On Tuesday, we published our 2025 list of the 100 Best Restaurants in New York City, including a ranked top 10. Using our new checklist feature, readers were able to tell us their favorites — or at least the ones they had visited most — and the ones they wanted to try. Here are the 10 most-visited spots. They include several longstanding New York destinations, but also a couple of relative newcomers. Some of the city’s most celebrated fine-dining rooms appear, but so does a Brooklyn sandwich shop. (Down the list a bit, look for a major point of agreement between our critics and the dining public.)
1. Gramercy Tavern
8,204 have visited, 1,690 want to.
It’s little surprise that so many readers have found their way to the convivial spaces of this bona fide New York classic. It has been the domain of many notable chefs over its 31 years, including Tom Colicchio and the pastry virtuoso Claudia Fleming, who opened the restaurant in 1994. Something of an in-the-know option for years, the front tavern room now goes full-tilt, and can be harder to get into than the main dining room. But walk-in bar spots are still a great option.
2. Le Bernardin
6,718 have visited, 3,019 want to.
Like Gramercy Tavern, Le Bernardin has longevity on its side: The restaurant, perched at No. 3 on our top 100, first received four stars from The New York Times in 1986, and has kept those four stars in every review since, most recently in 2023. As our critic Melissa Clark put it, Eric Ripert, the chef since 1994, “consistently takes big swings, like his stunning signature ellipse of pounded raw tuna layered with foie gras, and somehow never misses. Even mild-mannered fluke — enveloped in a fragrant dill- and yuzu-infused apple broth — vibrates with flavor in his expert hands.”