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The bandeja paisa meat platter sits in the middle of the overhead photo; to the top left lies a corn and beef empanada; a spicy chicken arepa sits at the lower left-hand side of the photo
Empanada Mama is among the handful of restaurants that remain open 24/7.
Gary He/Eater NY

Where to Eat Late Night in NYC

Korean barbecue, suadero tacos, breakfast burritos, and plates of hash browns are still served around the clock — if you know where to look

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Empanada Mama is among the handful of restaurants that remain open 24/7.
| Gary He/Eater NY

New York was, at one point, the city that never sleeps. Those words don’t carry quite as much heft as they used to — a number of establishments that previously operated around the clock have dialed back their hours during the pandemic — but the city’s late-night dining scene isn’t dead yet. This guide of mostly 24-hour restaurants, and a few notable spots that stay open until at least 4 a.m., includes Mexican bakeries, old-school doughnut shops, birria taco trucks, and a few rowdy Korean barbecue spots.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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Floridita

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Open since 1995, this Cuban Dominican restaurant in Washington Heights continues to draw crowds around the clock with its bistec, rotisserie chicken, and many mofongos. Floridita is best known for its Cuban sandwich, served 24 hours and consisting of a fat stack of ham, pork roast, pickles, and Swiss cheese on crispy bread. There’s a second location in Inwood with the same hours.

A row of stools on the left, tables on the right.
Floridita’s interior combines a lunch counter and nightclub.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Taco Mix

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Taco Mix is known for its al pastor — crimson and crispy pork meat that’s shaved from the spit with roast pineapple and salsa. But there are more than a dozen other meats that can be stuffed into tacos until 4 a.m., including tripe, lengua, suadero, goat barbacoa, and carnitas. The original location is in East Harlem, open since 1991, and there’s a second outpost in Sunset Park that closes much earlier.

Tacos at Taco Mix Lower East Side.
Tacos come with a choice of over a dozen meats.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Empanada Mama

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If New York City has one restaurant that never sleeps, it’s Empanada Mama. After scaling back its hours during the pandemic, the Hell’s Kitchen favorite is once again serving its nourishing Colombian fare 24 hours a day. Highlights include a classic South American breakfast of beans and rice with eggs, actually spicy arepas, chicken soup studded with cilantro and rice, frozen margaritas, and stellar corn empanadas (try the ones filled with shellfish or beef).

A golden Viagra empanada sits on wax paper, sliced in half, on the lower right-hand side of the photo, while a whole empanada lies on the upper left; a ramekin of green salsa sits in between
Empanadas are served around the clock at Empanada Mama.
Gary He/Eater NY

Sammy's Halal Food

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Sure, there are halal carts stationed across the city, but few do it better than Sammy’s. This food cart with a second location in Greenwich Village serves high-quality, reasonably priced halal food 24 hours a day. Chicken and gyro sandwiches, wrapped up in pita, are priced between $7 and $8, while platters with rice, salad, and additional meat are available for a few dollars more.

Two halves of a chicken shawarma sandwich at Sammy’s Halal Food.
The chicken shawarma sandwich at Sammy’s Halal Food.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Baekjeong NYC

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There are Korean barbecue spots that stay open later — Miss Korea, a three-story restaurant one block over, is 24/7 — but Baekjeong is our favorite after-hours spot in the area because of its rowdy vibes and quality cuts of meat. Banchan are unending, and meats are prepared on a tabletop grill with compartments for cheese corn, which can also be ordered separately as a massive slab in a cast iron skillet, and cooked egg. Open until 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

A table at a Korean barbecue restaurant is busy with cheese corn, meats, and banchan.
Cheese corn and overcooked meats at Baekjeong.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Court Square Diner

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Not much has changed at Court Square Diner since brothers Steve and Nick Kanellos started running the joint in 1991, even as Long Island City has welcomed glitzy food halls and developments to the neighborhood. The 24-hour diner serves a standard, multi-page diner menu with Jello, 15 different omelets, and hulking hero sandwiches.

Malibu Diner

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What is it about diner fare that makes it so easy to digest late in the evening? You got your burger and fries, your meat loaf with mashed potatoes, Greek spinach pie — and nowadays all sorts of Italian and Latin dishes to choose from. And then there’s that rotating case of lemon meringue pie, Boston creme pie, and plain old apple pie — it’s a virtual pietopia! Open 24/7

Coppelia

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Coppelia, an assuming luncheonette that stays open 24/7, has been holding down Chelsea’s late-night food scene for more than a decade. The menu leans Mexican and Cuban, but also look out for oxtail empanadas, lomo saltado, and other dishes that draw from the Caribbean and Central and South America. Breakfast is served all day.

Runny eggs exceedingly yellow and bright white broken up on tortillas.
Huevos rancheros from Coppelia.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Gen Korean BBQ House

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Gen Korean BBQ House is New York’s first outpost of a California-based chain, and its calling card is a massive menu of all-you-can-eat meats and appetizers available until 4 a.m. every day. For around $35, pick among 40 different options — intestine, pork belly, bulgogi, and more — and eat as much as you can in the allotted two-hour time limit. Fewer terms and conditions apply than you might think: Leftover food incurs a charge, and there’s no liquor license for now.

Two hands wielding chopsticks grab at meats cooking on a tabletop grill.
A fight for marinated pork belly at Gen Korean BBQ House.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Papaya Dog

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Papaya Dog is one of those brightly lit corner tube steak places with variable names that used to be much more common. The fare is comically limited to hot dogs, hamburgers, and the stray fish sandwich — no vegetable has ever been known to cross the threshold. And the cheese flows like a molten river of lava 24 hours a day.

A hand hold a corn dog with a dab of mustard.
Yes, you can get a corn dog at Papaya Dog, 24/7.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Mamoun's Falafel

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Some five decades after opening in Greenwich Village, Mamoun’s Falafel continues to serve one of the city’s most iconic late-night meals. Lamb shawarma, baklava, and the restaurant’s namesake falafel sandwiches (around $6 each) are available until 3 a.m. on Thursdays and 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The exterior of Mamoun’s Macdougal Street shop, with a brown-and-white striped awning.
NYU students hang around the original Mamoun’s on MacDougal.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

The Donut Pub

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Yes, Chelsea’s original Donut Pub is closed due to a structural building mishap, but its newer and glitzier location over in the Village is still zooming along on its way, open 24 hours for those in need of a sugar rush in the wee hours. Hint: Ignore all the newfangled doughnuts with their Day-Glo colors and head for the good old jelly doughnut, though you’ll walk away covered in powdered sugar.

A donut cut in half with oozing red jelly.
Go for the jelly doughnut at the Donut Pub.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Dim Sum Palace

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More than 50 types of dim sum are on offer at Dim Sum Palace, a small chain of restaurants that recently opened in Manhattan Chinatown. It’s one of few places in the area to stay open past midnight, and the food would be good at any hour. Pick among barbecue pork buns and roast duck spring rolls, or order larger plates to share, like whole lobster with ginger and scallion

or snails with celery and hot peppers.

A table is crowded with various dim sum, including chicken feet, stuffed eggplant, and spring rolls.
Dim Sum Palace stays open until 4 a.m. every day.
Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet/Eater NY

Kellogg's Diner

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True, New Yorkers can now order Kellogg’s from one of 18 or more virtual restaurants operating out of this 24/7 diner, but there’s nothing like a meal here in the middle of the night, when construction workers, taxi drivers, and drunken hipsters bump elbows at leather booths. The food is... fine, priced for Williamsburg, and probably in need of some hot sauce, but be warned that even at 5 a.m., a table for four here can command a wait.

A biker passed in front of Kellogg’s Diner, a decades-old restaurant on the corner of Metropolitan and Union avenues in Williamsburg.
Outside of Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg.
Rob Kim/Getty Images

Peter's Crunchy Red Tacos

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Remember birria? Peter’s Crunchy Red Tacos was one of the first on the scene, differentiating itself with tacos oranger than most and late-night hours catering to Bushwick’s nightlife. Birria can be ordered in taco form, as a mulita, or in a fat-dipped tortilla with cheese — or as a meal with all three and a cup of consomé for around $15. The torta birria, a smashed sandwich with griddled meat, is a certified gut-buster.

A stack of red mulitas in a rectangular metal container with a plastic container of red soup on the side.
Cheesy mulitas from Peter’s Crunchy Red Tacos.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

La Isla

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Dubbed one of the “coolest spots to be seen” in Bushwick by Eater critic Robert Sietsema, Puerto Rican mainstay La Isla specializes in blood sausage, pig ear, pernil, and a handful of other pork-based snacks served 24 hours a day. The late-night lunch counter also boasts an impressive selection of juices, including tamarind and grape flavors.

Customers sit at a long diner countertop on bar stools. Above them, a white menu advertises a lengthy menu of food items.
Bushwick’s La Isla — there are others scattered around town.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hadramout Restaurant

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Big portions of Yemeni cuisine are the calling card at this 24-hour restaurant, sandwiched between Clinton and Court streets on Atlantic Avenue’s heavily Middle Eastern corridor. Open since 1996, the sparse subterranean space with a few tables turns out solid lamb dishes (in stews, sandwiches, and more) and piquant spreads, with huge rounds of bread to scoop and dip in everything.

Girasol Bakery

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This South Slope bakery with a cafeteria-like dining room churns out huaraches, cemitas, and other Mexican dishes 24 hours a day. There’s a vending machine stocked with Takis, Hot Cheetos, and Flamin’ Hot chips at the back of the space, and a pastry case lined with colorful pan dulce up front. From the grill, try the breakfast burrito, a unique version of the dish made with hunks of whole potato, scrambled egg, and American cheese.

A hand clutches a breakfast burrito filled with chunks of potato, sausage, and American cheese from Girasol Bakery in South Slope, Brooklyn.
The breakfast burrito at Girasol Bakery is good any time of day.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Sunset Park Diner & Donuts

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Bordering Green-Wood Cemetery is Sunset Park Diner & Doughnuts, a corner restaurant that stays open 24 hours. Slide into a booth by the window and order from a wide-reaching menu that lists fish and chips, fettuccine alfredo, chicken tacos, and disco fries. Doughnuts are made on-premises and cost around two dollars each; crullers and “fancy donuts” cost a dollar more. Cash only.

Lahori Chilli

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Calling Lahori — named after Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city — a cabbie hang catches the vibe, but it doesn’t describe the vast range of its offerings or its customers. They dash in for a samosa, a plate of haleem or chicken curry, or even just a chickpea-dotted salad. Lots of vegetarian main courses, too, many involving spinach, bitter melon, summer squash, or lentils. Open 24 hours.

A zingy orange storefront with a lady in a sari walking in front.
Lahori Chilli is open 24 hours.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Floridita

Open since 1995, this Cuban Dominican restaurant in Washington Heights continues to draw crowds around the clock with its bistec, rotisserie chicken, and many mofongos. Floridita is best known for its Cuban sandwich, served 24 hours and consisting of a fat stack of ham, pork roast, pickles, and Swiss cheese on crispy bread. There’s a second location in Inwood with the same hours.

A row of stools on the left, tables on the right.
Floridita’s interior combines a lunch counter and nightclub.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Taco Mix

Taco Mix is known for its al pastor — crimson and crispy pork meat that’s shaved from the spit with roast pineapple and salsa. But there are more than a dozen other meats that can be stuffed into tacos until 4 a.m., including tripe, lengua, suadero, goat barbacoa, and carnitas. The original location is in East Harlem, open since 1991, and there’s a second outpost in Sunset Park that closes much earlier.

Tacos at Taco Mix Lower East Side.
Tacos come with a choice of over a dozen meats.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Empanada Mama

If New York City has one restaurant that never sleeps, it’s Empanada Mama. After scaling back its hours during the pandemic, the Hell’s Kitchen favorite is once again serving its nourishing Colombian fare 24 hours a day. Highlights include a classic South American breakfast of beans and rice with eggs, actually spicy arepas, chicken soup studded with cilantro and rice, frozen margaritas, and stellar corn empanadas (try the ones filled with shellfish or beef).

A golden Viagra empanada sits on wax paper, sliced in half, on the lower right-hand side of the photo, while a whole empanada lies on the upper left; a ramekin of green salsa sits in between
Empanadas are served around the clock at Empanada Mama.
Gary He/Eater NY

Sammy's Halal Food

Sure, there are halal carts stationed across the city, but few do it better than Sammy’s. This food cart with a second location in Greenwich Village serves high-quality, reasonably priced halal food 24 hours a day. Chicken and gyro sandwiches, wrapped up in pita, are priced between $7 and $8, while platters with rice, salad, and additional meat are available for a few dollars more.

Two halves of a chicken shawarma sandwich at Sammy’s Halal Food.
The chicken shawarma sandwich at Sammy’s Halal Food.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Baekjeong NYC

There are Korean barbecue spots that stay open later — Miss Korea, a three-story restaurant one block over, is 24/7 — but Baekjeong is our favorite after-hours spot in the area because of its rowdy vibes and quality cuts of meat. Banchan are unending, and meats are prepared on a tabletop grill with compartments for cheese corn, which can also be ordered separately as a massive slab in a cast iron skillet, and cooked egg. Open until 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

A table at a Korean barbecue restaurant is busy with cheese corn, meats, and banchan.
Cheese corn and overcooked meats at Baekjeong.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Court Square Diner

Not much has changed at Court Square Diner since brothers Steve and Nick Kanellos started running the joint in 1991, even as Long Island City has welcomed glitzy food halls and developments to the neighborhood. The 24-hour diner serves a standard, multi-page diner menu with Jello, 15 different omelets, and hulking hero sandwiches.

Malibu Diner

What is it about diner fare that makes it so easy to digest late in the evening? You got your burger and fries, your meat loaf with mashed potatoes, Greek spinach pie — and nowadays all sorts of Italian and Latin dishes to choose from. And then there’s that rotating case of lemon meringue pie, Boston creme pie, and plain old apple pie — it’s a virtual pietopia! Open 24/7

Coppelia

Coppelia, an assuming luncheonette that stays open 24/7, has been holding down Chelsea’s late-night food scene for more than a decade. The menu leans Mexican and Cuban, but also look out for oxtail empanadas, lomo saltado, and other dishes that draw from the Caribbean and Central and South America. Breakfast is served all day.

Runny eggs exceedingly yellow and bright white broken up on tortillas.
Huevos rancheros from Coppelia.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Gen Korean BBQ House

Gen Korean BBQ House is New York’s first outpost of a California-based chain, and its calling card is a massive menu of all-you-can-eat meats and appetizers available until 4 a.m. every day. For around $35, pick among 40 different options — intestine, pork belly, bulgogi, and more — and eat as much as you can in the allotted two-hour time limit. Fewer terms and conditions apply than you might think: Leftover food incurs a charge, and there’s no liquor license for now.

Two hands wielding chopsticks grab at meats cooking on a tabletop grill.
A fight for marinated pork belly at Gen Korean BBQ House.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Papaya Dog

Papaya Dog is one of those brightly lit corner tube steak places with variable names that used to be much more common. The fare is comically limited to hot dogs, hamburgers, and the stray fish sandwich — no vegetable has ever been known to cross the threshold. And the cheese flows like a molten river of lava 24 hours a day.

A hand hold a corn dog with a dab of mustard.
Yes, you can get a corn dog at Papaya Dog, 24/7.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Mamoun's Falafel

Some five decades after opening in Greenwich Village, Mamoun’s Falafel continues to serve one of the city’s most iconic late-night meals. Lamb shawarma, baklava, and the restaurant’s namesake falafel sandwiches (around $6 each) are available until 3 a.m. on Thursdays and 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The exterior of Mamoun’s Macdougal Street shop, with a brown-and-white striped awning.
NYU students hang around the original Mamoun’s on MacDougal.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

The Donut Pub

Yes, Chelsea’s original Donut Pub is closed due to a structural building mishap, but its newer and glitzier location over in the Village is still zooming along on its way, open 24 hours for those in need of a sugar rush in the wee hours. Hint: Ignore all the newfangled doughnuts with their Day-Glo colors and head for the good old jelly doughnut, though you’ll walk away covered in powdered sugar.

A donut cut in half with oozing red jelly.
Go for the jelly doughnut at the Donut Pub.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Dim Sum Palace

More than 50 types of dim sum are on offer at Dim Sum Palace, a small chain of restaurants that recently opened in Manhattan Chinatown. It’s one of few places in the area to stay open past midnight, and the food would be good at any hour. Pick among barbecue pork buns and roast duck spring rolls, or order larger plates to share, like whole lobster with ginger and scallion

or snails with celery and hot peppers.

A table is crowded with various dim sum, including chicken feet, stuffed eggplant, and spring rolls.
Dim Sum Palace stays open until 4 a.m. every day.
Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet/Eater NY

Kellogg's Diner

True, New Yorkers can now order Kellogg’s from one of 18 or more virtual restaurants operating out of this 24/7 diner, but there’s nothing like a meal here in the middle of the night, when construction workers, taxi drivers, and drunken hipsters bump elbows at leather booths. The food is... fine, priced for Williamsburg, and probably in need of some hot sauce, but be warned that even at 5 a.m., a table for four here can command a wait.

A biker passed in front of Kellogg’s Diner, a decades-old restaurant on the corner of Metropolitan and Union avenues in Williamsburg.
Outside of Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg.
Rob Kim/Getty Images

Peter's Crunchy Red Tacos

Remember birria? Peter’s Crunchy Red Tacos was one of the first on the scene, differentiating itself with tacos oranger than most and late-night hours catering to Bushwick’s nightlife. Birria can be ordered in taco form, as a mulita, or in a fat-dipped tortilla with cheese — or as a meal with all three and a cup of consomé for around $15. The torta birria, a smashed sandwich with griddled meat, is a certified gut-buster.

A stack of red mulitas in a rectangular metal container with a plastic container of red soup on the side.
Cheesy mulitas from Peter’s Crunchy Red Tacos.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Related Maps

La Isla

Dubbed one of the “coolest spots to be seen” in Bushwick by Eater critic Robert Sietsema, Puerto Rican mainstay La Isla specializes in blood sausage, pig ear, pernil, and a handful of other pork-based snacks served 24 hours a day. The late-night lunch counter also boasts an impressive selection of juices, including tamarind and grape flavors.

Customers sit at a long diner countertop on bar stools. Above them, a white menu advertises a lengthy menu of food items.
Bushwick’s La Isla — there are others scattered around town.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hadramout Restaurant

Big portions of Yemeni cuisine are the calling card at this 24-hour restaurant, sandwiched between Clinton and Court streets on Atlantic Avenue’s heavily Middle Eastern corridor. Open since 1996, the sparse subterranean space with a few tables turns out solid lamb dishes (in stews, sandwiches, and more) and piquant spreads, with huge rounds of bread to scoop and dip in everything.

Girasol Bakery

This South Slope bakery with a cafeteria-like dining room churns out huaraches, cemitas, and other Mexican dishes 24 hours a day. There’s a vending machine stocked with Takis, Hot Cheetos, and Flamin’ Hot chips at the back of the space, and a pastry case lined with colorful pan dulce up front. From the grill, try the breakfast burrito, a unique version of the dish made with hunks of whole potato, scrambled egg, and American cheese.

A hand clutches a breakfast burrito filled with chunks of potato, sausage, and American cheese from Girasol Bakery in South Slope, Brooklyn.
The breakfast burrito at Girasol Bakery is good any time of day.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Sunset Park Diner & Donuts

Bordering Green-Wood Cemetery is Sunset Park Diner & Doughnuts, a corner restaurant that stays open 24 hours. Slide into a booth by the window and order from a wide-reaching menu that lists fish and chips, fettuccine alfredo, chicken tacos, and disco fries. Doughnuts are made on-premises and cost around two dollars each; crullers and “fancy donuts” cost a dollar more. Cash only.

Lahori Chilli

Calling Lahori — named after Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city — a cabbie hang catches the vibe, but it doesn’t describe the vast range of its offerings or its customers. They dash in for a samosa, a plate of haleem or chicken curry, or even just a chickpea-dotted salad. Lots of vegetarian main courses, too, many involving spinach, bitter melon, summer squash, or lentils. Open 24 hours.

A zingy orange storefront with a lady in a sari walking in front.
Lahori Chilli is open 24 hours.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Related Maps