UPDATE 4/22/24: Pete Wells has an updated list of his best 100 restaurants in NYC for 2024. Check it out here. I’ve added his new notes and restaurants on top of the existing 2023 map, while keeping the restaurants from 2023 on the same map. I’ve tried to make it clear what year each note was for. Hope this map leads you to some excellent meals. Please do consider subscribing to the New York Times as a subscription gives you access to world-class journalism, in addition to the invaluable guidance of Pete Wells, at a fraction of the cost of a meal.
Whenever I get a chance to visit family in NYC, I always struggle to balance how many meals I should eat at home (my mom’s cooking) and how many I should eat out for. I have a long list of my favorite restaurants that’s grown during the 30 years I’ve lived in the Lower East Side. Over time, I’ve accepted that some of my favorites will close. Unfortunately for me, finding new restaurants to daydream about requires having a finger on the pulse of the dining scene and time to research, time that I don’t have anymore.
In April 2023, Pete Wells (restaurant critic for the NY Times since 2012) dropped his list of the 100 best restaurants in NYC. Unlike several other online restaurant-recommendation publications that lean towards hot and trendy Instagram-fodder places, I fully trust Pete’s recommendations. While listening to a podcast interview with him, I was looking for a place to eat in the city. I tried to find a map view of his 100 recommendations but that didn’t exist. Days later, I found out that I had been standing right in front of one of his recommendations (#90, Szechuan Mountain House). As beautiful as the presentation of the 100 restaurants is on the NY Times, the recommendations aren’t as actionable as they could be if there was a map view. I decided to plot these recommendations out on Google Maps.
In this map you’ll find:
All of Pete’s recommendations that were listed, except for Kappo Sono (#34) which isn’t around anymore.
The ranking and the corresponding note.
Duplicate listings with the same note if a restaurant has multiple locations, which is why there are more than 100 spots on the map.
A link to the most recent NY Times review as of today (August 28, 2023) and the recommended dishes noted in that review. Not all the restaurants here had a review.
To set the map to appear on your default view:
Go to the map and sign in with whatever Google account you normally use
Click Follow
Wait some amount of time and it should start appearing on your personal map. I’ve seen it take a full day.
(Optional) Listen to the interview with Pete where he explains his approach to coming up with this list
I do not plan to update this map if there’s a new review or some change to the list, unless someone reaches out to tell me. Of course, I’ll update if you see an error that I made.
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A few thoughts on my experience putting this together:
Reading all of these did make me miss NYC. Seattle has great food, but this was a reminder how incredible New York’s restaurant scene is.
If I still lived in NYC, I may have made it a mission to try and eat at all 100 with my friends. Since I can’t do this, you should. Be ready to pay $420 for omakase at Shion 69 (#27).
Major kudos to Pete for sharing these recommendations and to the NY Times team for presenting it so beautifully. If you haven’t already, consider subscribing and supporting high-quality journalism. I promise the cost of subscribing will only be a negligible fraction of what you’d spend eating out as a result of having these recommendations.
If you have thoughts or feedback, leave a comment below, especially if there’s an error you catch. Reach out to me directly or follow @rajawashere.