Every number we have.

The reason this site exists

Star averages can't tell anyone apart

68% of every place we track lands between 4.0 and 4.7 stars. The most common score of all is 4.5 — that badge is worn by 3,308 different restaurants. A number that everybody has is not information. The Sweet Score spreads the same places across 20 bands instead of one.

How the Sweet Score is built →

Where a street has a specialty

The blocks that are actually known for something

Not folklore — arithmetic. For every neighbourhood we ask what share of its restaurants belong to a category, and compare that to the same category’s share of the whole region. Brighton Beach is 56.6× more Eastern European than the region average. These are the streets you go to on purpose.

1. Brighton Beach · Eastern European56.6×14 places · 17% of the block
2. Koreatown · Korean46.3×28 places · 56% of the block
3. Gravesend · Eastern European19.6×15 places · 6% of the block
4. Glen Oaks · Indian19.1×12 places · 29% of the block
5. Sheepshead Bay · Eastern European14.7×6 places · 4% of the block
6. Bellerose · Indian12.7×7 places · 19% of the block
7. Cobble Hill · Middle Eastern12.5×6 places · 15% of the block
8. City Island · Seafood11.5×11 places · 38% of the block
9. Floral Park · Indian11.3×9 places · 17% of the block
10. Hicksville · Indian11.3×32 places · 17% of the block
11. East Flatbush · Caribbean11.2×19 places · 20% of the block
12. South Ozone Park · Caribbean11.1×16 places · 20% of the block
13. Harlem · Soul Food11.1×12 places · 4% of the block
14. South Richmond Hill · Indian10.9×22 places · 17% of the block

Bars are the multiple against the regional average. Every town →

What people actually order

The 16 dishes reviewers name most

Pulled from what reviewers wrote, not from menus. If a dish shows up here it’s because people kept bringing it up unprompted — which is the only kind of recommendation worth anything.

1. Burger2,040 places
2. Fried Rice1,648 places
3. Fried Chicken1,637 places
4. Latte1,633 places
5. Espresso1,621 places
6. Dumplings1,174 places
7. Calamari1,002 places
8. Donuts956 places
9. Pancakes905 places
10. Chicken Sandwich871 places
11. Burrito825 places
12. Nachos733 places
13. French Fries723 places
14. Croissant691 places
15. Empanadas688 places
16. Hero686 places

All the dishes →

The question everybody asks

Does spending more get you a better meal?

A little, and then it stops. The median $ place scores 47; the median $$$$ place scores 58. Four dollar signs buys you 11 points — on a scale where the gap between #1 and #50 in a single town is bigger than that.

The categories

What this region is made of

Every place belongs to every category it earned, so these add up to more than 30,477. The median column is the honest one — a category with a lot of places and a low median is a category where picking badly is easy.

Every ranking →

Where the food is

The 15 densest places to eat

Restaurants per named town or neighbourhood. Manhattan neighbourhoods are small and stacked, which is exactly why they dominate this list.

1. Flushing725 placesQueens · median 54
2. East Bronx599 placesThe Bronx · median 46
3. Jamaica584 placesQueens · median 38
4. Sunset Park536 placesBrooklyn · median 36
5. Times Square518 placesManhattan · median 50
6. Bushwick516 placesBrooklyn · median 54
7. Williamsburg452 placesBrooklyn · median 64
8. Bedford-Stuyvesant405 placesBrooklyn · median 53
9. Park Slope381 placesBrooklyn · median 58
10. Chelsea376 placesManhattan · median 49
11. East Village372 placesManhattan · median 56
12. Hell's Kitchen350 placesManhattan · median 66
13. Washington Heights348 placesManhattan · median 35
14. Harlem337 placesManhattan · median 36
15. Crown Heights333 placesBrooklyn · median 52

Borough by borough

The seven counties, side by side

Same measurement everywhere. The 'pricey' column is the share of places charging $$$ or more — it's the closest thing to a cost-of-dinner map we have.

The list nobody else can build

Loved, and almost nobody knows

High Sweet Score, barely any ratings. These are the places where the people who have been are near-unanimous and the crowd hasn’t arrived. This is what a percentile can find and a star average can’t.

1. Alessia's Pizza & Pasta (formerly Caffe Catania)Copiague · 99 ratings95
2. Brick Wine BarLower East Side · 127 ratings95
3. YoYo ChickenHuntington Station · 147 ratings95
4. Le Vin CoeurUpper West Side · 152 ratings95
5. ATL Wing SpotCopiague · 261 ratings95
6. Private Chef Services NYC | JP Fine Foods LLC | Cocktail Catering NYCLenox Hill · 110 ratings94
7. AnnaWoodbury · 118 ratings94
8. Fresh Catch SeafoodSt James · 124 ratings94
9. MintPorch CafeFlatbush · 140 ratings94
10. Lamar's Bagel ExpressTwo Bridges · 202 ratings94

The other end

The most-rated restaurants in the region

Volume, not quality — though the two turn out to be less related than anyone expects. These are the places everybody has an opinion about.

1. Katz's DelicatessenLower East Side · 54,693 ratings79
2. M&M'S New YorkTimes Square · 41,779 ratings40
3. STK SteakhouseTimes Square · 38,329 ratings94
4. Grand Central TerminalMidtown East · 34,393 ratings95
5. Joe's Pizza BroadwayTimes Square · 26,636 ratings58
6. One World ObservatoryFinancial District · 26,187 ratings90
7. 230 Fifth Rooftop BarFlatiron · 25,840 ratings29
8. Hard Rock CafeTimes Square · 25,012 ratings60
9. Ellen's Stardust DinerTimes Square · 24,686 ratings74
10. STK SteakhouseChelsea · 20,870 ratings93

What the board can do for you

Counted, so you can filter by it

Every one of these is a list. Outdoor seating in August, somewhere that takes a reservation, somewhere that will let the dog sit down too.

• 6,406Outdoor seating
• 22,921Deliver
• 28,115Do takeout
• 9,232Take reservations
• 9,828Vegetarian options
• 18,105Good for kids
• 12,144Work for groups
• 1,261Allow dogs

Every filter →