There’s no single best restaurant in New York. There’s only the best restaurant for your situation. Hence the NYC100, our heavily vetted recommendations for where to eat and drink in every scenario you find yourself in. What type of food? What neighborhood? How many people? Is there a vegan in the group? Beer? Wine? Liquor? Here we deliver a list of the spots we rely on to satisfy all of our very specific needs.

Want these recs on a map? Right this way….

New to the list 8/6/2019: New Asha, Gino’s Pastry Shop, Arepa Lady, Louie & Ernie’s

New to the list 9/5/2019: Cho Dang Gol, Silver Rice, Ganesh Temple, Bernie’s

New to the list 10/8/2019: Pakistan Tea House

New to the list 11/11/2019: Teranga, F&F Pizzeria

New to the list 12/10/2019: Kindred, Wayla

New to the list 1/16/2020: Nami Nori, Golden Diner

New to the list 2/7/2020: Joloff

New to the list 3/3/2020: Zooba, La Esquina Del Camarón Mexicano

There’s a reason the scrambled eggs with lox hasn’t changed.

1. The Place for Old-School Vibes That Are Actually Old-School

Barney Greengrass

Upper West Side, Manhattan

The average age of a Barney Greengrass patron probably hovers around 67. The restaurant still keeps monthly tabs for regulars (the New Yorker’s David Remnick being one of them). The gold, panoramic wallpaper looks like it could tell you about the turn of the century (the 20th one). And the recipe for the scrambled eggs with Nova lox hasn’t changed in decades. The timelessness of this uptown Jewish deli is about three-quarters of the charm. The other quarter is made up of whatever wisecracks your veteran waiter is sure to dole out.

✵ Order: latkes, whitefish salad, bagels or toasted bialys, scrambled eggs with Nova and onions, and coffee.

2. The Place for the Opposite of Brunch: Japanese Breakfast

Okonomi

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

At this tiny 12-seat spot, there is only one order: chef Yuji Haraguchi’s simple but spectacular Japanese breakfast set. That spread of miso-and-sake-kasu-slicked fish (like Spanish mackerel or tuna belly), jiggly tamago (omelet), pickles, miso soup, and rice is served on beautiful porcelain worthy of the morning light streaming through the windows.

✵ Order: the breakfast set; and yes, you want to add the roe and soft-cooked egg to the rice.

3. The Place for the Quintessential American Diner Experience

Tom’s Restaurant

Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

Wake up early to avoid the weekend line and you’ll be rewarded with a sodium bomb of corned beef, bottomless cups of passable coffee, and absurdly crispy diner fries. The fluffiest pancake rumors are true, and the Christmas décor comes down for no season. After all, who can resist that kind of cheer? Bring cash!

✵ Order: corned beef hash (extra-crispy, add a slice of American cheese) and eggs (scrambled, light), a side of fries, a side stack of pancakes, and a chocolate egg cream.

4. The Place for Chicken, Waffles, and a Religious Experience

Sylvia’s

Harlem, Manhattan

More than 50 years after it opened, this Harlem institution is hallowed ground. Sure, there are gospel singers and crowds that make getting a table for (post-church) Sunday brunch a challenge, but the most intensely religious experience is the soul food itself. Good things come to those who wait.

✵ Order: chicken and waffles and Sylvia’s World Famous Talked About Bar-B-Que Ribs.

5. The Place Where Soft-Scrambled Eggs Can’t Get any Softer

Buvette

West Village, Manhattan

This place is so cramped even the sidewalk outside the front door is crowded. But inside the perfectly worn room, no one cares, because the scrambled eggs coming out of Jody Williams’ kitchen are truly the softest, fluffiest, most buttery eggs in New York. Show up early (read: 7 a.m.—especially on weekends) and grab a seat at the white marble bar, right next to the towers of juice and scones, for a full view of said eggs being cooked using the steam wand on the espresso machine.

✵ Order: saumon fumé (steamed eggs with smoked salmon) and an espresso.

6. The Place for When Your Anchovy Craving Hits First Thing in the Morning

Kopitiam

Lower East Side, Manhattan

The Lower East Side’s coolest breakfast spot is a casual coffeehouse serving intensely flavorful Chinese-influenced Malaysian dishes known as Nyonya cuisine, loaded with anchovies, shrimp paste, and fish sauce. Tables turn quickly in the always-bustling space, so if you show up to a full house, just wait a minute for a seat to open up. Order as many plates and bowls as will fit on your table: Dishes are on the smaller side, easy to share, and guaranteed to be devoured.

✵ Order: nasi lemak (coconut rice with crunchy anchovies and hard-boiled eggs), pan mee (hand-pulled noodle soup), and Malaysian-style French toast.

7. The Place for When Diner Cuisine Is First on the To-Do List

Neil’s Coffee Shop

Upper East Side, Manhattan

The red neon “coffee shop” sign, hanging on the corner of 70th and Lexington, is a beautiful lie. There’s no fancy espresso machine in sight here—just a diner with a massive menu of breakfast classics. The same exact waitstaff has been here for decades, serving neighborhood locals, kids fresh off Central Park’s Little League fields, construction workers, and confused French tourists. If New York were a restaurant, it would be Neil’s.

✵ Order: You can’t go wrong. Just don’t miss Neil’s exceptional breakfast sausage.

8. The Place to Flag Down Delicious Dim Sum

Pacificana

Sunset Park, Brooklyn

This large ballroom looks like it came straight out of Beauty and the Beast (ceiling moldings, chandeliers, gold accents) and is sacred ground for dim sum lovers. But it’s also a lesson in strategy: When a cart comes by with the best stuff—shu mai, har cheung (rice noodle rolls), dan tat (egg tarts)—don’t hesitate for a moment. Eyes on the prize!

✵ Order: cold jellyfish, spare ribs with squash, chicken feet, shu mai, har gow (shrimp dumplings), har cheung, and dan tat.

9. The Place for When Your Friends Force You to Go to Brunch

Atla

Noho, Manhattan

The best kind of brunch menu is one that reads like a lunch menu. And that's exactly why Enrique Olvera and Daniela Soto-Innes’ Mexican spot Atla is the only answer to the dreaded “Where should we do brunch?” text. The narrow, light-filled room is miraculously devoid of loud groups looking to get their bottomless mimosa fix—a rare find in the syrup-drenched, two-hour-wait brunch landscape of lower Manhattan.

✵ Order: flaxseed chilaquiles, chicken enchiladas (get green and red, a.k.a. divorciadas), arctic char and farmer’s cheese tostada, and the fish Milanese.

10. The Place to Witness a Classic, Storied Well-Oiled Machine

Balthazar

Soho, Manhattan

Everyone has been to Balthazar. And everyone still goes to Balthazar. Locals. Tourists. Chefs. Downtown cool kids. Uptown grandparents. After 20-plus years, the classic French brasserie remains a New York institution thanks to its consistency and efficiency. Spend just as much time looking around the timeless room as you do admiring the precision of your omelet’s roll.

✵ Order: omelet with herbs, smoked salmon tartine, and a plate of breakfast oysters.

11. The Place for Mole Poblano Tamales and Immediate Hangover Relief

Factory Tamal

Lower East Side, Manhattan

If you’re the type of person who is comfortable standing on the sidewalk, face down in a brown paper bag of steaming, saucy tamales the morning after an ambitious evening out on the town, you’ve come to the right place. If you’d prefer to be sitting—out of sight from passersby—Factory Tamal has some seats inside too. Either way, this should be your first move, after the Advil of course.

✵ Order: mole poblano tamal, salsa verde tamal, chipotle tamal, and the (off menu) Ludlow breakfast sandwich.