The Best Diners in NYC

WaHi stands for Washington Heights, and this diner just south of the Columbian Presbyterian Hospital complex is a sort of clubhouse for that sprawling Upper Manhattan neighborhood. It offers multiple seating options to fit every mood, including outdoor and semi-outdoor tabes, as well as quirky menu choices like a meatloaf hero with gravy, pizza dogs, and Mexican fiesta salad.

Tom’s was the ostensible location for dozens of scenes from Seinfeld, referred to as Monk’s. But the interior is more mazelike than the sets for the TV show, with rows of booths and plenty of counter seating. The menu runs to the usual, but if you’re trying to replicate George’s order from the episode aired May 19, 1994 (“The Opposite”), you’ll find that you can get chicken salad on untoasted rye, but you won’t be able to get the potato salad, because Tom’s doesn’t serve it.

Anyone who thinks the classic diner ought to defy updating should take a peek at John’s. It was spruced up three years ago and made to look more sleekly retro-modern; about 50 percent of the menu remains traditional, while the other half incorporates dishes that would be natural to a diner menu if the diner were invented today, including breakfasts like avocado toast, huevos rancheros, and Italian frittatas.

This diner, once named Airline Diner, was dropped down just west of LaGuardia in the days when there was no food to be had in airline terminals (which may still be the case, depending on your perspective). Then the budding Jackson Hole chain took it over and upped the hamburger game, while keeping things pretty much the same, including the amazing air-travel-themed design. It’s still a great place to pick up a meal on your way to or from the plane. We are especially fond of the BLT.

The Bel Aire — with its 1960s muscle car theme — endeared itself to the local population during the pandemic by showing drive-in movies in its parking lot. The place is gigantic, all shiny metal and Formica, and the menu is as big as the premises, with Mexican, Thai, Greek, and Italian specialties added to the regular menu, along with playfully named dishes like “cheese destruction fries.” It claims to serve the biggest burrito in the city.

Capable of holding nearly 300 lost souls, Tick Tock claims to be the largest diner in the city, and has perched like a very heavy bird a block west of Macy’s in the New Yorker Hotel since 1957. The prices may be a little higher, but the diner menu remains fairly intact, with multiple variations for classic dishes, such as three versions of eggs Benedict (one with BBQ pulled pork), and an avocado toast that almost qualifies as a meal for two. Tick tock, Tick Tock — tempus fugit.

Among old-style dining car diners, Art Deco Empire Diner is the city’s most attractive by far, now edging over into being a fancy restaurant. The menu remains rooted in pancakes and hamburgers, though fripperies are also available, like soft scrambled eggs cacio e pepe, smoked salmon pastrami, and granola made in house.

This massive birthday cake of a diner, modern in form but ancient in spirit, lies just east of the commercial strip of Jackson Avenue, with MOMA’s P.S.1 only a stone’s throw away. Hence the presence of office workers and art hangers-on among the colorful mix of patrons, who tuck into disco fries with bacon, crispy taquitos, and vegan chicken fingers, among other smaller dishes that encourage snacking.

This ramshackle diner dates from the days when seeming French was the signature of fine dining, but whether the name is or isn’t partly facetious is lost to Time. Pancakes and egg breakfasts are the standards at this busy refectory that doesn’t serve dinner, and is one of the best places in town for spotting celebrities.

This corner diner over the Washington Square subway station is something of a default dining destination for Greenwich Village, and underwent a refurbishing a few years ago in which topical murals and bouncy booths were installed. Its burgers, pastries, and breakfasts served in skillets have long been admired, and though it’s no longer open 24 hours, the place is still cranks from early in the morning to 11 p.m. or 1 a.m. every night.

Like the name suggests, the Three Decker specializes in club sandwiches, and has lately spruced up the menu with Tex Mex fare. Now owned by a coffee company, the joe is the best in town for a diner, with one free refill. Despite improvements, the layout is still pleasantly retro-diner, with a short lunch counter, and further seats along a shelf that looks out onto Greenpoint’s busiest corner.

The Square — a beloved fixture of the obscure Finn Square in Tribeca — is probably the city’s oldest diner, and it retains it railroad dining car elements, somewhat obscured by an absurdist shingled roof tacked on at some point. The current proprietors take pride in the menu, with the burgers and pancakes here at a very high level. This is very much a place for in-the-know regulars.

Louis Skibar bought the old Kellogg’s diner, around since 1928, following his revamp of Old John’s Luncheonette on the Upper West Side. Then he hired Texas native Jackie Carnesi to oversee the menu, which includes Tex-Mex dishes, classic diner fare, and pastries like strawberry pretzel salad and coconut cream pie. Now it’s a revamped location that has stayed true to its history, maintaining retro vibes, and 24-hour service.

This five-year-old on the edge of Chinatown describes itself as an Asian diner, and this idea expresses itself in the breakfast egg sandwich, which consists of a Chinese-bakery milk bun layered with scrambled eggs and hash browns, constituting elevated diner fare. Korean chicken wings and Korean-themed soju cocktails, Thai cobb salad, matzoh ball soup, and vegan nachos fill out a fascinating menu.

This diner has famously avoided urban renewal and now stands dwarfed by skyscrapers in its Wall Street neighborhood. The welcome Greek pneumatos of the place results in dishes like shrimp Aegean, souvlaki platters, and pork gyro pitas, but all the standards are ably represented, with a sideline in stuffed baked potatoes.