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...
What’s the deal with Soho?
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.
If you only do one thing
Shop at Pearl River Mart, which carries an extensive collection of Asian products.
Go off the beaten track
Take a guided tour of 101 Spring Street, the former home of artist Donald Judd, whose art can be seen at art galleries around the world. The formerly private living and working space provide “firsthand experience of Judd’s concept of permanent installation in downtown New York,” according to the Donald Judd Foundation, which operates the building.
On a sunny day
Do some shopping because Soho is known for its plethora of upscale and trendy stores.
On a rainy day
Go to the Museum of Ice Cream and indulge on all things cold and creamy or peruse books at the Housing Works Bookstore Café.
Get cultured
Visit the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, which is the only dedicated LGBTQ+ art museum in the world and has a mission of showcasing and preserving LGBTQ+ art as well as fostering the artists who create it.
Chill out
Grab a tart and coffee at 12 Chairs or take a date to Raoul’s for dinner and drinks.
Nearest subway stations
Prince, Canal, Spring Street, Broadway-Lafayette St and Bleecker Street stations.
What else is nearby?
The beloved neighborhood of Little Italy and Nolita are to the east while Greenwich Village is to the north. Both neighborhoods contain some of the best dining in NYC.
