Nation's Best Restaurants Include 10 In NYC

NEW YORK CITY – It's not just the Michelin-starred spots that make NYC a foodie's heaven. Among the best restaurants in the country are steakhouses, burger grillers and pizza joints.

City eateries took 10 slots in a list of the finest in the country this year, released by dining website The Daily Meal.

The site considered places that served consistently excellent food, had frequent menu changes and showed a strong connection with their local community.

“Our list of the best restaurants of 2019 encompasses universally beloved fine dining restaurants, casual institutions where time stands still, perfect pizzerias both old and new, trendy must-visit, classic steakhouses as well as some of the very best restaurants to have opened this year,” an author of the report said.

The full list of restaurants is available on the Daily Meal.

Here are the NYC places that earned a spot:

Atomix

104 E 30th St.

What the Daily Meal said:

Ellia and Junghyun Park are giving modern Korean cuisine the chef’s-counter treatment at this showstopper, where 10 courses are served at two nightly seatings for anywhere from $205 to $295 per person. Instead of presenting a menu to guests, each diner at Atomix receives a series of cards with essays about each dish. Diners can expect a parade of inspired flavors that seamlessly merge the old and new worlds: cucumber with kaluga caviar and smoked eel, steamed hake with smoked trout row and Korean rice wine, seabass pancake with potato dashi, smoked eggplant with abalone, gently fried quail, wagyu beef with buckwheat noodles. Reservations are extraordinarily difficult to come by, but if you manage to snag one, your perception of Korean food will be changed forever.

Eleven Madison Park

11 Madison Ave.

What the Daily Meal said:

Although Eleven Madison Park opened to much fanfare and subsequent acclaim in 1998, it was Danny Meyer’s hiring of Swiss-born Daniel Humm to helm the kitchen in 2006 that elevated the place to the level of the finest restaurants in the country. The chef is still firmly in control, and while he will tailor his single $335 multi-course tasting menu to accommodate allergies, dietary restrictions and ingredient preferences, there is no a la carte selection available. The particulars of the dishes change frequently, but the technique is contemporary French and modernist. The ingredients are heavily New York-based, and the culinary traditions on which the food is based are often those of Gotham street or deli food, producing notably unique results (a roasted dry-aged duck, scented with lavender and honey, is a standby). A recent renovation gently modernized the dining room (and completely overhauled the kitchen), and reservations are just as difficult to get as always. If you can snag one, however, and can spare the expense, this is easily one of the best restaurants in America for a special-occasion meal.

Frenchette

241 W Broadway.

What the Daily Meal said:

Chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr rose to prominence at the helm of beloved Keith McNally restaurants including Balthazar, Pastis and Minetta Tavern, and their take on a French bistro, Frenchette, opened in 2018 and was met with near-universal acclaim. The warm and inviting space takes traditional French bistro fare and turns it on its head, resulting in dishes like veal tongue and mackerel tonnato, duck frites and rotisserie lobster with curry beurre fondue. Even the classics — roast chicken for two, veal kidneys with mustard sauce, oeuf en meurette with cockscombs and bordelaise — are prepared with such a deft hand that you remember why they became classics in the first place.

Keens

72 W 36th St.

What the Daily Meal said:

Perfectly charred steaks and chops have been served at New York institution Keens since 1885. Before you’re served your expertly cooked, dry-aged sirloin, filet mignon, prime rib, porterhouse for two or porterhouse for three, have a look around. This labyrinthine shrine to old New York is spread over two floors and three townhouses and features memorabilia from more than 100 years of New York history, including playbills, political cartoons and photographs, as well as a collection of more than 50,000 pipes from the era when regulars like Babe Ruth and Teddy Roosevelt would store theirs there. If you go once, try the porterhouse or the spectacular prime rib. If you go twice, try the famous mutton chop, a 26-ounce lamb saddle that’s nearly two inches thick and dates back to the restaurant’s earliest days.

Le Bernardin

155 W 51st St.

What the Daily Meal said:

This elegant seafood restaurant, headed by chef Eric Ripert, has maintained four stars from the New York Times since shortly after opening in 1986. Ripert is an artist working with impeccable raw materials. Eat in Le Bernardin’s modern dining room against a backdrop of painted waves and enjoy dishes like warm langoustine with seaweed-Matsutake salad and dashi broth; sauteed Dover sole with almonds, chanterelles and soy-lime emulsion; and glazed Maine lobster with leek cannelloni and red wine-rosemary sauce.

Pastis

52 Gansevoort St.

What the Daily Meal said:

Restaurateur Keith McNally’s Pastis was a Meatpacking District celebrity magnet during its initial run from 1999 to 2014 with perfectly executed bistro fare and a “see and be seen” vibe. Its opening ushered in the super-chic “MePa” we know today, and its closing signaled the end of an era, so it was met with much enthusiasm (and a little bit of apprehension) when it was announced that McNally, along with renowned restaurateur Stephen Starr, would be bringing it back to life. And when it reopened in June, the former regulars breathed a sigh of relief. Not only is the space itself bigger and just as attractive as it was before, the classic bistro fare (moules frites, steak frites, salade Niçoise, onion soup, duck a l’orange, half roast chicken) is spot-on and much of the original energy and atmosphere has been reclaimed.

Paulie Gee's Slice Shop

110 Franklin St.

What the Daily Meal said:

Old-school pizza slices are having a moment in New York City, and no place best exemplifies the trend more than Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop, a spinoff of the venerable Paulie Gee’s. Pizza master Paul Giannone isn’t reinventing the wheel here — he’s just using quality ingredients and a whole lot of skill to turn out pizza slices that taste exactly how you want them to, the perfect fusion of crust, sauce and cheese. Making a perfect slice of traditional New York pizza is a lot harder than it looks, but Slice Shop is pulling it off.

Prince St. Pizza

27 Prince St.

What the Daily Meal said:

Prince Street Pizza started serving “SoHo Squares” in 2012, and since then, it’s gone down as one of New York’s finest pizzerias. Owner Frank Morano, who uses his family’s Sicilian recipes, installed a new gas-fired, brick-lined Marsal & Sons oven to fire up both Neapolitan pies and square slices. Start with the simple mozzarella and sauce signature square, but don’t leave without trying the Spicy Spring. It’s topped with tangy-sweet fra diavolo sauce, fresh mozzarella and spicy soppressata salami that turns into crispy circles that cradle shimmering pools of oil. Make sure you get a fresh slice and ask for a corner (and for any pepperoni that falls off in the pan).

Red Hook Tavern

329 Van Brunt St.

What the Daily Meal said:

Chef Billy Durney is beloved in the New York food world, as his Hometown Barbecue is widely regarded as serving the finest barbecue in the city (there’s a line out the door more often than not). So when Durney announced that his long-awaited follow-up would be a classic American tavern inspired by places like Peter Luger and McSorley’s, New Yorkers were legitimately excited. Red Hook Tavern opened in July and started racking up stellar reviews, making tables difficult to come by. It’s already become a classic New York must-visit, largely propelled by its stunning, perfect 8-ounce burger (which very well might be the best burger in the city at the moment), but the rest of the menu, including country ham croquettes and a pan-roasted half-chicken, prove that this is no one-trick pony.

Una Pizza Napoletana

175 Orchard St.

What the Daily Meal said:

Legendary pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri first opened Una Pizza Napoletana in New York in 2004, but in 2008, he closed it down and decamped to San Francisco. In May 2018, however, Mangieri decided to come back to Manhattan, and the city welcomed him with open arms (and stomachs, and wallets). The pizza scene in New York has grown by leaps and bounds since Una Pizza last graced its shores, but the consensus is that Mangieri’s classic Neapolitan-style pizzas are just as good as they’ve always been — especially the Margherita, with its puffy cornicione, bright and acidic sauce and creamy high-quality buffalo mozzarella.

With reporting by Gus Saltonstall/Patch