Best Restaurants Near Houston Street NYC
The Best Restaurants near Houston Street in NYC will be hard to define because there are quite a few to choose from. If you just stay on Houston Street, we can easily count over twenty. Furthermore, we are not counting any fast food restaurants. If you are interested in fast-food restaurants, please see our post on McDonald’s ad other fast food restaurants.
“How-stun not Hue-stun”
First off, NYC’s downtown street is pronounced HOW-stun, instead of HUE-stun because it is not named after Sam Houston. Texas is everywhere like the song says, but not in downtown Manhattan.
Definition of “Best Restaurants Near Houston Street, NYC”
Recognizing that “Near Houston Street” could be somewhat vague, we decided to bound the area by two well-known other downtown streets: Canal and 14th Street. So, our formal definition includes approximately a mile in either direction, “South of 14th and North of Canal”. This includes many neighborhoods: both SOHO and NOHO, (South and North of Houston), Nolita, Greenwich Village, East Village, the Lower East Side, and Little Italy, but not Chinatown. So, no Chinese restaurants in our selection even though we have favorites in Chinatown; “Peking Duck”, anyone?
Selection Methodology – Best Restaurants Near Houston Street NYC
We would like to say that we have been to every restaurant that we are recommending on this page. Unfortunately, we can’t yet make that claim. Maybe next year. Anyway, in addition to the restaurants that we have visited, most of the ones we are using are recommendations from Bobby Flay that he and his daughter Sophie visited on their show “Bobby Flay Play List”.
In addition, we make one exception for the two Italian restaurants that we are citing literally on Houston Street. They are highly reviewed, and it seemed that given the inclusion of Little Italy we needed to suggest at least one or two Italian Restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, other than the pizza restaurants in Little Italy and the surrounding area, we find the more classic Italian restaurants on Mulberry Street in Little Italy to be a bit too touristy for our preference.
Best Delicatessen Restaurants Near Houston Street, NYC
When selecting the Best Delicatessen Restaurant Near Houston Street, NYC, this one is a no-brainer. It must be Katz’s Delicatessen, NYC’s oldest deli and most famous restaurant, not just near, but on Houston Street. Located at 205 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002, it is a NYC landmark. You will get great service, but don’t order your pastrami sandwich with mayonnaise like Robin did. You will be ridiculed.
Best Italian Restaurants Near Houston Street, NYC
We haven’t been to either of these two places nor did the Flays recommend them. But they seemed to earmark Houston Street. Both are classic Italian Restaurants, one on East Houston Street and one on West Houston Street. Broadway is the divider between East and West Houston Street. Both should be considered a good choice for Italian food and less touristy than those on Montgomery Street in Little Italy.
Emillo’s Ballato, (55 East Houston Street) Classic Southern Italian. In 1956, John Ballato opened a restaurant in what is now the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan. After more than 60 years, his originally modest dreams have been blown out of the water, as Ballato’s has become one of Manhattan’s heavy hitters in the world of Italian American comfort food.
Song’ E Napule 146 West Houston Street Classic Italian with Brick-oven Pizzas. Being closer to the University (NYU) and featuring their pizza, we would say that Song’ E Napule is a little less expensive and less pretentious than its east-side competitor.
Best Pizza Near Houston Street
We haven’t tried the pizza at Song’ E Napule, but we are betting that it is pretty good. However, given that our defined area includes Little Italy, there is plenty of Italian food to choose from. Selecting the best Italian restaurants that serves the best food and a delicious, large pizza will be a challenge.
According to Bobby Flay, Joe’s Pizza, (7 Carmine Street, West Village) is by far the best pizza in New York City. We won’t disagree with the famous chef. But, we will confirm on our next trip to NYC.
Our current pizza favorite, in Little Italy is Lombardi’s Pizza (32 Spring Street, NY, NY 10012). Lombardi’s claims to be the oldest pizza parlor in NYC. They serve a large coal-fired pizza with a delicious thin crust.
Sophie Flay, Bobby’s Daughter, prefers Emily Pizza, (35 Downing Street, New York, NY). It is in the West Village and serves a “Detroit Style” Pizza.
Detroit Style Pizza
What is a “Detroit-style” pizza? Good question. Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular pan pizza with a thick, crisp, chewy crust. It is traditionally topped to the edges with mozzarella and/or Wisconsin brick cheese, which caramelizes against the high-sided heavyweight rectangular pan. The cheese is cubed and applied directly to the top of the dough, where it bakes up gooey, buttery, and thick in the middle, crispy and dark brown around the edges. On top of the cheese is a sweet, thick tomato sauce, seasoned with plenty of garlic and spices and often applied in heavy parallel bands. The pizza is then baked in a rectangular steel pan.
Best Tuscan Restaurant Near Houston Street
Okay, this restaurant is near the northeast boundary corner of our defined area. Nevertheless, Hearth (403 E 12th St, New York, NY 10009) is a great find with a great atmosphere. It is a fine Tuscan restaurant with a great wine collection at reasonable prices and nice friendly service. Robin and I have been there twice and enjoyed the good food both times.
Best Mexican Restaurant Right on Houston Street
We recommend that the best place to get sophisticated Mexican Food is directly on Houston Street. It is Bar Tulix, at 25 W Houston. It is a Mexican restaurant featuring seafood specialties & a raw bar amid an easygoing atmosphere. Robin and I had a date night here and had a wonderful time and the best food.
Best French Bistro Near Houston Street
The La Sirene Soho is an intimate, romantic, authentic French Bistro. The location is a bit of a challenge to find as it is located near the entrance to the Holland tunnel. Nevertheless, it has beautiful small rooms, with painted flowers on the windows, and is very sunny French. We had the rack of lamb and loved it. Charming.
Best Bar Food Restaurants Near Houston Street
Calling these two restaurants Bar Food Restaurants is a misnomer. However, when you get recognized as one of the top 50 bars in the World, what can we say. They do have great food.
The first is Dante, (79-81 MacDougal St, in Greenwich Village), Dante was recognized as the World’s Best Bar in 2019. Robin and I had a great meal there in 2023 including outstanding gluten-free pasta.
The second is Double Chicken Please (115 Allen St, New York, NY 10002). Double Chicken Please is a Lower East Side restaurant & cocktail bar inspired by the exploration and experimentation of traditional drinks and dishes in the spirit of hacking design. The Coop at Double Chicken Please offers inventive craft cocktails that deconstruct, redefine and rebuild iconic dishes into liquid form such as the Japanese Cold Noodle, Cold Pizza, Key Lime Pie, NY Beet Salad, Mango Sticky Rice and others. Double Chicken Please is a trendy, snug cocktail bar serving finger foods, chicken sandwiches & creative drinks. It is hard to get a reservation, which is quite unusual for a place best known as a bar. So, it must be good. It got rated best bar in the world in 2023.
Another highly rated chicken restaurant is Sweet Chick just off East Houston Street (178 Ludlow Street) in the Lower East Side, a few steps beyond Katz’s Deli. It is highly recommended by Bobby Flay’s daughter, Sophie.
Our final recommended Chicken restaurant near Houston Street is Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken (28 E 1st St, New York, NY 10003), literally a block from East Houston Street. It is recommended by the chef himself, Bobby Flay. Blue Ribbon Chicken is a counter-serve outfit that supplies fried chicken by the piece & chicken sandwiches in bright, roomy digs.
Best Steakhouse Restaurants Near Houston Street
We can’t recommend any Steak Restaurants in our defined “Near Houston Street” area. There are some, but we don’t know anything about them, so we can’t recommend them.
Most of our favorites are up in Midtown, Manhattan. Nevertheless, since the Williamsburg Bridge starts in our defined six-square-mile area, we suggest a short ride across the bridge to the City’s most famous Steakhouse Restaurant, Peter Luger Steak House 179 Broadway, in Brooklyn. Unlike most Steak Houses, it is simple and not overly pretentious. It will present you with a wonderful steak.
Another alternative, again outside our defined boundary, is Bobby Flay’s favorite, Wolfgang’s Steak House at 1359 Broadway (37th Street and Broadway). This is pretentious and expensive, but great steak.
Best Burger Restaurant Near Houston Street
Black Tap Craft Burgers and Beer, formerly in the Lower East Side Neighborhood between Katz’s and Sweet Chick was the closest location of the Downtown Black Tap. However, it is now in the more fashionable SOHO area (529 Broome St, New York, NY 10013). Recommended by Bobby Flay’s daughter, Sophie, this restaurant is said to have the best burgers in lower Manhattan. Sophie’s dad suggests another Burger joint, as the best in New York, JG Melon, but it is on the Upper East Side.
Best Lobster Roll Near Houston Street
According to Bobby Flay, Ed’s Lobster Bar (155 Grand St, New York, NY 10013) in SOHO is the best lobster roll in the city. Ed uses fresh lobster meat brought in daily from Maine and he makes the lobster rolls in true Maine style. Robin, who lived in Maine, says he is the real thing.
Best Vegan Friendly Restaurants Near Houston Street
Unfortunately, we have not been in any vegan-friendly restaurants near Houston Street, NYC that we are aware of. Therefore, we can’t recommend any, nor did bobby Flay. Here is a list of vegan restaurants from timout.com.
Other Restaurant Posts
If you are interested in some of our other restaurant posts, please check out the following posts:
- Bib Gourmand vs. Michelin Star Restaurants
- Ten Most Romantic Restaurants in Cabo
- 19 Best Restaurants in Mid-Coast Maine
- 33 Gluten-free Fast Food Restaurant Menus
