The New York City dining landscape is not for the indecisive. There are roughly 20,000 restaurants here and new spots are opening daily. If you had to pick a neighborhood to solely dine in, your palate would be perfectly pleased in Greenwich Village and the West Village, the two historic neighborhoods where bohemian life blossomed in the 1960s. Both districts are adjacent to one another and most New Yorkers bunch them together as “the Village.”
“In a city that is ever changing, where it seems the only new things being built are gigantic high-rise luxury condos, the Village has remained the same,” says Michael Cecchi-Azzolino, the legendary maitre’d and owner of Cecchi’s on West 13th Street. “Its scale is human; many of the buildings date back to the 19th century; its street grid almost nonsensical. There are no big box stores, many of the merchants are locals, and though the artists have long since departed, it retains that energy.”
From some of the best pizza-by-the-slice spots to constellations of Michelin-approved fine-dining spots, and everything in between, the Village is loaded with flavor and ambience. The problem, though, is that this is no secret. The neighborhood is so popular that it’s often impossible to get a seat at the table of some of the Village’s well-known spots. The Olive Garden in Times Square is more likely to earn a Michelin star before any ordinary person can snag a seat at 4 Charles Prime Rib, Semma, Don Angie, and Carbone. And you’ll spend half of your day waiting in long lines for the pleasures of John’s of Bleecker Street, L’Industrie, and Apollo Bagels. Instead, lean into some new and old Village spots.
The new
Alexia Duchêne became a sensation in Paris when she was a semi-finalist in the French version of Top Chef at the age of 23. Now 29 years old, the top toque has just fired up the burners on her own bistro, Le Chêne, with her husband, Ronan Duchêne Le May, working the front of the house. Chef Duchêne cooks up a tight menu of flavor-popping French classics (with a 44-page wine list) — think pâte en croûte with pork belly and foie gras and the oddly compatible big ticket pork-and-smoked-eel pithiviers.
“The West Village reminds us of Paris with the sense of community and the overall attractiveness that draws people from everywhere,” says chef Duchêne. “It’s a neighborhood that is changing and we wanted to be part of that change — to bring our vision of French cuisine to a place that now already feels like home.”
Only a 10-minute stroll from Le Chêne, Crevette channels the French and Spanish coasts. The 95-seat spot is the latest from Patricia Howard and chef Ed Szymanski, whose two other nearby neighborhood restaurants, the English-accented Dame and Lord’s, have brought dazzle to British cuisine. Crevette’s focus may be on seafood — the octopus skewer with green harissa and the saffron-laced seafood rice are both standouts — but don’t overlook the turf offerings: The very Basque-like mushrooms, egg yolks, and foie gras, as well as a brilliantly executed jamón Ibérico-topped Spanish tortilla are thrilling.
Fedora, a subterranean spot on brownstone-laden West 4th Street, has been around since 1952 when eponymous owner Fedora Dorata held court with her neighborhood friends. She passed away in 2011. In Spring 2025, the owners of nearby natural wine bar, St. Jardim, resurrected the space into a Gallic-accented bistro serving feel-good fare like tender sweetbreads and chicken cordon bleu, making it an ideal dimly lit date spot.
The classic
Courtesy of Liz Clayman
Anton’s
If it’s an old Big Apple vibe you seek, the Village is rife with restaurants that have Gotham ambience so thick you’d think Sinatra was at the table text to you. In addition to Cecchi’s, which has a low-lit clubhouse vibe, put Anton’s on your eating itinerary. Located on Hudson Street across from the 145-year-old White Horse Tavern, this 115-seat spot has a similar moody ambience with dark wood paneling, wooden floors, and a menu that evokes New York nostalgia with pasta and red meat dishes intentionally referencing old-school Gotham restaurants (Gene’s on W. 11th St., Peter Luger in Brooklyn, and the J Baczynsky Ukrainian butcher shop in the East Village, among others).
Jack and Charlie’s No. 118 may have only opened in 2021, but you’d be forgiven for mistaking it as an old Village stalwart. The hunter green walls, oak floors, and white cloth-clad tables provide the ideal backdrop to dig into the bone-in duck meatloaf with fig jus while sipping a dirty Martini. Perhaps the king of all West Village classics is Minetta Tavern, a haunt for artists and bohemians since it opened in 1937. When restaurateur Keith McNally took over the place in 2009, he had the ambience kicked up to the nth degree, spoofing up the pressed tin ceiling and the cherry red leather banquettes, and hired chefs who created arguably the city’s best burger and a dry-aged côte de boeuf that could rival any steakhouse in the city.
The post prandial
If you’ve just finished lunch, head to Té Company, a diminutive tea house where Elena Liao serves excellent (and sometimes hard-to-find) Taiwanese oolong tea while her husband, the talented erstwhile El Bulli chef, Frederico Ribeiro makes sweet and savory treats to go along with them. In the evening, point yourself to Sip & Guzzle, the offshoot of a Tokyo cocktail bar that shakes and stirs up inventive cocktails.
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