Bringing Puerto Rico to East Harlem with their piles of fritters, meat stuffed potatoes and plantains.The most impressive is the " jibaro en canoa, a plantain canoe stuffed with a bevy of meat."
This is the perfect date spot. Try their specialty drink L-I-V-I-N: a shot of Cuervo with a Highlife back. It is sure to keep you up!
Indulge in Master Chef Masato Shimizu's stunning seafood and try the seasonal spiny lobster tasting.
Stay until 3am at this late-night sushi spot, and you might just catch celebrity chefs like Daniel Boulud and Gordon Ramsay who often frequent here after work.
Order the Bakudan-Nattō topped with a quail egg, with homemade soy sauce and scallions. It's a local's favorite!
Work yourself into a frenzy over "Band of Gold," head out to the patio to cool off, take advantage of the $5 well drinks and make sure to check out the jukebox.
Bocce on the first floor and rock shows in the basement. This bar is a great neighborhood haunt with a massive jukebox!
When is a croissant more than just a croissant? The Chocolate Swirl, baked and served in a miniature pie tin, defies all standards. Indulge -- we implore you.
As far as filled donuts are concerned, we're hard-pressed to find a finer specimen than the bomboloni. Treat yourself to the vanilla custard one; a delight you won't forget!
This restaurant produces some of the finest dim sum this city offers. At 2 p.m. pricier fare starts appearing on the carts whirling through the dining room, but over-rice dishes are always cheap.
Great Vietnamese can be hard to come by, but this place has it all: affordable, a great ambiance, and a menu that mixes classics with a few oddballs. We love the beefy and spicy bun bo hue soup.
This Vietnamese sandwich shop is only open until 6:30 pm, but it is so good people hurry home from work to score their banh mi. Our favorite is the one made with canned sardines, mmm...
Serafina brings an authentic feel to an area dotted with Northern Italian restaurants. Share a margherita pizza, the cream-laden paglia e fieno or any of their other consistently delicious dishes.
The updated Mughlai dishes here still bring plenty of heat to the table! Stockpile napkins and dig in to the tandoori chicken and lamb kebabs. The lunch buffet is also a neighborhood deal at $11.95
Pretty much everything on this sandwich shop's menu is a good choice, but our favorite is the Da Vinci: sardines or mackerel layered with sun-dried tomatoes and Bel Paese cheese on a plank of bread.
Keep this on the down low, but rumor has it Leo's is serving the same delicious bagels as the ever popular Murray's bagels. They even have the same specials listed. Shh...
Specializing in traditional and Latin American sweets, they have an absolutely incredible flan. It's nicely jiggly and has a slick of caramel on top -- what more could you ask for in a custard?
Prepare yourself for the ultimate gutbomb: the Peruvian burger is a messy, bizarre culinary wonder. It features a runny fried egg, fried plantains and several sauces. Roll up your sleeves and dig in!
Yes this place is crazy expensive, but the quality of the sushi ranks in the top 5 in the city. The weekday lunch special allows even the most common of us to sample their fare (in small quantities..)
Zucchini fries, done right, can be even better than their potato counterparts. Here, it's a perfect crunch on the outer shell and zucchini that practically melts in your mouth. Chase with cold beer.
The sweet potato fries here are incredible. They're light, crisp and not at all greasy, but be careful stopping by during brunch or you'll have to wait a while for your sweet potato fix.
This is the right joint for some authentic Haitian food! Get the grillot: a confit of pork chunks marinated in sour orange and shallots, and cooked in pork fat. We're hungry just thinking about it..
You won’t find more perfect Pho anywhere else in this hood. The broth is delicately scented with sweet spices and so good, you might end up forgetting about the actual noodles.
Sit at the sidewalk seating, perfect for a summer evening, and sample the broad range of bruschetti and uber-fresh pasta. The linguine with clams here is hard to beat!
Your ~25 course meal will have you eating ramen for the next week, but cutting into what looks like a lump of coal to find it’s a beautiful slow roasted beet will make the price more palatable.
Though you have to buzz to enter, the year-round Christmas lights and tinsel lining the ceiling, as well as the super strong mixed drinks will make you forget the reinforced iron bars on the windows…
