The Exhaustive Guide to Eating Brunch in NYC

Best for live jazz: Dirty French

Lower East Side
Tucked in the bottom of the Ludlow Hotel, Dirty French is yet another buzzy culinary success by Major Food Group (Carbone, Santina, Sadelle’s). A dazzling array of contemporary French dishes are served in a classically beautiful dining room -- with a twist. An enormous vintage mirror covers nearly an entire wall, an ink-stained French flag hangs above the bar, and the servers all wear Air Jordans. The “Dirty French” neon sign glows a pink by the front door, and much like the aesthetic, the food is a twist on traditional, stuffy French fare. Classic dishes like Parisian crepes are topped with ahi tuna, and chevre is served with pear and sunchokes. The food needs no accompaniment, but every Saturday from 12-3pm, the place livens up with a special brunch performance by a New Orleans-style jazz band. Be sure to make a reservation -- there is rarely room for walk-ins.

Best for breakfast tacos: Gueros Brooklyn

Crown Heights
Prepared by an assembly line of expert chefs, the breakfast (and anytime) tacos at this sunny Crown Heights cafe are the ideal savory breakfast meal. Customize your tacos with buttery scrambled eggs, chorizo, refried beans, and avocado (among other options), all of which come piled atop a warm, house-made corn tortilla -- or opt for one of the spot’s signature creations like the fried avocado and jalapeño taco with pico de gallo. They’re less than $5 apiece, so you’ll surely want to try a few.  

Best for special occasions: Buvette

Greenwich Village
Dollhouse-like charm and quaint Parisian character make Buvette very much at home on the corner of cobbled Grove Street. The wait may be long, but once you’ve been seated in the narrow “gastroteque,” go for the prosciutto egg plate. The eggs are scrambled with the bistro’s espresso machine wand, topped with grated Parmesan, and served with paper-thin slices of house prosciutto on toasted baguette. Between the unrivaled quality of the food, and Buvette’s irresistible interior, this is a prime spot for a date.

Best for picky eaters: Shopsin's

East Village
Few characters in the New York food scene are quite so inimitably crass as Kenny Shopsin. Yet it’s hard not to like the guy. Head to the Essex Street Market eatery on any given day, and you’ll find Shopsin himself roaming the diner floor and scowling from beneath his Mets cap. He may not be one for casual niceties (or smiling at his customers), but what he lacks in pleasantries, he more than makes up for with this 900-item menu -- which offers Polish kielbasa, “taco-fried steak,” and the famed Shopsin’s “slutty cakes” (enormous pancakes stuffed with pumpkin and peanut butter). Be warned, parties are limited to four people, and don’t expect much patience while you decide what to order, so make up your mind ahead of time.

Best for crippling hangovers: Veselka

Lower East Side
This is the place when all you want are carbs, glorious carbs. The casual, booth-lined Ukrainian diner is like a big comforting cuddle, serving up steaming omelets, golden potato pancakes, and most importantly, heaps of cheese-stuffed pierogi. Breakfast and lunch items are available all day -- so hot latkes will be ready and waiting, no matter the hour: Veselka is just as good at 4am after a night out as it is at noon the next day.

Best for live gospel music: Red Rooster

Harlem
Marcus Samuelsson’s Harlem comfort food spot is worth a trip uptown on a weekend afternoon for the cornbread alone: warm and spicy, with honey butter and tomato jam. Leave room for delicacies like fried chicken and waffles, apple cinnamon French toast, the Rooster Scramble (with fried ham, Cheddar, and creme fraiche) and other staple Harlem and international dishes. Better even than the food itself is the fabulous Sunday gospel brunch, held weekly in the subterranean speakeasy under the restaurant. There’s truly nothing that elevates a Sunday meal like a live gospel choir.

Best for fancy brunch cocktails: Fort Defiance

Red Hook
There’s more to Red Hook than flat-pack furniture and Swedish meatballs from Ikea. The waterside Brooklyn neighborhood is also home to a surprising number of excellent restaurants -- and when it comes to brunch, Fort Defiance is king. You won’t typically have to wait in line, but it would be rare to find the place with many empty tables. And while the bar serves a serious cocktail roster well into the night, the brunch beverages are arguably the most impressive (try the King Bee with Darjeeling-tea-infused honeycomb vodka, lemon, and cava). Pair that with a plate of poached eggs and collard greens over chili-cheese skillet cornbread, and you’ve got yourself a balanced meal (of sorts).

Best for matcha-flavored everything: Ma Peche

Midtown
The latest Midtown restaurant from David Chang (of Momofuku fame) has a decidedly Downtown feel. The tables are built of repurposed plywood; disposable chopsticks are bunched in cups along the counters; and the place will not take reservations. Carved into the bottom floor of the Chambers Hotel, the kitchen serves a brunch menu built of new-wave Asian-American dishes, including an egg-bun stuffed with maple bacon, a miso-topped BLT, and lavender syrup-drenched matcha pancakes. If you’d rather have your green goodness in liquid form, pick from any of the matcha beverages, or gorge on one of the delicately flavored desserts.
 

Best for a date: Milk and Roses

Greenpoint
Tucked far enough into Greenpoint to keep the masses at bay, Milk and Roses is one of few top-notch Brooklyn brunch spots where you likely won’t have to wait. The food, a modern Italian riff on classic Southern fare, is reliably tasty (get the puff pastry-encased baked Brie), the coffee is excellent, and the cocktail list is lengthy. In winter, claim a pair of armchairs beside one of two fireplaces; in summer, the best place to station yourself is at a marble-topped table in the atmospheric overgrown garden. To up the romance, bring your own vinyl and the waitstaff will gladly spin it for you. 

Best for classic Jewish fare: Russ & Daughters

Lower East Side
Russ & Daughters is equal parts cafe and cultural institution. In a city stocked with Jewish food, it’s no small feat that the Lower East Side eatery has built itself a standout reputation. Aesthetically, it’s modern -- but the food is certainly not. The kitchen honors the age-old tradition of matzo ball soup and herring spread, and waiters in white lab coats serve classic knishes and babka French toast. Under no circumstances should you leave without inhaling a faceful of latkes and house-smoked lox (served on a board with bagels and schmear, naturally).
 

Best dive bar brunch: The Commodore

Williamsburg
New York offers a dive bar for every occasion -- dancing, pounding pickle-back shots, hearing live music, and, apparently, eating brunch. At the Commodore, you can order crispy fried chicken and biscuits drizzled with honey butter and hot sauce, and wash it down with a Shiner, all in the venue where you shotgunned a Bud Light last night. The no-frills brunch menu is full of staple comfort foods, plated in sizable portions, with none of the pretense that often accompanies this sacred meeting of the meals. Stick around afterwards for more cheap beers at the bar.
 

Best for befriending your waiter: Diner

Williamsburg
Stationed in a tiny Pullman car beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, this cozy eatery has been a Brooklyn staple since the ’90s. Once you’ve been seated, your server will sit down at your table to tell you about the specials (there’s not much space in the aisles), and scribble them onto your paper tablecloth, lest you forget. Once the novelty of the setting and service wears off, classic plates like smoked ham-topped egg sandwiches and strawberry buckwheat pancakes speak for themselves.

Best for a fat stack of pancakes: Sunday in Brooklyn

Williamsburg
If you’re gluten-opposed, we suggest you maintain a healthy distance from Sunday in Brooklyn. You’re all but obligated to start your meal with some of the honey-butter biscuits, or one of the cinnamon-sugar-drowned buns. But the house specialty is the pancakes: a supersized tower of absurdly fluffy discs drenched in a rich, hand-whisked chocolate syrup. Plenty of other plates are well-worth sampling (e.g., biscuits in buttermilk gravy or the house-smoked salmon with blackened trout), but it’d be remiss to survive the three-hour wait only to skip out on the pancakes.  
 

Best for reading at the table: Brunswick Cafe

Windsor Terrace
For all the coffee shops in New York, it can still be difficult to find a good place to read and eat (assuming you’re actually trying to read as opposed to using a Joan Didion paperback to pick up girls). At Brunswick, a tiny brick-lined Australian spot just off of Prospect Park, you’ll find your solution. While the front of the place is primarily a to-go pastry/coffee counter, the heated back patio space is flooded with natural light and makes the ideal spot to sit and work or read. The food is impressive (see the Cheddar chive biscuit egg sandwich for details), the coffee is excellent, and the friendly Aussie waitstaff will gladly leave you to enjoy your book, even at busy times. 

Best Moroccan food: Cafe Mogador

Williamsburg & East Village
Mogador has been doing comforting Moroccan dishes in the East Village since the ‘80s, and still the place has no trouble drawing a devoted brunch crowd (even with its new Williamsburg location). If you’re tired of scrambled eggs and avocado toast, mix things up with spicy poached egg shakshuka, served steaming in its skillet. The brick-lined bistro is filled with low-hanging lanterns, ornate carpets, and notably chic waiters -- and by NYC brunch standards, it’s reasonably priced. Each brunch dish runs to $18, with home fries, a salad, juice, and coffee or tea included. 

Best for dining in a secret garden: House of Small Wonder

Williamsburg
It’s hard to imagine a hideaway quite so charming as House of Small Wonder. True to its name, the place is a little haven from all-things-city, lined with ivy and wood panels, and decked out with dozens of hanging plants. The cash-only venue has a winding spiral staircase, a greenhouse-glass ceiling, and a series of personal and communal tables. The eatery serves a peculiar mix of classic brunch plates (croque madame and croissant French toast among them), and offbeat Japanese dishes. Order the sashimi zuke don -- the fish of the day, with sweet mushrooms and egg over rice -- but be sure to get there early, as supply is limited and demand is high.
 

Best for brunch if you're not paying: The Penrose

Upper East Side
If you’re eating on the Upper East Side, odds are your parents are in town. And while the area may not exactly be rife with trendy restaurants (or young people), there is some excellent food to be had. Head to the Penrose on Second Avenue and start off with drink at the bar while you wait. The cocktail menu is excellent, replete with eye-openers like the Chiquito (vodka, chamomile, Cocchi Americano, lavender, and honey), and most importantly, a selection of four distinct Bloody Marys -- it’s polite to try them all, of course. The brunch menu itself is stocked with creative egg dishes, like a bacon, egg, and fried oyster brioche sandwich. It ain’t cheap, but that’s why you ain’t paying.  

Best for romance: Joseph Leonard

West Village
To impress a date, always go for Joseph Leonard. The intimate West Village eatery is nearly always packed, but the wait is tolerable. The crowd -- a spread of well-to-do locals -- is mild-mannered and warm, and the wait staff is just as convivial. You get the sense, while eating here, that both the service and the clientele are part of the same glowing West Village social circle. The bucolic space features a blonde wood bar, vintage suitcases stacked in the corners, and framed photographs lining walls of exposed brick. The food is equally rustic. Order some coffee, a pitcher of vodka mint lemonade, and a plate of chicken and waffles for two.

Best for bottomless mimosas: Baby's All Right

Williamsburg
Here’s the thing about bottomless brunch: a lot of the time, the absurd quantity of alcohol is merely a tactic to distract you from the nigh-inedible food. Even so, there are places in the city well worth the fee for a limitless mimosa tap, with food that isn’t totally repulsive. Our pick is Baby’s All Right. The popular Williamsburg dance bar may seem an unlikely spot for a midday meal, but the place will surprise you. The food is respectable -- think scrambled eggs with chorizo and avocado, and pork belly-topped eggs Benedict. The mimosas aren’t excessively sugary, and a live DJ will spin while you eat, to ensure that you won’t lose day-drinking morale. In fact, you may enjoy the ambiance so much that you wind up staying well into the night (you wouldn’t be the first).

Best for re-hashing last night: The Bonnie

Astoria
While sustenance is certainly a factor, the best part of brunch is often recounting the misadventures of the night before. At The Bonnie, you and your chosen mid-morning company can feast on indulgent shared plates like French toast sticks and waffle-battered sausage bites, while attempting to make sense of yesterday’s debauchery. The menu is Southern, with a focus on modern, nuanced comfort food, and while the restaurant is open-plan and typically lively, it’s never too loud for a conversation. You’d be remiss to sit through a meal without trying the BEC bites -- corn-meal-crusted bacon, egg, and Cheddar balls. There’s no hangover they can’t cure. 

Best for all things pickled: Jacob's Pickles

Upper West Side
Naturally, the house-made pickles here are the draw, but they aren’t the only briney delicacy on offer. There are pickled eggs, beets, carrots, tomatoes, and all varieties of cucumber -- and they’re all exactly what your biscuit breakfast sandwich needs (try some fried pickles on the side). This place is a New York establishment through and through, serving greens from the Union Square Market, and fresh cuts of meat from a butcher in Queens.

Best hair of the dog: Enid's

Greenpoint
Not all brunch cocktails are made equal. While New York offers plenty of bottomless mimosa packages and fancy daytime cocktail menus, sometimes all you want is a classic Bloody Mary, served fast and simple. That’s where Enid’s comes in. If tomato juice and Tabasco isn’t your thing, go for the Reviver -- a mix of spicy fresh ginger, vodka, grapefruit, and lime, sure to snuff the hangover doing somersaults around your skull. Pair your beverage with a heaping plate of biscuits and gravy, huevos rancheros, or steak and eggs, and be sure to return at night, when the tables are pushed aside and the dining room transitions into a rowdy, eccentric dance floor.
 

Best for New York bagels: Ess-a-Bagel

Stuytown/Midtown East
The New York bagel is a truly remarkable thing. You are entitled to no opinions other than this. To call yourself a New Yorker is to hold a truly religious belief in the sacred quality of the bagel. In spite of all the brunch hype in this city, there are few mid-morning eats quite so satisfying as a bagel with cream cheese -- and they don’t come any better than those at Ess-a-Bagel. Whether you’re looking for some classic schmear; a bacon egg, and cheese; or a lox-stuffed breakfast sandwich, this place will deliver -- and for a fraction of the price of a sit-down brunch. 
 

Best for big groups: Forrest Point

Bushwick
When it comes to large format seating, Bushwick’s Forrest Point is always a safe bet. Like much of the surrounding area, the indoor/outdoor space is sizable (by New York standards), leaving plenty of room for lengthy tables, loud, unfiltered conversation, and plate-sharing. The brunch menu, filled with multicultural plates, is a straightforward crowd-pleaser, whether you’re looking for tacos, Mediterranean fare, or a classic American eggs-and-pancakes breakfast. Opt for individual mimosas, smoothies, and craft cocktails, or grab a pitcher or three to share. The place is laid-back, and you won’t get hassled if you homestead at your table for a couple of hours solid. 
 

Best for excellent coffee: Alpha Dominche Extraction Lab

Sunset Park/Industry City
Alpha Dominche is not a just coffee shop, but rather a coffee lab. If you’re looking for a simple morning pick-me-up, this is not your place. Beans are hand-picked from small-scale Panamanian farms, milk and sugar are frowned upon, and the menu is limited to drip coffee. Whether you select the $4 Toby’s Estate blend, or taunt your grandparents’ ghosts with an $18 Ninety Plus Gesha Estates brew, your coffee will be prepared in an enormous glass vessel called a Steampunk Brewer. You’ll want to sip it deliberately (like a fine wine), as it’s likely the most carefully processed cup of filter coffee you’ve ever had. Once you’ve savored your opulent cup of joe, hit any number of the top-notch food establishments next door in the Industry City food hall for some sustenance.   

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