Midtown's 21 best restaurants

The crown jewel or Rockefeller Center dining, Le Rock is reason and reward to visit midtown. The follow-up to Frenchette downtown is large with Art Deco details and menu items like escargots, agnoletti with corn and chanterelles, duck and bison that helped land Le Rock on our list of NYC's best new restaurants of 2022.

Lovely Hutong sparkles all around its gleaming, cavernous space, including down its unique, dramatically lit wine hallway. Some of the Northern Chinese restaurant’s many highlights include the mapo tofu, a dumpling quartet, wok-tossed lobster and a flaming Peking duck that’s only available by advance order four nights a week. 

Keens is a New York City institution for a reason. The dark wood paneling, lush carpeting and impressive collection of clay pipes dating back to the 1800s makes you feel as if you’ve snuck into a Gatsby-era dinner club. The menu also boasts a bygone relic: the classic mutton chop, once a steakhouse staple but a tougher find today. 

When it first opened in the last days of 2019, it was too late for Kochi to make it to any of that year’s major ‘best of’ lists. Still, it was terrific then and remains one of the best restaurants in NYC today. Its $145 tasting menu includes nine skewers fashioned after traditional Korean cuisine. 

This tiny sushi spot amid a row of nondescript addresses and up a narrow staircase is one of NYC’s most exciting new restaurants. Its fish is fastidiously sourced, expertly prepared and approachably priced. It's also a fun place to bring those who aren’t yet in-the-know. 

Good looks aren’t everything, but they’re serious business here, where tables overlook the MoMA’s sculpture garden, and diners slice into $250, four-course dinners with Porsche steak knives. The pre-fixe menus are an art onto themselves, so get an early reservation to gaze upon the garden while the sun’s still out.

Another Rockefeller Center gem, Lodi is open from breakfast meetings all the way through your lower-pressure business dinners. Its space and creations are influenced by "Italian aperitivo culture," including menu items like salumi and formaggi varieties, risotto, lamb, fish and chicken. 

Home to one of NYC’s most Instagrammable dishes, a kaleidoscopic beef tartare, Little Mad incorporates Korean recipes and French techniques in a fun environment where flames flicker from the open kitchen and you crack open that previously mentioned appetizer with a little wooden hammer. Its spot in midtown's southeast corner is much calmer than Times Square, Herald Square, or Rockefeller Center.

Steakhouses are somewhat synonymous with midtown, but modern Quality Meats has a downtown feel. The warm tones, exposed brick and Edison bulbs lend it this style, and the filet mignon, NY strip and dry-aged sirloin would be as satisfying iat any address. 

Often imitated but never replicated, Halal Guys have become a critical component of any midtown bar night. If you happen to find yourself stumbling to the train after a long session at Jimmy’s Corner, its chicken over rice (with plenty of white and hot sauces) and gyros are well worth the detour—the blend of booze-absorbing starch and perfectly seasoned poultry makes for the perfect nightcap. A late-night visit might also help you avoid the lines that form at lunch time. 

Indian Accent’s chic, streamlined space has a stylish bar, a few cozy nooks for date night and long banquettes to accommodate larger parties. Dinner is served in three or four courses (for $85 or $98) with items like potato sphere chaat, tofu masala and ghee roast lamb.

Empellón's 8,000-square-foot, 150-seat space features a ground-level dining room with bold, wall-spanning murals and a large balcony above. Must-try tacos are filled with pastrami, maitake mushrooms and lobster. Salads, fajitas and larger plates are also available. 

Midtown’s Boucherie has transformed its plot on semi-obscure “Sixth-and-a-half Avenue” into a veritable indoor/outdoor paradise replete with large, leafy flora and soaring ceilings. The space aims to evoke a Parisian square with French-forward menus to match, and it's a fine little stop for brunch or visiting parents. 

The Grill has the kind of showy, hyper-personalized service and keen eye for detail that has come to define Major Food Group, the restaurant group behind this, Carbone, Dirty French and Sadelle’s. Its branded blend of modern touches and nostalgic reverence has brought new light to the iconic former Four Seasons restaurant space. Expect raw bar items, market price caviar, chops, birds and fish. 

Michelin-starred chef Gabriel Kreuther is behind this palatial ode to French cuisine overlooking Bryant Park. As romantic as it is chic, Gabriel Kreuther restaurant is a dining experience. Every dish is expertly prepared and exquisitely presented. You can also swing by to his artisan chocolate shop, right next door.

Marea means "tide" in Italian, and seafood is the focus at this Michelin-starred destination near Central Park and Columbus Circle. Its signature octopus (a tentacled illustration is Marea's logo) is particularly lovely, tossed with fusilli and rich, buttery bone marrow. 

One of NYC's best sushi restaurants, Sushi Yasuda’s ever-changing menu has à la carte options and omakase offerings that might include excellently executed amberjack, yellowtail and unagi. Its 12-piece option for $110 is still on the more affordable end of its competitors. 

Still one of NYC's premier fine dining sestinations, Le Bernardin's seafood-focused menu is impressive to say the least. Its ambiance is also pure elegance, the wine list stretches for miles and the bartenders mix a mean classic cocktail. It has a variety of prix fixe configurations, none cheap, like the $198 four-course dinner. 

Just a hop, skip and jump down from Grand Central Station, Karumazushi has been delighting midtowners with classic, flavorful, fresh sushi and sashimi for nearly 40 years. The à la carte menu is loaded with freshwater eel, fatty tuna and Japanese sea urchin.

Gilded decor with the warm light to match, a broad variety of box-checking food and drinks and a prime central location make Valerie an easy choice for after-work drinks, business dinners and, more recently, weekend brunch. 

More than two years after its beloved West Village location closed, Hakata TonTon reopened in a new Midtown South space complete with an expanded menu of izakaya-style small plates. Some signature dishes made the move, too, like mentai gnocchi and the foie gras inari.