Get us in your inbox

Search
Le Bernardin
Photograph: Cinzia Reale-Caste

Restaurant reviews and recommendations: how we do it

Everything you need to know how we shell out our stars.

Emma Orlow
Written by
Bao Ong
&
Emma Orlow
Advertising

Time Out’s recommendations are by expert local writers.

For a venue to make one of Time Out’s recommended lists, the food has to be amazing, that’s a given. But we want more than that. We’re looking for a combination of cooking, atmosphere and experience that makes a place truly memorable. 

We won’t include a place just because it’s innovative, or expensive, or hard to book: it always has to deliver on flavor and value. It’s somewhere you’d tell your friends about; that you can’t wait to go back to whether its an instant classic or a future star.

If a restaurant is star rated, that means a Time Out critic has independently reviewed it. Our reviewers book incognito, and pay their way. For formal reviews, we often wait at least month before visiting a restaurant to let the kitchen and staff work out all the early opening jitters. We do our best to ensure we're treated like regular diners when doling out stars:

One star: Avoid!
Two stars: Not that great
Three stars: Good
Four stars: Really good
Five stars: Unmissable

While we still respect and love many of the fine dining establishments across town, dining out in 2019 is more casual and the cuisines more diverse than ever.

We want to spotlight a variety of cuisines, price points, neighborhoods, chefs, classics and newbies, and most of all, restaurants that have us coming back again and again.

It goes without saying, but it doesn’t just come down to great food. Working in restaurants is hard work with long hours and little pay. We refuse to use this platform to highlight restaurants with known abusers of their positions of power, be it in the kitchen, or those bankrolling the restaurants. We do not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia or any other isms.  

New York is full of sensational restaurants, new and old, so if we've missed one, let us know and we'll come hungry: food.ny@timeout.com.

Looking for the full list?

  • Restaurants

October 2019: Since taking the reigns of Time Out New York’s Food & Drink section earlier this year, our two new editors wanted to take a look at what was and wasn’t working for our crown jewel guide to dining out. Today, we release a dramatic overhaul of the list, replacing 65 restaurants—perhaps TONY’s biggest revamp to date—that our editors believe better reflects the way that you, dear readers, like to dine around the best city on earth. We’re talking fresh, inventive, memorable and, clearly, the tastiest establishments in town. These are the 100 restaurants we can’t quit—even when there’s a constant revolving door of new bar and restaurant openings in NYC. We hope that you’ll find this latest Time Out Eat List more useful in your day-to-day: a reflection of places you actually can (and really want to) eat at, whether you’re looking to splurge a little or it’s rent week.  Yes, what we consider the “best restaurants in NYC” is obviously highly subjective. But, one thing is for sure: you don’t need to spend a $100 or more in New York to have an exquisite experience. The Time Out team has crisscrossed the city to dine our way throughout the five boroughs. While we’ll always have more ground to cover, you’ll notice that the Michelin-adored restaurants and temples of haute cuisine—Eleven Madison Park, Per Se and Daniel, for example—are no longer on this list. We’ll still respect these white table-clothed restaurants, but we're much more interested in taking a holistic look

Recommended
    You may also like
    You may also like
    Advertising