Soho, NYC neighborhood guide
Soho, NYC is notable for its shopping and dining options, but which spots are considered the absolute best?
Soho, NYC is a shopping enclave full of high-end boutiques and buzzworthy pop-up shops, as well as a sea of street vendors touting designer knockoffs in the form of sunglasses, handbags and scarves. Just make sure to save some change—and your phone battery—so you can grab coffee and a pastry from one of the many Instagrammable cafes and eateries packed into the downtown nabe. But don’t write off Soho as a mere urban shopping mall. Though many of the art galleries that made Soho New York a contemporary-art hot spot in the 1970s and ’80s decamped to Chelsea and the Lower East Side, some excellent art spaces remain. Walk along the cobblestone streets and find great New York restaurants, bars and things to do in this downtown neighborhood.
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Things to do in Soho, NYC
The best Soho restaurants in NYC
Soho is more than just the downtown hub of shopping in New York—there’s also the high-quality crop of Soho bars and restaurants available for you to refuel at during your retail-therapy trip. From Middle Eastern eateries and French bakeries to Italian sandwich shops and the best brunch in NYC, the neighborhood’s got a little something for everybody. Here are the best Soho restaurants NYC has to offer. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best restaurants in NYC
Restaurants in Soho, NYC
The Dutch
The Dutch draws in a crowd for the eclectic offerings of chef and owner Andrew Carmellini.
Le Coucou
The restaurant attracts all types for fancy date nights featuring refined French fare
Balthazar
Not only is the iconic Balthazar still trendy, but the kitchen rarely makes a false step
The Bombay Bread Bar
Floyd Cardoz, of Tabla and Top Chef Masters fame, deserves major props for this Soho Indian spot
Bars in Soho, NYC
Pegu Club
The far-reaching influence of New York's reigning queen of mixology, Audrey Saunders, is hard to measure. Her storied cocktail lounge, the Pegu Club, begat many of today's standard-bearers, including Death & Company, PDT and Mayahuel. Pay a visit to the urbane barroom, a second floor sanctum on bustling Houston Street, and explore Saunders’ eminent opus, which includes new classics such as the Gin-Gin Mule. She first served the drink—a vivacious elixir of homemade ginger beer with Tanqueray gin, fresh mint and lime juice—at the Beacon Restaurant & Bar in 2000. Equally renowned is the Earl Grey MarTEAni, a frothy and fragrant nod to English teatime traditions made with loose-leaf–infused Tanqueray gin, lemon juice and an egg white.
Broome Street Bar
Tourists from nearby hotels come to mingle with locals at this typical New York bar
Hotels in Soho, NYC
Crosby Street Hotel
If you're looking for a slice of London in NYC, look no further
The Mercer
This André Balasz property lives up to its name by all accounts, fusing modernity and privacy with the soul of its surroundings
Sixty SoHo
Following a recent renovation, Sixty SoHo is a visual expression of the neighborhood’s most treasured qualities
Soho Grand Hotel
Nothing encapsulates Old World New York glamour quite like the SoHo Grand