NYCGuide

15 Great NYC Restaurants That Are Actually Open On Mondays

Lots of restaurants are closed on Mondays. But you can always rely on these spots.
15 Great NYC Restaurants That Are Actually Open On Mondays image

Sure, those plans to meal prep over the weekend didn’t pan out—but at least now you have an excuse to go to your favorite Indian restaurant again. Except it’s not open. Mondays are the restaurant industry’s weekend, which means a lot of places tend to be closed. Since you don’t need to start the week working overtime, we’ve done some digging for you and found a bunch of our favorite spots for casual dinners, date nights, and special occasions where you can actually eat on a Monday.

THE SPOTS

photo credit: Emily Schindler

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Hawksmoor on Park Avenue and 22nd Street is poised to become NYC’s next great steakhouse. The bar at this London transplant is first come, first served, and, on Mondays, their corkage fee is only $10. Crispy Yorkshire pudding with potted beef and a strip steak with a side of creamed spinach is a rich lineup for a casual weeknight dinner—but just pretend it's a Saturday. A martini will help with that.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Ariari is another Korean spot from the team behind Palpal and LittleMad. Like a lot of their restaurants, this place in the East Village warrants a priority visit—especially if you love seafood. Start with the poached octopus with white kimchi followed by crispy rice that’s sweet and rich from uni cream. You’ll see groups around you sharing big simmering cauldrons of soup, as well as couples out for a casual date night.

Most places either feel like bars (where you can also maybe eat) or restaurants (where you can also maybe drink). Gem Wine—only open Monday through Friday—is that rare, perfect middle ground. The focus here is on wine, but the food is far from an afterthought. The frequently-changing menu features small plates, as well as more substantial options like confit albacore and lamb tartare tossed in a creamy oyster emulsion. Most of the seating is at small communal tables, and the space feels like an intimate library reading room.

Spicy Village’s big tray chicken is one of Chinatown’s most iconic dishes. Big bone-in hunks of chicken and potatoes come stewed in a rich sauce made with Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and other spices—and you have the option of adding hand-pulled noodles. Always get those noodles. The dish easily feeds two people (this is not medium tray chicken, after all), and it costs roughly $16. Notably, this place is BYOB—so stop by with a couple friends for a fun, delicious meal that probably won’t run you more than $20 per person.

This spot in Ridgewood is part Italian bakery and part restaurant. You can stop by during the day for a cup of coffee and some olive-topped focaccia and gougères—but, at night, Rolo’s feels like a scene out of Bushwick fan fiction. It’s a cool, casual spot where you’ll run into neighborhood regulars, such as those friends you made at Mood Ring last week. Expect to eat a bunch of simple wood-fired breads, meats, and vegetables as you take in the scene.

Karazishi Botan is the kind of ramen shop you want to have in your neighborhood. There’s lots of counter seating, their spacious backyard has ample heating, and they’re open on Mondays. Opened by the former ramen master at Ippudo, this place also serves some of the more inventive bowls of ramen in New York. The signature Pan Head, made with a pork and miso broth, is assertively salty in the best way. Other options change often, but in the past we’ve had a chicken-based ramen that came with a scoop of mashed potatoes and a shot glass of lemon juice on the side. It was a wild ride.

Marcus Samuelsson’s latest restaurant Hav & Mar occupies a huge space in the Starrett-​Lehigh building in Chelsea. It’s a useful option if you’re looking to impress clients or visitors with something truly unique but still very New York. The name reflects Samuelsson's Ethiopian and Swedish roots ("hav" means ocean in Swedish, while "mar" means honey in Amharic), and the inventive menu pulls from both countries with a range of other influences. For a handy tutorial on what to expect, start your meal with the berbere-cured salmon topped with a tangy mustard seed caviar and sour buckthorn.

If you can’t get into Dame (you can’t), the same team can supply you with more upscale British food a few blocks away at Lord’s. This modern British bistro has excellent takes on classic fare like scotch eggs, pig’s head terrine, and a rotating daily meat pie. The space feels like a cross between a Hogwarts professor’s office and a trendy bar, making it the perfect choice for cold-weather date nights.

There’s a lot of good Thai food on the UES, but the first place we send anyone who regularly utters the words “Thai spicy, please” is Zabb PuTawn. This Northern Thai restaurant opened after the head Chef’s popular Queens restaurant Zabb Elee closed, and he’s now gifted the UES with one of the best Thai restaurants in Manhattan. If you’re the sort of person who sees a bird's eye chili as an equal adversary, go for the goong chae num pla and gaeng om made with an especially lemongrass-y broth.

Katsuei has locations in both Park Slope and the West Village, and it's well-known for its relatively affordable omakase options. For $60, you get nine incredibly good pieces of sushi and a handroll. In terms of quality, price, and variety, this is some of the best sushi you’ll find in New York City—so come here the next time you want to feel mildly fancy on a Monday.

K’Far is an all-day Israeli cafe, bar, and full-service dinner restaurant from the team behind Laser Wolf. Like Laser Wolf, K'Far is a Philly import that lives in the lobby of the Hoxton, and it's our new favorite spot for weekdays. In the mornings, grab kubaneh, boreka, and long, flat Jerusalem bagel breakfast sandwiches on the lounge side of the lobby, where you’ll see people on their laptops. After 5pm, slide into a brown suede booth in the dining room across the foyer. Wind down the workday with some lamb tartare, grouper chraime, and a drink.

Llama Inn works for all sorts of different situations, and it’s not impossible to get into—so we find ourselves recommending it to people all the time. The very good Peruvian food, which you eat in a relaxed dining room full of plants and natural light, ranges from ceviche to beef tenderloin covered in french fries. And if you need another reason to plan your next double date or group dinner here, know that there’s an excellent rooftop patio situation as well.

SoleLuna is a charming Sunnyside restaurant where you can have a coffee at the bar during the day or stop by later at night when the space fills up with locals. The menu has staples like lasagna, spaghetti alle vongole, and a fresh, bright pollo al limone—but pay special attention to the dinner specials. Past favorites have included an inexplicably flavorful octopus-and-mango salad and a creamy gorgonzola fregola.

Thanks to Sami’s, Astoria can claim some of NYC’s best Afghan food. Their lamb and beef kofta kebabs are worth traveling for, the borani banjan comes covered in yogurt that melts into a bed of fluffy seasoned rice, and the vinegary leek aushak is a must-order. On most nights here, you’ll feel like you’ve been invited to a family function, with parties of four to eight sharing big plates of food while the waitstaff dances around toddlers to get to the tables. They also have a second location in LIC.

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