NYC’s best ‘fine diners’

Thai Diner is a welcome riot of bold flavors and exuberance. There’s a beer slushee machine that rocks cold bottles throughout the night. For breakfast, you can get the NYC diner classics you crave, but they’re going to be mashed up with Thai ingredients. Of course they have egg sandwiches, for instance, but Thai Diner’s are served with sai oua herbal sausage and Thai basil and wrapped in roti. And certainly, they have an omelet, but it’s a tom yum crab omelet. Their outdoor streatery leans hard into their Thai influences and is just as much fun to sit in as their dining room as you dig into a plate of Thai disco fries, smothered in massaman curry with peanuts, and coconut cream.

_{Mahira Rivers}

Kellogg’s Diner has everything you’d want in a nostalgic American diner (a dizzyingly large menu that has chicken fried steak and almost every other imaginable animal protein on it, chicken noodle soup, and a Waldorf salad), It also has an extensive and modernized cocktail menu. And its desserts are not to be missed. “Pastry chef Amanda Perdomo’s desserts at Kellogg’s Diner are just the right blend of accessible and elevated. The passion fruit Tajín icebox pie, one of the best desserts on the menu, was straightforwardly delicious, while a touch of brown butter in the graham cracker crust added complexity and depth,” says former Michelin inspector and food critic Mahira Rivers who writes Sweet City.

Everyone is trying to get into the Corner Store, which bills itself as an “upscale take on a classic American joint,” so good luck. There’s a months-long waiting list, which is unsurprising given that Taylor Swift has already been spotted there twice. Its menu is also modern comfort. Think creamy artichoke dip, prime rib French dip, lobster rolls decorated with caviar, and platters of what would happen if disco fries and steak frites had a baby.

S&P is the rebirth of the legendary and beloved Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, now under new ownership by the equally beloved Court Street Grocers. The space was cleaned up and lightly updated but the famous tuna melt was untouched. “I love the pared down simplicity of S&P. It feels timeless in its dedication to a great casual lunch with a friend. The flat top is its hearth, the rest of the restaurant built around it, as if S&P were destined to excel at tuna melts and Reubens, and it delivers,” says cookbook author and co-founder of the Gefilteria, Jeffrey Yoskowitz.

Traditional diners have never exactly been the most welcoming to vegetarians, but Superiority Burger caters to them. The paper placemats, advertising neighboring businesses, are hopelessly charming. Its decor is old school and nostalgic (there are booths), but its menu isn’t. This is where you go when nothing else will fix you other than a cornflake-crusted tofu sandwich. Looking for a Sloppy Joe? Try their sweet and savory tofu and vegetable-based Sloppy Dave.

This isn’t the only location of Jose Andres’ Spanish Diner (there’s now also one in Bethesda, Maryland), but it is the first and it is sprawling, stretching out beneath the High Line at Hudson Yards. The menu is more Spanish than Diner, and it has scratched my itch for reasonably priced pan con tomate and bikini sandwiches on more than one occasion. Its brand of Spanish comfort food does have some crossover with American diner fare, as it has many options for eggs and potatoes. Unlike any other diner, you can pick up a tub of Cola Cao from the grocery section on your way out.

The Lower East Side’s Le French Diner is a beacon for chefs and a world away from say, Spanish Diner’s Euro American concept. It’s tiny and personal with a menu filled with straightforward French comfort food like steak tartare, grilled octopus, and hanger steak.

“Golden Diner, opened by Chef Sam Yoo in 2019, has helped define the Two Bridges neighborhood to what it is today. It’s a restaurant that cooks food that speaks to its locality. The menu draws from its New York City diner roots, its Chinese neighborhood, what its residents want to eat (much of the menu has vegan offerings) and Yoo’s Asian American background. If you’ve ever been, or seen any of the recent viral TikToks, you know you must order the honey butter pancakes. It is 100% worth the hype, it’s something that you will crave again and again. I’ll generally start with a matzoh ball soup or Thai Cobb salad. Then go for the Chinatown Egg and Cheese Sando, an egg sandwich served with a hash brown patty inside on a sesame scallion milk bun or the chicken katsu club. The menu hits all the diner menu nostalgia spots with a New York City and Asian American spin,” says chef and restaurant consultant Christine Lau.