clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
More Maps

The Hottest New Bars in New York City, December 2023

The Hottest New Restaurants in Queens, December 2023

The Hottest New Restaurants in Brooklyn, December 2023

More in New York See more maps
A spread of dishes on plates and metal trays at Le Coucou. Photo by Nick Solares

17 Luxurious NYC Restaurants to Woo a Client

Flambéed ducks, dry-aged steak, and endless white cloth

by Paul Schrodt
View as Map
by Paul Schrodt
Photo by Nick Solares

Picking the right environment for a business meal is critical. The atmosphere should be comfortable and relaxed, yet subtly — or overtly — showy and signal that everyone’s time is worth spending extra. And, of course, the food should be top-notch, too. Here are New York restaurants to wine and dine a client.

Read More
Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process. If you buy something or book a reservation from an Eater link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics policy.

Boulud Sud

Copy Link

Theater dining suddenly looked less staid with the opening of Daniel Boulud’s Mediterranean restaurant near Lincoln Center in 2011, peddling welcome visions of the south of France and Greece inside its expansive space with an open kitchen on 64th Street. Crispy zucchini and cured anchovies round out bright entrees like the Sicilian grilled yellowfin tuna accompanied by squid. The desserts, especially the art museum-worthy grapefruit givré, are just as worthwhile.

20 W 64th St, New York, NY 10023
(212) 595-1313
(212) 595-1313
Boulud Sud Photo: Boulud Sud

Also featured in:

Marea

Copy Link

Michael White’s Michelin-starred Italian flagship on Central Park South remains a place to ogle the well-heeled customers along with the immaculately executed regional dishes. The fusilli pasta with octopus and bone marrow is an acidic, umami-packing modern classic.

240 Central Park S, New York, NY 10019
(212) 582-5100
(212) 582-5100
Nick Solares

Also featured in:

Le Bernardin

Copy Link

Not content to rest on the laurels of its unbroken four-star New York Times rating, Le Bernardin underwent a major design overhaul in 2011 that won a James Beard Award. Chef Eric Ripert still stuns with varied, ultra-refined French preparations of seafood that can be enjoyed in the dining room, decorated with a dramatic and massive oceanic painting, or the lounge area.

155 W 51st St, New York, NY 10019
(212) 554-1515
(212) 554-1515
Le Bernardin’s dining room has a floral arrangement in the middle with white flowers, plus tables with white tablecloths Photo by Daniel Krieger

Also featured in:

Keens Steakhouse

Copy Link

The standard bearer of old-school New York steakhouses, if not the chicest, will entice those with a sense of history. Established in 1885, the two-level restaurant excels at a certain gruff charm, with practically ancient pipes hanging from the ceiling and servers who are professional but not coddling. Even better than the top-notch porterhouse is the rarely seen mutton chop. Add raw oysters and the blue cheese dressing-drenched wedge salad.

72 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018
(212) 947-3636
(212) 947-3636
A mutton chop on a white plate with salad, surrounded by a knife and fork on a white tableclothed table. Nick Solares

Also featured in:

The NoMad Restaurant

Copy Link

A series of low-lit, gorgeously appointed rooms off a glass-ceilinged atrium, the NoMad Hotel’s signature restaurant is suited for hours and hours of lingering. The star of the menu is the $94 roast chicken for two, a decadent affair laced with foie gras, black truffle, and chanterelles.

1170 Broadway, New York, NY 10001
(212) 796-1500
(212) 796-1500
The NoMad Photo by Nick Solares

Cote Korean Steakhouse

Copy Link

A steakhouse visit has become perfunctory for work meetings, but the Korean-style Cote provides just the right twist. Prime beef is aged for up to months in a downstairs cooler and then placed onto the table grill for a theatrical, unapologetically carnivorous experience. The butcher’s feast gives a smart sampling of the highlights, from banchan to dessert.

16 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10010
(212) 401-7986
(212) 401-7986
A variety of meats sear over a tabletop grill at Cote Photo by Daniel Krieger

Also featured in:

Cosme

Copy Link

Mexican food, so often humbly served in Manhattan, gets a deserved upscale tweak at Flatiron’s Cosme, whose chef Enrique Olvera brings flavors of the United States’ southern neighbor to locally and seasonally sourced ingredients. Dishes in the woody, minimalist dining room include uni tostada, razor clams dressed in green chorizo, duck carnitas, and a much-lauded corn husk meringue dessert.

35 E 21st St, New York, NY 10010
(212) 913-9659
(212) 913-9659
Cosme Meringue Daniel Krieger

Also featured in:

Gramercy Tavern

Copy Link

A mainstay in Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, Gramercy Tavern still hits high marks for next-level, no-tipping service along with impeccably sourced and crafted American dishes courtesy of chef Michael Anthony. A $129 three-course menu is offered in the back dining room, while the more approachable but still elegant tavern with its long, gleaming bar offers items à la carte.

42 E 20th St, New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-0777
(212) 477-0777
White tablecloth tables in a dark dining room Photography by Paul Crispin Quitoriano

Also featured in:

Don Angie

Copy Link

The red-sauce resurgence is complete with Don Angie, a temple to hearty Italian-American eating in a luxe West Village setting with huge windows and a marble bar. Chefs Angela Rito and Scott Tacinelli intelligently rethink standards, as in prosciutto and melon dressed with tamarind and hazelnut or a caesar salad that utilizes chrysanthemum and sesame.

103 Greenwich Ave, New York, NY 10014
(212) 889-8884
(212) 889-8884
The garganelli at Don Angie Photo via Don Angie/Facebook

Also featured in:

The Beatrice Inn

Copy Link

If burning through an expense account is the objective, the Beatrice Inn is more than happy to oblige. The meat-focused restaurant in a former nightclub is dripping with old glamour, from its zebra painting and leather trim to the excess-forward menu. Chef-owner Angie Mar piles an impossible amount of raw seafood on the market-price Grand Coquillage platter, and $120 roast duck is flambéed and served with cherry jus.

285 W 12th St, New York, NY 10014
(212) 675-2808
(212) 675-2808
Rows of tables and chairs are organized in the dimly lit dining room of a white tablecloth restaurant. At the end of the dining room, a large photo of a zebra hangs on the wall. The Beatrice Inn

Also featured in:

4 Charles Prime Rib

Copy Link

This tiny, speakeasy-style steakhouse hidden in a West Village townhouse is decked out with brown leather banquettes and bottles of top-shelf liquor awash in sexy low lighting. From Chicago’s Hogsalt restaurant group, the prime rib is a thing of bleeding beauty, and at $69 for the trimmer Chicago cut, pricey enough to make even the most generous accounting department tremble. More sensible is the $20 double-decker cheeseburger, minimally adorned with pickles, onions, and American cheese. Reservations before 11 p.m. are hard to snag, but those finance concierges have pull.

3004, 4 Charles St, New York, NY 10014
(212) 561-5992
(212) 561-5992
A knife impales a burger, which features two thin, griddled, four-ounce patties, Kraft American cheese, Dijonnaise, and pickles Photo by Nick Solares

Shuko

Copy Link

New York’s vibrant omakase-style sushi dining has a new standout in Shuko, a small, brick-walled fish palace with modern music near Union Square. Diners put themselves in the hands of chefs and Masa veterans Nick Kim and Jimmy Lau with the $155 sushi tasting or the more composed $195 kaiseki menu. Dinners might include fatty toro tuna, trout skin dotted with uni and trout roe, or lobster with mushroom and cauliflower.

47 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003
(212) 228-6088
(212) 228-6088
A slice of pink fatty tuna, marbled with fat, sits over a small mound of rice. Daniel Krieger

Also featured in:

Momofuku Ssäm Bar

Copy Link

No, it isn’t the fanciest in David Chang’s restaurant empire, but Ssäm Bar is perhaps the most agreed upon, for good reason. While a no-nonsense staff hustles diners to their crammed table and through a quick dinner, once dishes both mammoth and petite arrive, a reverent silence takes over. In addition to starters with outrageous flavors spanning the globe, the surest bet for a group is the whole-roasted fish ssäm, with flakes of fall-apart tender seafood wrapped in lettuce, herbs, and funky ginger-scallion sauce.

East 13th Street, 207 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003
(212) 254-3500
(212) 254-3500
Momofuku Ssam Bar Photo via Momofuku Ssam Bar/Facebook

Also featured in:

Carbone

Copy Link

Major Food Group’s ostentatious red sauce-style Italian-American joint feels like a nod to a mid-20th-century New York restaurant that never really existed, but probably should have. The tile floor mimics The Godfather, and servers wear maroon tuxedos like they stepped out of the latest Martin Scorsese production. Dishes are equally over-the-top, and just as fun and delightful. Get the famously giant bone-in veal parm, enough to feed the most voracious, overworked team.

181 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012
(212) 254-3000
(212) 254-3000
A blue-walled dining room with white table-clothed tables. Photo: Daniel Krieger

Also featured in:

King

Copy Link

Despite the royal name, King’s large-windowed, white-walled space is a modestly inviting escape amid Soho, turning out meticulously executed variations on southern French and Italian cuisine. Chefs Jess Shadbolt and Clare de Boer change up the routine daily, from hulking chickpea fritters fragrant with sage to halibut with artichoke hearts.

18 King St, New York, NY 10014
(917) 825-1618
(917) 825-1618
A sunny dining room with white tablecloth tables Photo: Nick Solares

Also featured in:

More in Maps

China Blue

Copy Link

China Blue mixes sophisticated renditions of Shanghainese specialties with a fashionable, airy design in a high-ceilinged Tribeca space blocks from the Holland Tunnel. Downtown workers can indulge in salt and pepper fish fillet, steamed whole bass, and housemade dim sum including pan-fried pork buns and shumai filled with shiitake mushroom and sausage. Wife-husband owners Yiming Wang and Xian Zhang also own the Michelin-starred Cafe China.

135 Watts St, New York, NY 10013
(212) 431-0111
(212) 431-0111
Photo via China Blue/Facebook

Also featured in:

Le Coucou

Copy Link

Inside the hushed, white-hued confines of Le Coucou, it might seem as if New York dining never went through its recession-era humbling. Chef Daniel Rose, who opened the Soho establishment after winning acclaim in Paris, veers toward saucy and rich without ever losing sight of ingredients. The quenelle de brochet, a delicate pillow of fish, and the whole rabbit are worth their hefty price tags.

138 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013
(212) 271-4252
(212) 271-4252
A spread of dishes on plates and metal trays at Le Coucou. Photo by Nick Solares

Also featured in:

Augustine

Copy Link

Epic restaurateur Keith McNally’s business district venture in the Beekman Hotel features all of his signatures: glowy gold lighting, red banquettes, and classic French bistro fare. Best of all, Augustine doesn’t feel like a FiDi restaurant, which is why it’s the ideal setting for a client meal. Avoid the too-pricey steakhouses that dominate the neighborhood and instead opt for steak tartare, rotisserie chicken, or dry-aged strip.

5 Beekman St, New York, NY 10038
(212) 375-0010
(212) 375-0010
Augustine Nick Solares

Also featured in:

More in Maps

© 2023 Vox Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Link copied to the clipboard.

Boulud Sud

20 W 64th St, New York, NY 10023

Theater dining suddenly looked less staid with the opening of Daniel Boulud’s Mediterranean restaurant near Lincoln Center in 2011, peddling welcome visions of the south of France and Greece inside its expansive space with an open kitchen on 64th Street. Crispy zucchini and cured anchovies round out bright entrees like the Sicilian grilled yellowfin tuna accompanied by squid. The desserts, especially the art museum-worthy grapefruit givré, are just as worthwhile.

20 W 64th St, New York, NY 10023
(212) 595-1313
(212) 595-1313
Boulud Sud Photo: Boulud Sud

Marea

240 Central Park S, New York, NY 10019

Michael White’s Michelin-starred Italian flagship on Central Park South remains a place to ogle the well-heeled customers along with the immaculately executed regional dishes. The fusilli pasta with octopus and bone marrow is an acidic, umami-packing modern classic.

240 Central Park S, New York, NY 10019
(212) 582-5100
(212) 582-5100
Nick Solares

Le Bernardin

155 W 51st St, New York, NY 10019

Not content to rest on the laurels of its unbroken four-star New York Times rating, Le Bernardin underwent a major design overhaul in 2011 that won a James Beard Award. Chef Eric Ripert still stuns with varied, ultra-refined French preparations of seafood that can be enjoyed in the dining room, decorated with a dramatic and massive oceanic painting, or the lounge area.

155 W 51st St, New York, NY 10019
(212) 554-1515
(212) 554-1515
Le Bernardin’s dining room has a floral arrangement in the middle with white flowers, plus tables with white tablecloths Photo by Daniel Krieger

Keens Steakhouse

72 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018

The standard bearer of old-school New York steakhouses, if not the chicest, will entice those with a sense of history. Established in 1885, the two-level restaurant excels at a certain gruff charm, with practically ancient pipes hanging from the ceiling and servers who are professional but not coddling. Even better than the top-notch porterhouse is the rarely seen mutton chop. Add raw oysters and the blue cheese dressing-drenched wedge salad.

72 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018
(212) 947-3636
(212) 947-3636
A mutton chop on a white plate with salad, surrounded by a knife and fork on a white tableclothed table. Nick Solares

The NoMad Restaurant

1170 Broadway, New York, NY 10001

A series of low-lit, gorgeously appointed rooms off a glass-ceilinged atrium, the NoMad Hotel’s signature restaurant is suited for hours and hours of lingering. The star of the menu is the $94 roast chicken for two, a decadent affair laced with foie gras, black truffle, and chanterelles.

1170 Broadway, New York, NY 10001
(212) 796-1500
(212) 796-1500
The NoMad Photo by Nick Solares

Cote Korean Steakhouse

16 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10010

A steakhouse visit has become perfunctory for work meetings, but the Korean-style Cote provides just the right twist. Prime beef is aged for up to months in a downstairs cooler and then placed onto the table grill for a theatrical, unapologetically carnivorous experience. The butcher’s feast gives a smart sampling of the highlights, from banchan to dessert.

16 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10010
(212) 401-7986
(212) 401-7986
A variety of meats sear over a tabletop grill at Cote Photo by Daniel Krieger

Cosme

35 E 21st St, New York, NY 10010

Mexican food, so often humbly served in Manhattan, gets a deserved upscale tweak at Flatiron’s Cosme, whose chef Enrique Olvera brings flavors of the United States’ southern neighbor to locally and seasonally sourced ingredients. Dishes in the woody, minimalist dining room include uni tostada, razor clams dressed in green chorizo, duck carnitas, and a much-lauded corn husk meringue dessert.

35 E 21st St, New York, NY 10010
(212) 913-9659
(212) 913-9659
Cosme Meringue Daniel Krieger

Gramercy Tavern

42 E 20th St, New York, NY 10003

A mainstay in Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, Gramercy Tavern still hits high marks for next-level, no-tipping service along with impeccably sourced and crafted American dishes courtesy of chef Michael Anthony. A $129 three-course menu is offered in the back dining room, while the more approachable but still elegant tavern with its long, gleaming bar offers items à la carte.

42 E 20th St, New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-0777
(212) 477-0777
White tablecloth tables in a dark dining room Photography by Paul Crispin Quitoriano

Don Angie

103 Greenwich Ave, New York, NY 10014

The red-sauce resurgence is complete with Don Angie, a temple to hearty Italian-American eating in a luxe West Village setting with huge windows and a marble bar. Chefs Angela Rito and Scott Tacinelli intelligently rethink standards, as in prosciutto and melon dressed with tamarind and hazelnut or a caesar salad that utilizes chrysanthemum and sesame.

103 Greenwich Ave, New York, NY 10014
(212) 889-8884
(212) 889-8884
The garganelli at Don Angie Photo via Don Angie/Facebook

The Beatrice Inn

285 W 12th St, New York, NY 10014

If burning through an expense account is the objective, the Beatrice Inn is more than happy to oblige. The meat-focused restaurant in a former nightclub is dripping with old glamour, from its zebra painting and leather trim to the excess-forward menu. Chef-owner Angie Mar piles an impossible amount of raw seafood on the market-price Grand Coquillage platter, and $120 roast duck is flambéed and served with cherry jus.

285 W 12th St, New York, NY 10014
(212) 675-2808
(212) 675-2808
Rows of tables and chairs are organized in the dimly lit dining room of a white tablecloth restaurant. At the end of the dining room, a large photo of a zebra hangs on the wall. The Beatrice Inn

4 Charles Prime Rib

3004, 4 Charles St, New York, NY 10014

This tiny, speakeasy-style steakhouse hidden in a West Village townhouse is decked out with brown leather banquettes and bottles of top-shelf liquor awash in sexy low lighting. From Chicago’s Hogsalt restaurant group, the prime rib is a thing of bleeding beauty, and at $69 for the trimmer Chicago cut, pricey enough to make even the most generous accounting department tremble. More sensible is the $20 double-decker cheeseburger, minimally adorned with pickles, onions, and American cheese. Reservations before 11 p.m. are hard to snag, but those finance concierges have pull.

3004, 4 Charles St, New York, NY 10014
(212) 561-5992
(212) 561-5992
A knife impales a burger, which features two thin, griddled, four-ounce patties, Kraft American cheese, Dijonnaise, and pickles Photo by Nick Solares

Shuko

47 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003

New York’s vibrant omakase-style sushi dining has a new standout in Shuko, a small, brick-walled fish palace with modern music near Union Square. Diners put themselves in the hands of chefs and Masa veterans Nick Kim and Jimmy Lau with the $155 sushi tasting or the more composed $195 kaiseki menu. Dinners might include fatty toro tuna, trout skin dotted with uni and trout roe, or lobster with mushroom and cauliflower.

47 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003
(212) 228-6088
(212) 228-6088
A slice of pink fatty tuna, marbled with fat, sits over a small mound of rice. Daniel Krieger

Momofuku Ssäm Bar

East 13th Street, 207 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

No, it isn’t the fanciest in David Chang’s restaurant empire, but Ssäm Bar is perhaps the most agreed upon, for good reason. While a no-nonsense staff hustles diners to their crammed table and through a quick dinner, once dishes both mammoth and petite arrive, a reverent silence takes over. In addition to starters with outrageous flavors spanning the globe, the surest bet for a group is the whole-roasted fish ssäm, with flakes of fall-apart tender seafood wrapped in lettuce, herbs, and funky ginger-scallion sauce.

East 13th Street, 207 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003
(212) 254-3500
(212) 254-3500
Momofuku Ssam Bar Photo via Momofuku Ssam Bar/Facebook

Carbone

181 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012

Major Food Group’s ostentatious red sauce-style Italian-American joint feels like a nod to a mid-20th-century New York restaurant that never really existed, but probably should have. The tile floor mimics The Godfather, and servers wear maroon tuxedos like they stepped out of the latest Martin Scorsese production. Dishes are equally over-the-top, and just as fun and delightful. Get the famously giant bone-in veal parm, enough to feed the most voracious, overworked team.

181 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012
(212) 254-3000
(212) 254-3000
A blue-walled dining room with white table-clothed tables. Photo: Daniel Krieger

King

18 King St, New York, NY 10014

Despite the royal name, King’s large-windowed, white-walled space is a modestly inviting escape amid Soho, turning out meticulously executed variations on southern French and Italian cuisine. Chefs Jess Shadbolt and Clare de Boer change up the routine daily, from hulking chickpea fritters fragrant with sage to halibut with artichoke hearts.

18 King St, New York, NY 10014
(917) 825-1618
(917) 825-1618
A sunny dining room with white tablecloth tables Photo: Nick Solares

Related Maps

China Blue

135 Watts St, New York, NY 10013

China Blue mixes sophisticated renditions of Shanghainese specialties with a fashionable, airy design in a high-ceilinged Tribeca space blocks from the Holland Tunnel. Downtown workers can indulge in salt and pepper fish fillet, steamed whole bass, and housemade dim sum including pan-fried pork buns and shumai filled with shiitake mushroom and sausage. Wife-husband owners Yiming Wang and Xian Zhang also own the Michelin-starred Cafe China.

135 Watts St, New York, NY 10013
(212) 431-0111
(212) 431-0111
Photo via China Blue/Facebook

Le Coucou

138 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013

Inside the hushed, white-hued confines of Le Coucou, it might seem as if New York dining never went through its recession-era humbling. Chef Daniel Rose, who opened the Soho establishment after winning acclaim in Paris, veers toward saucy and rich without ever losing sight of ingredients. The quenelle de brochet, a delicate pillow of fish, and the whole rabbit are worth their hefty price tags.

138 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013
(212) 271-4252
(212) 271-4252
A spread of dishes on plates and metal trays at Le Coucou. Photo by Nick Solares

Augustine

5 Beekman St, New York, NY 10038

Epic restaurateur Keith McNally’s business district venture in the Beekman Hotel features all of his signatures: glowy gold lighting, red banquettes, and classic French bistro fare. Best of all, Augustine doesn’t feel like a FiDi restaurant, which is why it’s the ideal setting for a client meal. Avoid the too-pricey steakhouses that dominate the neighborhood and instead opt for steak tartare, rotisserie chicken, or dry-aged strip.

5 Beekman St, New York, NY 10038
(212) 375-0010
(212) 375-0010
Augustine Nick Solares

Related Maps