eat like Bourdain

🇺🇸 Where Bourdain Ate in New York

55 places across Parts Unknown & No Reservations

“If I'm not in a good mood, I don't want to be in a restaurant. I want to be at home, in my apartment, in New York.”

— Anthony Bourdain, on New York

Bourdain was born in New York City and lived there most of his life. He worked at Les Halles on Park Avenue, and the city was his culinary home base. No Reservations and Parts Unknown both dedicated episodes to NYC, covering everything from the outer boroughs to late-night Chinatown.

What Bourdain Loved About New York

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The no-bullshit attitude of old-school New York restaurants

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Late-night eating in Koreatown and Chinatown after a shift

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The outer boroughs — Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx — where real New Yorkers eat

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Dive bars, diners, and places with zero pretense

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The hot dog stands of Gray's Papaya and Papaya King

Episodes Featuring New York

2014

Parts Unknown — S4 E1: New York

A love letter to his home city through the lens of the outer boroughs

2008

No Reservations — S4 E18: New York City

Returns to his old haunts and explores hidden gems

2007

No Reservations — S3 E5: New York City

The first NYC episode — a personal tour of his city

Travel Tips for Eating in New York

Tony's Advice

Walk everywhere. The best meals in NYC are found by accident, not by reservation.

Find a place to stay in New York →

What to Skip

  • ✕Times Square restaurants
  • ✕Chain restaurants in Midtown
  • ✕Overpriced hotel dining

Every Place Bourdain Visited in New York

55 places
1

Masa

Columbus Circle

America's most expensive restaurant, it costs around $600 per person. It is run by Masa Takayama, America's most respected sushi chef. Tony traveled Japan with Masa.

2

Ray's Candy Store

Avenue A

Tony and musician Harley Flanagan had a chocolate egg cream.

3

Veselka

2nd Ave

Tony had music manager Danny Fields and had pierogies.

4

John V. Lindsay East River Park

Tony had bagels with Kembra Pfahler, filmmaker and performance artist

5

John's of 12th Street

East 12th Street

Tony hung out with Joe Coleman, performance artist

Eating your way through New York? Stay within walking distance of these spots.

6

El Castillo de Jagua

Ludlow St

Tony met with hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy

7

Emilio's Ballato

East Houston Street

Tony met with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, members of the band Blondie

8

Public Kitchen

Chrystie Street

Tony met with musician and actor Lydia Lunch. They had seafood.

9

John Lurie’s Apartment

Grand Street

Tony ate hard boiled eggs with painter John Lurie.

10

Gray's Papaya

8th Avenue

This was one of Tony's favorites from his childhood

11

Siberia New York

Allen St

Tony's local bar (at the time of filming season 2)

12

Prune

East 1st Street

Restaurants where chefs go. Tony ate there with Eric Ripert and Scott Bryan.

13

Sake Bar Hagi46

W 46th St

Izakaya. They had assorted yakitori and dumplings 

14

Sakagura

E 43rd St

Sake bar

15

Brasserie Les Halles (Closed)

Park Avenue South

On this episode, Tony visited the restaurant he worked at when he wrote Kitchen Confidential to work the line. (Now closed). He revisited in the season 6 "Techniques Special" and "Holiday Special" (season 7). On the "Holiday Special" Carlos made him a plate of choucroute which includes sauerkraut, veal sausage, frankfurter (French version of salami), potato, beer, smoked pork loin, pork belly, blood sausage, and bacon.

16

Desmond's Tavern

Park Avenue South

Tony had an after lunch rush drink here before he tackled dinner service

17

wd~50

Clinton Street

Closed now, but this was Wylie Dufresne's restaurant. This episode featured Bill Buford, Amy Sacco, Ted Allen, and Chris Wilson eating at the restaurant and talking about the restaurant biz.

18

Holland Bar

9th Avenue

Tony called it Manhattan's "last dive bar"

19

Manganaro's Hero Boy

9th Avenue

In business since 1893, held by the same family for generations. Classic Italian-American food

20

Keens Steakhouse

West 36th Street

Old school NY steakhouse, since 1885

21

Russ & Daughters Cafe

Orchard Street

Specializes in smoked and cured fish. Started as a pushcart business in the 1800s

22

Katz's Delicatessen

E Houston St

Pastrami on rye with brown mustard, pickles. Tony has his with a cream soda.

23

Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop

5th Ave

Ice cream soda shop with sandwiches. Tony had a lime rickey and a tuna melt. His companion was Famous Fat Dave who does food tours around NYC. Dave had an egg cream and a tuna sandwich

24

Schaller & Weber

2nd Avenue

German sausages, headcheese, pork in aspic. Beer served in a boot. Tony had the crispy pork shank

25

Hop Kee

Mott St

Old school Cantonese food

26

129 E 60th St

East 60th Street

Closed now, it used to be Le Veau D'Or, a French restaurant since 1937

27

Sophie's

E 5th St

Dive bar

28

Minetta Tavern

Macdougal St

In this episode about food obsessions, Tony met with Josh Ozersky (who died in 2015) to try the La Frieda black label burger. Ozersky was obsessed with beef.

29

Sullivan Street Bakery and Pizza

9th Avenue

Jim Lahey, owner and baker. Obsessed with dough/bread. The restaurant on the show, called "Co." (short for Company) closed, but he is still making pizza at Sullivan Street Bakery's Chelsea location.

30

Txikito

9th Ave

Tony ate here with Steve Plotniki who is a food writer, who says this restaurant is like San Sebastian, Spain, but in NYC.

31

Kampuchea Restaurant

Rivington Street

Crispy pork belly, tamarind baby back ribs

32

Esca

West 43rd Street

"The man knows fish," Tony says of the chef.

33

Fulton Fish Market

These seafood guys made lobster in the warehouse

34

Scarpetta

Madison Avenue

Scott Conant demonstrates how to make red sauce and pasta

35

Bar Boulud

Broadway

"Food for the gods" with boudin noir, "one of the very best things on earth"

36

Salumeria Rosi

Amsterdam Avenue

Cured meats. Tony's go-to salumeria in NYC

37

Sushi Yasuda

E 43rd St

"Sushi is first about the rice." Chef Yasuda had been doing it for 32 years at the filming of this episode.

38

Porter House Bar and Grill

Columbus Cir

Steaks! Tony had the cowboy ribeye.

39

The Campbell

Vanderbilt Ave

Tony had a Manhattan, Negroni, and a Sidecar made by bartender Dale

40

The Rub BBQ (Closed)

W 23rd St

Former site of "The Rub BBQ" where Tony had brisket

41

Jacques Torres

Hudson Street

Tony ate chocolate

42

DBGB (Closed)

Bowery

Former site of Boulud's fresh sausage place, DBGB

43

Marea

Central Park S

Italian gastronomy by Chef Michael White

44

Petrossian Boutique & Cafe

West 58th Street

Tony had champagne and caviar

45

Torrisi

Mulberry St

Making Italian recipes from local NY ingredients

46

Barney Greengrass

Amsterdam Avenue

Tony had a platter delivered with Nova Scotia salmon, whitefish salad, smoked sturgeon, capers, and assorted fixings.

47

El Quinto Pino

W 24th St

A tiny restaurant specializing in Catalonian food. He ate with the chefs, including: escudella (a boiled dish made during the holidays with beef shank, poultry, turnips, carrots, chickpeas, pig ear, blood sausage, cornbread, cabbage, meatballs called pelota), as well as a brothy soup with galettes with shell pasta, and a canalon (leftover meat from escudella cooked into a new dish with pasta and cheese)

48

Blaue Gans (Closed)

West 11th Street

Former site of Blaue Gans, an Austrian restaurant that closed in 2018.

49

The Spotted Pig

West 11th Street

Chef April Broomfield met with Tony at her house (not at this location) to cook a proper English holiday meal. They cooked a duck and some savory pie with veal shank, pig trotter, garlic, chanterelle mushrooms, swiss chard.

50

Esposito Meat Market

9th Ave

Tony used to live in this neighborhood and come to this old school sausage store 

51

Picholine

West 64th Street

Terrence Brennan, artisanal cheese maker.

52

Westside Rifle & Pistol Range

W 20th St

Tony shot rifles 

53

Trapeze School New York - Pier 40

West St

54

International Culinary Center

Broadway

Originally called the French Culinary Institute (during this taping), Tony visited Dave Arnold to ask what would Jesus eat for the Holiday Special episode.

55

Ace Hotel

W 29th St

A nice but discreet hotel in NYC

Where to stay in New York

All hotels →

Hotels and rentals around the places he ate — his spots are pinned on the map.

Hotels he stayed in

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