NYCGuide
The Best Kosher Restaurants In NYC
photo credit: Dane Isaac
Given the demand and the solid return rate of customers, kosher restaurants in New York don’t necessarily have to be great to stay busy. But the spots below are genuinely recommendable. So when you’re looking to eat kosher, and you want something like pizza, barbecue, or Georgian dumplings, stick with these restaurants.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Alex Staniloff
Say hi to the first kosher Georgian restaurant in New York, and a very good Georgian restaurant at that. Start with canoe-shaped shotis puri to scoop up your tomato, cucumber, and onion salad. Then round things out with herby beef and lamb khinkali and grilled kebabs. You’ll notice a ton of Georgian sodas on the menu, like zandukeli, but keep in mind that they're sweeter than sweet.
Arguments about the best pizza in New York will never end. But for kosher pizza, Abaita is almost universally acknowledged as the crème de la crème. Start off with a margherita and then try a few of the pastas. The classic spaghetti always delivers, as does the rigatoni with tomato confit, calabrian chili, and parmesan.
Barnea isn't an obvious pick, which is why it's great. This quiet bistro in Midtown has a fairly limited menu in comparison to similar spots, but that’s fine because everything on it is delicious. They serve our favorite kosher steak in New York, as well as interesting appetizers, like the beef carpaccio and beef tartare (not usually found on kosher menus), lamb riblets, roasted cauliflower with za’atar, and the salad lyonnaise with soft poached egg, lamb bacon, walnuts, mustard vinaigrette, farro, and pickled onion.
photo credit: Kenny Yang
Taam Tov is located on the third floor of an anonymous-looking building in the middle of the diamond district on 47th Street. It's great for a quick but hearty lunch involving fluffy Uzbek bread, shurpa beef soup, some classic borscht, their house special chicken stroganoff, or lamb chops. This place closes at 8pm, so plan accordingly.
photo credit: Bison & Bourbon
This steakhouse in Park Slope has one of the prettiest outdoor seating areas among the city's kosher restaurants. It's in the courtyard of a renovated 1920s warehouse, with plenty of original Prohibition-era building materials. In terms of food, the menu goes heavy on bison (surprise), as well as nicely cooked steaks. We like the smoked pastrami, short rib risotto, and smoked maple-glazed beef bacon with chicken and waffles.
photo credit: Izzy's Brooklyn Smokehouse
There just aren’t that many kosher smokehouses out there, but that’s not why we like Izzy’s so much—the Crown Heights spot is superb in its own right. Pitmaster Izzy Eidelman smokes brisket for 18 hours, double drenches his burnt ends in barbecue sauce, and loads chili sausage with homemade sauce and coleslaw. Everything is solid, including the sandwiches (get the smoked then fried chicken sandwich on toasted brioche with horseradish mayo). And good news if you live in Manhattan: Izzy’s has a smokehouse on the Upper West Side.
photo credit: Le Marais
This French steakhouse near the Theater District has been around since the '90s, and is recognized as sort of the kosher restaurant of Manhattan. The name translates to “marsh” or “swamp,” and references a neighborhood in Paris by the Seine River that's home to a big Jewish community and a slew of artists. Despite staying away from dairy products, pork, and shellfish, the menu has steakhouse classics like confit au poulet, steak au poivre, and a pretty good pan-roasted salmon. The ambiance is as steakhouse-y as it gets: dark wood, white tablecloths, and great service.
photo credit: Alex Staniloff
A cool burger place in Crown Heights serving a variety of good beer? Sure, we're in. Their classic burger is always good (lettuce, tomato, pickles, sauteed maple onions, and just the right amount of ketchup and mustard), but we like the Bondi, an Australian burger with sweet pickled beets and grilled pineapple. If you’re in the mood for something a little lighter, the veggie burger is a permanent menu fixture, topped with the same beets, lettuce, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, cilantro, and truffle aioli.
photo credit: Alex Staniloff
You're obviously eating hummus at this Kips Bay restaurant. But Hummus Kitchen also makes good shawarma wraps, falafel, babaganoush, stuffed grape leaves, shakshuka, and Moroccan fish dishes. Rely on this place whenever you need a casual kosher meal with a couple of friends.
photo credit: Dane Isaac
There are a ton of Indian spots along Lexington Ave from the high 20s to the low 30s, including the majority of the city’s kosher Indian options. Pongal, a vegetarian spot named after a popular harvest festival in South India and also a sweet rice dish, stands apart from the rest. The menu here is endless, but get a couple of aloo parathas, dosas, samosas, and the vegetable uttapam and a mango lassi to wash everything down.
photo credit: Dane Isaac
Most kosher restaurants in Manhattan are either in Midtown or Uptown, but Mocha Burger is in Soho (there's also a Mocha Express on the Upper East Side, near Second Avenue and 83rd Street). Order a bottle of red and the BLT burger served with a fried egg on top, or the burger with caramelized mushrooms and golden, crispy fried onions. They also have a turkey burger and an impossible burger on the menu, but if you’re just trying to stay away from red meat, we like the salmon satay skewers or the tostado salad instead. Cajun fries are a given, of course.
photo credit: Alex Staniloff
Standout dishes at this upscale Israeli include the black risotto with short rib, and a sweetbreads flatbread with preserved lemon, babaganoush, and spicy green herb salad. But if you're going big, order the gigantic 45oz tomahawk that’s dry-aged and served with potatoes and salad. However, if that last option is a bit much, go for the lamb shank instead, or split the 30oz prime dry-aged steak served on the bone.
Unlike Pongal, this kosher vegetarian Indian restaurant features both North Indian and South Indian curries. We usually like to order a few combinations from each side, plus some breads like the stuffed paratha (which you can fill with your choice of onion, potato, or paneer). The restaurant’s location is relatively close to Alphabet City, which means it's easy to get to if you're downtown or in North Brooklyn.
photo credit: Alex Staniloff
Everybody we've ever taken to Hapisgah loves it. That includes our family, dates, and friends who are cooler than we are. The spacious steakhouse in Flushing pulls off what a lot of kosher restaurants can't: they tackle multiple cuisines at once. You can get great chicken and beef dishes, or stuff with Asian or Italian influence. Our go-to order is the chicken shish kebab served with rice, tomato, and onion, or the mixed chicken with mushrooms and onions that smokes as it comes to the table.
photo credit: Reserve Cut
Reserve Cut is the high-end steakhouse where you take your in-laws or celebrate a monumental anniversary. The space, located inside the Setai Wall Street, is beautiful, and the pricey menu includes all the usual suspects, from chicken salads and steaks to burgers and well-prepared fish. And, given the lack of good kosher sushi around town, you might as well add some signature rolls or sashimi and nigiri to your order. The Broad Street roll (spicy tuna, tempura crunch, seared tuna, mayo, and masago) and grilled chilean sea bass with crispy cucumber, avocado, and teriyaki are both great choices.
If it’s fish that you’re after, Turquoise is the spot for you. The seafood here is always simply prepared, so you don't have to dig for your protein under any heavy, unnecessary sauces. Get the broiled flounder with olive oil and lemon or the grilled salmon. Both go well with a fire-roasted eggplant with tahini, thick zucchini chips, and a halloumi flambée. One more thing: order the dairy desserts. our favorite is the homemade biscuit cake).
