue Sky Deli, known to everyone as Hajji's, at 2135 First Avenue at 110th Street, is widely credited with inventing it.

The Infatuation still ranked it first in its September 2025 guide to the city's chopped cheese. Bodega versions usually cost $5 to $10; chef-made versions downtown run to $15.

Cheesecake at Junior's, Downtown Brooklyn

New York cheesecake is dense and tall, made with cream cheese, eggs and cream on a thin base. Junior's has baked it at 386 Flatbush Avenue Extension, at DeKalb Avenue, since 1950.

A slice costs around $8 to $10 in the dining room, and the plain version is the benchmark. Whole cakes are sold at the bakery counter by the front door.

Black and white cookie at William Greenberg Desserts, Upper East Side

The black and white is a soft, cake-like round iced half in vanilla fondant and half in chocolate. William Greenberg Desserts, at 1100 Madison Avenue with a second shop at 285 Amsterdam Avenue, makes the version most bakers are measured against: vanilla-heavy sponge and soft icing.

A single cookie costs a few dollars; boxes on the bakery's website start at $27. The Upper East Side shop is one avenue east of the Metropolitan Museum.

Markets, neighbourhoods and when to go

If you plan a day around what to eat in New York, group it by district:

• Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Avenue: dozens of counters under one roof, useful on a rainy day before walking the High Line.
• Essex Market, 88 Essex Street, Lower East Side: covered public market with fishmongers, cheese and lunch counters, two blocks from Katz's.
• Smorgasburg: open-air food market on Saturdays in Williamsburg and Sundays in Prospect Park, from April to October.
• Flushing, Main Street and Prince Street: Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean food courts and dumpling houses at the end of the 7 line.
• Arthur Avenue, Belmont, the Bronx: the city's Italian market street, with the Arthur Avenue Retail Market at No. 2344.
• Union Square and Washington Heights: new openings, from Varith, Chuck Valla's Thai restaurant to Boogie Bakery & Bistro's Croatian sourdough.

Spring and autumn are the best months to eat on foot; July and August are hot, and January queues are short but cold.

Frequently asked questions about eating in New York

Is New York expensive to eat in? Street food and slices keep a day under $40, but sit-down restaurants add sales tax of about 8.9% and a tip of 18 to 20%.

Do I need reservations? Not for anything in this guide except the three tables below; delis, pizzerias and carts work on queues.

What is the one dish to eat if I only have a day? A pastrami sandwich at Katz's for lunch, shared, and a slice on the way home.

Is Flushing worth the trip? Yes: the 7 train from Times Square takes about 40 minutes, and the dumplings justify it.

Where to book first

Le Bernardin, 155 West 51st Street, Midtown: Eric Ripert's seafood restaurant holds three Michelin stars; book weeks ahead.

Atomix, 104 East 30th Street, NoMad: Junghyun and Ellia Park's Korean tasting counter holds two stars; book online well ahead.

One Bryant Park, 135 West 42nd Street, Midtown: the newest serious table, an eight-course kaiseki menu that opened on 15 October; read our story on One Bryant Park and Kappo Sono. For everything else on this list of what to eat in New York, just join the queue.

To book a table rather than queue, see our list of the best restaurants in New York in 2026, from Le Bernardin to Thai Diner.