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Latkes with apple sauce and sour cream on a blue plate.
It’s latke season and that means there’s only one question: sour cream or applesauce?
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12 Latkes for Celebrating Hanukkah in NYC

Crispy potato pancakes to fill the stomach and warm the soul

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It’s latke season and that means there’s only one question: sour cream or applesauce?
| Shutterstock

Latkes, or fried potato pancakes, are arguably the centerpiece of any Hanukkah meal. As with most things, the holiday treats are the subject of spirited debate among Jewish families, and many have a strong set of opinions on the matter. In the end, there’s a perfect latke out there for everyone, even on this list of simple or topping-cloaked potato pancakes. Hanukkah this year runs from Thursday, December 07 to Friday, December 15.

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Moss Café

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This kosher, family-owned cafe in Riverdale offers all-day cafe staples like avocado toast, chia pudding, and salad bowls. For Hanukkah, however, the menu offers specials for the Jewish holiday, including a dozen golden-hued latkes served with sides of sour cream and applesauce.

A menu that shows off latkes is available for sit-down dinner from December 7 to 15: Choose from three or six latkes for $25 or $36, with three sides, such as horseradish-za’atar yogurt, smoked salmon, apple sauce, paddlefish caviar, and more.

2nd Ave Deli

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2nd Ave Deli is accepting holiday orders for its recognizably dense potato latkes, which can be paired with a traditional applesauce topping or tofu sour cream. If lone latkes are not enough, tack on an order of the Instant Heart Attack, a sandwich of corned beef, pastrami, turkey, or salami held in place between two latkes instead of bread.

A brick building in New York City with 2nd Ave Deli on the ground floor.
2nd Avenue Deli, home to the Instant Heart Attack.
Eater NY

Mark's Off Madison

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Mark’s Off Madison from Mark Strausman — the chef best known for heading up the kitchen at Barneys restaurant Freds — offers an array of holiday dishes through the year’s end: Among them, you’ll find latkes with applesauce and sour cream ($22) as well as with smoked salmon and sour cream ($28). Estelle’s chicken and matzoh ball soup is also on offer, as well as German soft pretzels with chopped chicken liver and mustard ($24). Pumpkin ravioli will please a vegetarian, with shaved Brussels sprouts, butter, sage, and Parmesan cheese ($33). Mark’s mother’s brisket is also a crowd-pleaser, with sauteed carrots and mashed potatoes ($39). For $14 each, an array of vegetable sides can round out a meal. And don’t miss the jelly doughnuts.

A handsome dining room.
The dining room at Mark’s Off Madison.
Beth Landman/Eater NY

Barbounia

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Hanukkah gets its own menu at this Park Avenue South Mediterranean with dishes from Greece, Morocco, Southern Italy, and France. The menu includes crab and leek latkes and roasted mashwiya, with mint, toasted pine nuts, sumac and tahini ($24). Other dishes range from Jerusalem artichoke soup to Jerusalem lamb tasting with freekeh.

Breads Bakery

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With multiple locations, bakery favorite Breads offers potato latkes, one for $3, five for $13, and 12 for $30, served with sour cream and house-made apple sauce. Pillowy sufganiyot are also available in vanilla, tiramisu, chocolate and strawberry. One is $3.75; a dozen is $37.

Latkes with sour cream and apple sauce on a rectangular plate.
Latkes from Breads Bakery.
Breads Bakery

B&H Dairy

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B&H has been going at it since 1938, so it’s no surprise that the restaurant has its classic, non-nonsense recipe for potato pancakes down. Eat them with apple sauce and sour cream.

A green awning hangs over a New York City sidewalk busy with pedestrians. In a yellow printed font, it reads “Dairy and Vegetarian Food.”
The green awning of B&H advertises “dairy and vegetarian food.”
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Russ & Daughters

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The legends at Russ and Daughters have served traditional potato latkes to generations of customers for Hanukkah each year. No unusual flavors are going on here, but for a classic, golden potato latke served with a dollop of sour cream or applesauce, there’s nothing more fun than ordering from this fourth-generation, family-owned appetizing shop on the Lower East Side. The team also offers 12-pack Goldbelly shipping.

Customers bustle to and fro in front of Russ & Daughters, an old-school delicatessen in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
The Lower East Side location of Russ and Daughters.
Melina Mara/Getty Images

Baz Bagel

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Baz doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither does its latkes. The restaurant offers a couple of different versions of the treat, including Grandma Joyce’s famous potato latkes (you can order orders of three to 24 pieces), served with sour cream and applesauce, and Fancy Pants latkes with salmon roe, sour cream, chives, and additional add-ons. The shop also offers Goldbelly shipping.

Simply Nova

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Simply Nova is Williamsburg’s answer to Russ & Daughters. And that’s no coincidence either. Felix Placencia and Sean Brownlee worked at places, like the NY institution. Hannukah or not, the appetizing shop sells latkes in its prepared foods fridge. For larger orders inquire directly.

Inside of Simply Nova, a bagel shop and delicatessen in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The interior of Simply Nova.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Mile End Delicatessen

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Brooklyn’s Mile End Deli — a Montreal-style deli in Boerum Hill — sells crispy latkes as is, or you can get them stuffed inside an egg and cheese on a roll.

A black sign hangs outside of a restaurant advertising sandwiches in Manhattan’s Noho neighborhood.
Outside of Mile End Delicatessen.
Daniel Krieger/Eater

Shelsky's Brooklyn Bagels

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At both locations of Shelsky’s, customers can find traditional potato latkes sold alongside gluten-free, sweet potato and celery root versions of the dish. A dozen latkes will run you $45.99, but you can also place smaller individual orders online.

Moss Café

This kosher, family-owned cafe in Riverdale offers all-day cafe staples like avocado toast, chia pudding, and salad bowls. For Hanukkah, however, the menu offers specials for the Jewish holiday, including a dozen golden-hued latkes served with sides of sour cream and applesauce.

Dagon

A menu that shows off latkes is available for sit-down dinner from December 7 to 15: Choose from three or six latkes for $25 or $36, with three sides, such as horseradish-za’atar yogurt, smoked salmon, apple sauce, paddlefish caviar, and more.

2nd Ave Deli

2nd Ave Deli is accepting holiday orders for its recognizably dense potato latkes, which can be paired with a traditional applesauce topping or tofu sour cream. If lone latkes are not enough, tack on an order of the Instant Heart Attack, a sandwich of corned beef, pastrami, turkey, or salami held in place between two latkes instead of bread.

A brick building in New York City with 2nd Ave Deli on the ground floor.
2nd Avenue Deli, home to the Instant Heart Attack.
Eater NY

Mark's Off Madison

Mark’s Off Madison from Mark Strausman — the chef best known for heading up the kitchen at Barneys restaurant Freds — offers an array of holiday dishes through the year’s end: Among them, you’ll find latkes with applesauce and sour cream ($22) as well as with smoked salmon and sour cream ($28). Estelle’s chicken and matzoh ball soup is also on offer, as well as German soft pretzels with chopped chicken liver and mustard ($24). Pumpkin ravioli will please a vegetarian, with shaved Brussels sprouts, butter, sage, and Parmesan cheese ($33). Mark’s mother’s brisket is also a crowd-pleaser, with sauteed carrots and mashed potatoes ($39). For $14 each, an array of vegetable sides can round out a meal. And don’t miss the jelly doughnuts.

A handsome dining room.
The dining room at Mark’s Off Madison.
Beth Landman/Eater NY

Barbounia

Hanukkah gets its own menu at this Park Avenue South Mediterranean with dishes from Greece, Morocco, Southern Italy, and France. The menu includes crab and leek latkes and roasted mashwiya, with mint, toasted pine nuts, sumac and tahini ($24). Other dishes range from Jerusalem artichoke soup to Jerusalem lamb tasting with freekeh.

Breads Bakery

With multiple locations, bakery favorite Breads offers potato latkes, one for $3, five for $13, and 12 for $30, served with sour cream and house-made apple sauce. Pillowy sufganiyot are also available in vanilla, tiramisu, chocolate and strawberry. One is $3.75; a dozen is $37.

Latkes with sour cream and apple sauce on a rectangular plate.
Latkes from Breads Bakery.
Breads Bakery

B&H Dairy

B&H has been going at it since 1938, so it’s no surprise that the restaurant has its classic, non-nonsense recipe for potato pancakes down. Eat them with apple sauce and sour cream.

A green awning hangs over a New York City sidewalk busy with pedestrians. In a yellow printed font, it reads “Dairy and Vegetarian Food.”
The green awning of B&H advertises “dairy and vegetarian food.”
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Russ & Daughters

The legends at Russ and Daughters have served traditional potato latkes to generations of customers for Hanukkah each year. No unusual flavors are going on here, but for a classic, golden potato latke served with a dollop of sour cream or applesauce, there’s nothing more fun than ordering from this fourth-generation, family-owned appetizing shop on the Lower East Side. The team also offers 12-pack Goldbelly shipping.

Customers bustle to and fro in front of Russ & Daughters, an old-school delicatessen in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
The Lower East Side location of Russ and Daughters.
Melina Mara/Getty Images

Baz Bagel

Baz doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither does its latkes. The restaurant offers a couple of different versions of the treat, including Grandma Joyce’s famous potato latkes (you can order orders of three to 24 pieces), served with sour cream and applesauce, and Fancy Pants latkes with salmon roe, sour cream, chives, and additional add-ons. The shop also offers Goldbelly shipping.

Simply Nova

Simply Nova is Williamsburg’s answer to Russ & Daughters. And that’s no coincidence either. Felix Placencia and Sean Brownlee worked at places, like the NY institution. Hannukah or not, the appetizing shop sells latkes in its prepared foods fridge. For larger orders inquire directly.

Inside of Simply Nova, a bagel shop and delicatessen in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The interior of Simply Nova.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Mile End Delicatessen

Brooklyn’s Mile End Deli — a Montreal-style deli in Boerum Hill — sells crispy latkes as is, or you can get them stuffed inside an egg and cheese on a roll.

A black sign hangs outside of a restaurant advertising sandwiches in Manhattan’s Noho neighborhood.
Outside of Mile End Delicatessen.
Daniel Krieger/Eater

Shelsky's Brooklyn Bagels

At both locations of Shelsky’s, customers can find traditional potato latkes sold alongside gluten-free, sweet potato and celery root versions of the dish. A dozen latkes will run you $45.99, but you can also place smaller individual orders online.

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