25 of Our Readers’ Favorite New York City Restaurants

We asked, you answered: Here are the restaurants our dining-obsessed readers would rank the best in the city.

Last week, we shared Pete Wells’s revised list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City. Our restaurant-loving readers had notes, to the tune of more than 600 comments. So we gave them another chance to tell us all about their favorite restaurants, and received nearly 900 responses — many effusive in their praise. (Side note: Have you all considered becoming food writers?)

Many readers aligned with Pete: Some agreed that there’s no restaurant quite like Le Bernardin (No. 3), and Gramercy Tavern (No. 33) remains a perennial favorite 30 years later. Some felt strongly that Shukette (No. 71) and M. Wells (No. 83) deserved a higher ranking. But by and large, readers suggested restaurants that may not be on critics’ lists, but remain deeply special to them. Below are 25 of our favorite submissions, which have been edited and condensed.

Gennaro, Upper West Side

I feel like I’m eating in Italy circa 1975 every time I go to Gennaro. The fava bean salad is tangy; the homemade pasta con le Sarde whisks me to Sicily; and calves liver? Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, and did I mention that you can hear yourself talk?

— Maria Lissandrello, Upper East Side

A&A Bake & Doubles Shop, Bedford-Stuyvesant