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Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Photograph: Shutterstock
Photograph: Shutterstock

Upper East Side guide: The best of the neighborhood

Find the best restaurants, bars, shops, attractions and things to do on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

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Gorgeous prewar apartments owned by blue-blooded socialites, soigné restaurants frequented by Botoxed ladies who lunch, the deluxe boutiques of international designers.… This is the clichéd image of the Upper East Side, and you’ll certainly see a lot of supporting evidence on Fifth, Madison and Park Avenues. Recently, however, pockets of downtown cool have migrated north, notably the growing food-and-drink enclave pioneered by Earl’s Beer and Cheese.

RECOMMENDED: Full guide of Manhattan, NY

Encouraged by the opening of Central Park in the late 1800s, affluent New Yorkers began building mansions along Fifth Avenue. By the start of the 20th century, even the superwealthy had warmed to the idea of giving up their large homes for smaller quarters, provided they were near the park, which resulted in the construction of many new apartment blocks and hotels. Working-class folk later settled around Second and Third Avenues, following construction of the defunct elevated East Side train line, but affluence remained the neighborhood’s dominant characteristic. Philanthropic gestures made by the moneyed classes over the past 130-odd years have helped to create the impressive cluster of art collections on Museum Mile—from 82nd to 105th Streets, Fifth Avenue is lined with more than half a dozen celebrated institutions, including theMetropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Frick Collection.

To find out more about things to do, see, eat and drink in Manhattan, and discover other neighborhoods in the area, visit our Manhattan borough guide.

Map of the Upper East Side and travel information

The Upper East Side of Manhattan is east of Central Park, running from Fifth Avenue to the East River and extending north from E 59th Street to E 110th Street, where it borders East Harlem. The neighborhood encompasses several sub-nabes: Lenox Hill (E 59th St to E 77th St from Fifth Ave to Lexington Ave), Carnegie Hill (E 86th St to E 96th St between Fifth Ave and Lexington Aves) and Yorkville (E 79th St to E 96th St from Third Ave to the East River).
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Restaurants on the Upper East Side

Westmoreland

  • American creative
  • Lenox Hill
  • price 3 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Westmoreland
Westmoreland
Photograph: Peter Garritano
With the reopening of the Frick Collection comes its first-ever restaurant, the Westmoreland. Named for museum founder Henry Clay Frick’s private railway car, the cafe is as luxurious and opulent as the gilded mansion that houses it. With just 50 seats and a menu featuring well-worn museum cafe hits like a tuna nicoise salad with potatoes and haricots verts, poached trout and a crustless club sandwich, this is precisely the elevated, straightforward spot you need to rest after a day spent among the art.  Sip a cocktail inspired by Frick’s Cocktails with a Curator series, a pandemic-era hit where pieces from the closed museum were paired with a drink by the museum’s curator. You’ll find classics on the bar menu, too, like a bubbly French 75 and a no-frills daiquiri.  In a neighborhood where new influencer faves join old-school classics like Bemelmans and J.G. Melon, Westmoreland fuses the two elegantly, with avocado toast with pistachio butter happily joining chicken milanese on the menu—what more would you expect from the new home of some of the city’s most spectacular Old Master paintings and Renaissance sculptures?    The vibe: Old (like, Renaissance old) money meets new school vibes with custom murals and viral cocktails.  The food: Straightforward classics for the ladies, gentlemen and everyone else who lunch: club sandwiches, Caesar salad and chocolate mousse.  The drink: Familiar cocktails (made YouTube famous) done right.  Time Out tip: A museum admission to the...

Chez Fifi

  • French
  • Lenox Hill
  • price 3 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Chez Fifi
Chez Fifi
Rendering: Courtesy of Chez Fifi
An impossible-to-get table on the Upper East Side? Stranger things have happened. Chez Fifi, from the folks behind neighborhood spot Sushi Noz, is the rare uptown restaurant popular with the downtown set. A roast chicken (with its much-chattered-about price of $78), filet mignon with fries and a rotating omelette give the spot its bistro bona fides. Still, for our money, your money is better spent on the assorted charcuterie, which includes salmon rillettes with cucumber, foie gras and jamón iberico with Marcona almonds. (Bonus: Shockingly, the bread and butter are free.)  Don’t skip dessert: here, the French classics are done right, with a gorgeous, crackling crème brulee and dark chocolate mousse served with chantilly cream. It’s all very romantic—and why wouldn’t it be, in the intimate room of just 12 tables? Chez Fifi is named for Firouzeh Foulquier, the mother of the brothers who run the place, and while it doesn’t feel like home, necessarily, it’s a lovely little place to stay awhile. After all, you scored the reservation—and it’ll take a while to get another—so you’ll want to make it last.  The vibe: Folks who can afford a $78 roast chicken or have an assistant who can nab a table, plus foodies who simply must try the hottest table.  The food: Elegant charcuterie, bistro classics like steak frites and an omelette and French desserts that are worth the wait.   The drink: Espresso martinis served with ladyfingers, rhubarb sours and other elevated twists on classic...
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The Mark Clam Bar

  • Seafood
  • Upper East Side
  • price 3 of 4
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
The Mark Clam Bar
The Mark Clam Bar
Photograph: Courtesy The Mark Hotel
Get a taste of the Hamptons (without the ticks and all that traffic) at the Mark’s pop-up clam shack, which feels surprisingly transportive despite its location right on the bustling corner of Madison and East 77th. It has a fine dining pedigree—the spot’s a collab from Jean-Georges and Caviar Kaspa—but the Clam Bar keeps it a little more casual.  If it seems like the red-and-white checkered accessories and breezy, homemade-looking shack were made to be posted, well…they probably were. It will look good on your feed, but the food is satisfying on its own—this not-so-humble shack is serving up fresh lobster rolls with cherry tomatoes and kicky sriracha mayo and baked littleneck clams with garlic butter and BBQ sauce, along with roadside sides like corn with lime and crispy hand-cut fries.  We love it for a long, late summer lunch, when you can sip a Bloody Mary, which is served here either with or without an oyster and caviar, or an Aperol spritz. And for dessert, a simple farmstand “bowl of strawberries” is reimagined with berry sorbet, honey brioche and a lime meringue. That’ll cost $21—this is almost the Hamptons, after all. The vibe: A low-key clam shack with a high-key fine dining pedigree—dress to impress, despite the casual atmosphere.  The food: Roadside seafood stand fare is elevated with sriracha, truffles and caviar.  The drinks: Kick back with a Montauk Summer Ale or treat yourself to an outrageously extravagant $45 Bloody Mary.  Time Out tip: Thanks to Caviar...
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Bayon

  • Cambodian
  • Lenox Hill
Bayon
Bayon
Photograph: Courtesy Bayon
It’s tough to find Cambodian food in NYC, but you can get a bite on the Upper East Side. At Bayon (which was recently opened by the owners of the beloved Angkor, and in the same location), order the prahok, the salted, fermented fish paste that adds an umami burst to every bite, and the baked amok, which is one of Cambodia’s best-known dishes. This souffle-like meal is steamed, fragrant with scallops, coconut milk and lemongrass, and totally transportive.
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Museums on the Upper East Side

The Frick Collection

  • Museums
  • Art and design
  • Lenox Hill
  • price 2 of 4
The Frick Collection
The Frick Collection
Photograph: By Nicholas Venezia
The opulent residence that houses a private collection of great masters (from the 14th through the 19th centuries) was originally built for industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The firm of Carrère & Hastings designed the 1914 structure in an 18th-century European style, with a beautiful interior court and reflecting pool. The permanent collections include world-class paintings, sculpture and furniture by the likes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Renoir and French cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener.  Following its 2020 closure for renovations, the Frick Collection reopened on April 17, 2025 inside its historic Gilded Age mansion. Now, visitors can see the museum's permanent collection inside restored spaces on the first floor while also walking around a new roster of galleries on the mansion's second floor—once the Frick family's private quarters—now open to the public for the very first time. That means you can walk into the original bedroom of Henry Clay Frick! Read more on The Frick's incredible new offerings, including a new 218-seat auditorium, an airy class room, an expanded reception hall, new state-of-the-art conservation studios and the museum’s first-ever cafe.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

  • Museums
  • Art and design
  • Upper East Side
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Photograph: Courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
While the Guggenheim’s collection of modern art works is certainly impressive, it is impossible to separate the museum’s contents from its form with architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s brilliant and controversial design. Opened in 1959 on Fifth Ave across from Central Park, just months after Wright’s death, the concrete inverted ziggernaut (a Babylonian step pyramid), stomped on the expectations and tradition of clean square galleries exemplified and cherished by the neighboring Upper East Side museums, like the nearby Metropolitan Museum. Instead Wright combined his use of geometric shapes and nature, to create a gallery space that presented art along a flowing, winding spiral, much like a nautilus shell, with little in the way of walls to separate artists, ideas or time periods. Best experienced as Wright intended by taking the elevator to the top of the museum and following the gentle slope down, the art is revealed at different angles along the descent and across the open circular rotunda in a way that even the most well known Monet landscape might seem like a revelation. Make sure to take a break from the captivating main exhibit of the season and visit the small rooms off the rotunda to see the permanent collection, which includes works by Picasso, Cezanne, Manet and the largest selection of Kandinsky paintings to be permanently shown in America.
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Neue Galerie New York

  • Museums
  • Art and design
  • Upper East Side
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Neue Galerie New York
Neue Galerie New York
Photograph: Annie Schlechter
This elegant addition to the city’s museum scene is devoted entirely to late-19th- and early-20th-century German and Austrian fine and decorative arts. Located in a renovated brick-and-limestone mansion that was built by the architects of the New York Public Library, this brainchild of the late art dealer Serge Sabarsky and cosmetics mogul Ronald S. Lauder has the largest concentration of works by Gustav Klimt (including his iconic Adele Bloch-Bauer I) and Egon Schiele outside Vienna. You’ll also find a bookstore, a chic (and expensive) design shop and the Old World–inspired Café Sabarsky, serving updated Austrian cuisine and ravishing Viennese pastries.
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Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

  • Things to do
  • Schools and universities
  • Upper East Side
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Flickr/ Yisris  
Founded in 1897 by the Hewitt sisters, granddaughters of industrialist Peter Cooper, the only museum in the U.S. solely dedicated to design (both historic and modern) has been part of the Smithsonian since the 1960s. The museum hosts periodic interactive family programs that allow children to experiment with design.
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Bars on the Upper East Side

The Penrose

  • Gastropubs
  • Upper East Side
  • price 1 of 4
The Penrose
The Penrose
Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

What is it? A well-realized gastropub–The Penrose is a crowd-pleaser.

Why we like it: Comfy, stylish–a bit of hip downtown, uptown.

Time Out tip: The Penrose does have a ton of seating but it still gets crowded on Saturday nights. 

Address: 1590 2nd Avenue

Opening Hours: Monday - Friday, 11:30am-4am; Saturday & Sunday, 9:30am-4am 

Expect to Pay: Cocktails are $15, Beers are about $8; Wine glasses are $13-ish, bottles are around $55, there’s also bottles of sparkling that reach up to $210. Small plates of food are about $12-$15 while a main can go for between $17-$34

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The Jeffrey

  • CafĂ© bars
  • Lenox Hill
  • price 1 of 4
The Jeffrey
The Jeffrey
Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

What is it: One of NYC’s premier beer bars

Why we like it: Home to a 65-seat outdoor biergarten, a coffee shop, a mixology lab, The Jeffrey wants to be your go-to for whatever you’re into.

Time Out tip: This is a destination for beer nerds, yes. But it’s also the kind of place that, on a sunny weekend afternoon, you can bring the whole team and have a great time. It’s right under the Queensboro Bridge, so if you’re going at night and wanna sit outside, bring a jacket.

Address: 311 East 60th Street

Opening Hours: Monday - Wednesday, 4pm-midnight; Thursday - Saturday, noon-1am; Sunday, noon-midnight

Expect to pay: Beers range, depending but most are around $8. Cocktails average $15. Wine glasses are $15, bottles are $65. Small plates are mostly about $8, tacos are $7-ish per with a minimum of two to an order; big plates are from about $15 to $20.

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Caledonia Scottish Pub UES

  • Pubs
  • Upper East Side
  • price 1 of 4
Caledonia Scottish Pub UES
Caledonia Scottish Pub UES
Photograph: Courtesy Caledonia Scottish Pub

What is it: A low-key Scottish pub with a huge scotch whiskey selection.

Why we like it: It’s not all about the price-tag on single-malt here; the collection is more thoughtfully curated than that.

Time Out tip: There are house rules you’d do well to observe: There’s no such thing as the best whiskey. There's a 5% discount for Tinder dates (with proof). Do NOT close your tab after each drink, you Gen Zers. Don’t ask for free drinks—it’s gauche and annoys bartenders. Fellas: respect women or get the boot.

Address: 1609 2nd Avenue

Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday, 5pm-2am; Friday & Saturday, 4pm-4am; Sunday, 4pm-midnight

Expect to pay: Cocktails are around $16, food is around $8, beer around $9, wine is at around $13/glass and $50/bottle. Whiskeys have a vast range, some hitting $150 for a pour.

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The Auction House

  • Lounges
  • Upper East Side
  • price 1 of 4
  • Recommended
The Auction House
The Auction House
Photograph: Courtesy The Auction House

What is it: An atmospheric, long-running lounge on a residential strip with no street-facing signage. 

Why we like it: This place was a trailblazer in NYC and has maintained its intrinsic integrity through the years.

Time Out tip: There’s no storefront, so it may take you a minute to locate the entrance but trust us: it’s there. There’s no dress code, but keep it classy. Cash only.

Address: 300 East 89th Street

Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday, 6pm-2am; Friday, 6pm-1am, Saturday, 6pm-4am

Expect to pay: House cocktails are $14, Beers are around $7, wine about $10/glass and bottles range wide from $30 to $100+. Food doesn’t break the bank, averaging $15.

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Shops on the Upper East Side

The Herbal Care

  • Shopping
  • Upper East Side
The Herbal Care
The Herbal Care
The Upper East Side actually has something cooler than a Botox membership: The Herbal Care. Opened in January 2024 as the Upper East Side’s first legal dispensary, The Herbal Care instantly upgraded the neighborhood’s offerings from “wine bar or blowout?” to something with a little more edge. This isn’t your average transactional cannabis stop. It’s a curated experience with rotating product drops, weekly deals and just enough insider cool to make you feel like you discovered something—without the gatekeeping. Bonus: they won’t judge you for asking what “solventless” means. Inside, you’ll find a sleek shop that doubles as an art gallery, because buying pre-rolls under bad lighting is over. They’ve hosted events with NYC legends like Havoc of Mobb Deep and Tony Yayo of G-Unit, so don’t be surprised if your weed run includes a live DJ set. The staff knows what they’re talking about, and they’re not trying to upsell you on a $90 eighth you’ll regret later. Whether you’re there for flower, edibles or just need to vibe out before a dinner you didn’t want to go to, they’ve got you covered. More than a dispensary, The Herbal Care has planted itself firmly in the culture—hosting art shows, performances and generally giving the UES a reason to loosen its collar a bit. It’s approachable, it’s elevated and yes, it smells amazing inside. In a city full of overpriced options and underwhelming vibes, The Herbal Care is local and legit. You don’t need a password or a plug—just a plan to...
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Mixology

  • Shopping
  • Womenswear
  • Upper East Side
  • Recommended
Mixology
Mixology
If you struggle with the art of mixing trendy duds with basics, consider the contemporary styles found at this Upper East Side boutique, the key to unleashing your inner mixologist. This is the first Manhattan outpost, which opened last week, for the Long Island retailer, and you have every reason to be excited. While the brand is considered a fast-fashion chain due to its affordable pricing, the shop carries bohemian designer labels, including BB Dakota, Unif and For Love & Lemons, giving the store a leg up on its competitors H&M and Forever 21. Shop for Free Spirit layered necklaces ($35), Whitney Eve Windsor crop tops ($52) and Free People Lennon heels ($178)—you’ll want to add these to your wardrobe, stat.
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Bloomingdale's

  • Shopping
  • Department stores
  • Upper East Side
  • price 3 of 4
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's
Ranking among the city’s top tourist attractions, Bloomie’s is stocked with everything from bags to beauty products, homewares to designer duds. The cosmetics hall, complete with an outpost of globe-spanning apothecary Space NK and a Bumble and bumble dry-styling bar, recently got a glam makeover. The compact Soho outpost concentrates on young fashion and cosmetics.  
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