I love old-school, hometown places. When it comes to Manhattan, this means places such as Katz's Deli, and Keen's, and Russ & Daughters, uniquely New York institutions that have survived the brutal caprices of style and changing tastes – and are still worth going out of your way to patronise.

Let me make this clear: "old" does not necessarily mean "good". Just because it's a "New York institution" doesn't mean you want to eat there. If it did, New Yorkers might have actually eaten at Tavern on the Green – and Luchow's would still be open.

Peter Luger [the lauded steak house in Williamsburg]? You can have it. Grand Central Oyster Bar? Good luck. The places I'm thinking of just happen to be institutions. They just happen to be old. Newer, more pragmatic enterprises couldn't or wouldn't do what they're doing. Most – if not all – of these places are dinosaurs, among the last of mostly extinct herds that once, long ago, ruled New York's concrete jungle. But these remaining eateries, though perhaps no longer "culturally relevant", and certainly not "hip" – and about as far from "trendy" or "hot" as anything could be – are in fact what make New York special. All are still great after all these years.

I contend they deserve love and respect from anyone serious about food or about having a good time. Good food is always "relevant". Manganaro's Grosseria and that awesome time warp of a French restaurant, Le Veau d'Or, are businesses that would very likely be more profitable selling sneakers, tube socks or designer cupcakes. They hang on – in a particularly unfriendly economic climate – for the simple reason that they're run by magnificently stubborn people who happen to own their buildings.

Manganaro's is a bit of vintage Italian-America that people raised on a more al dente, post-Batali, northern-inflected, lightly sauced, meatball-free Italian cuisine might not appreciate. But it's a vital step back in time, another world, and an essential one to remember and to cherish. If you don't like the spaghetti with red sauce and meatballs in the back dining area at Manganaro's? If you don't "get it"? You're just not drinking enough red wine.

There is better French food in New York these days than what they're serving at Le Veau d'Or. But if you can't have one of the kooky-great times of your life at this absolutely untouched-by-time frog pond – with its delightfully irony-free, 60-year-old menu, then you really have no true love for French food – and certainly nothing resembling a heart. It's the bistro that time forgot – a last link to a golden age of tableside carving, curly parsley as state-of-the-art garnish and desserts last seen in the pages of the Larousse Gastronomique.

Famous pastrami sandwiches at Katz's Deli. Photograph: Alamy

Snobs will no doubt carp that Katz's has been covered to death on TV and in films – and they will groan (accurately enough) that every damn lazy-ass food writer from elsewhere looking to cover the "real" New York (in an afternoon) will write about their few bites of pastrami at this downtown institution, make a few oblique and obligatory When Harry Met Sally references and move on. But there's a reason Marco Pierre White, for instance, loves the place – and why so many people keep going back: not just because they "don't make 'em like that any more" – but because it's damn good pastrami. Period.

The herring and smoked and cured fish they sell at Russ & Daughters would be just as desirable if the store were a spanking new gourmet shop – instead of a century-old institution that grew up from a street cart. The product speaks for itself. Russ & Daughters occupies that rare and tiny place on the mountaintop reserved for those who are not just the oldest and the last – but also the best.

My point? Patronise these places and you not only honour Manhattan's rich culinary and cultural tradition – you give yourself permission to relax and have a helluva good time.

• Manganaro's Grosseria (488 Ninth Avenue, +1 212 563 5331, manganarofoods.com); Le Veau d'Or (129 East 60th St, +1 212 838 8133); Katz's Delicatessen (205 East Houston St, +1 212 254 2246, katzdeli.com); Russ & Daughters (179 East Houston Street, +1 212 475 4880, russanddaughters.com)

This is an edited extract from Ode to Old Manhattan by Anthony Bourdain in Lonely Planet's A Moveable Feast