Jose Coto’s Caribbean lunch counter remains a fantastically porky establishment for a quick, affordable bite in Fordham Heights. Literally order anything: the chewy alcapurrias, tender pernil, starchy mofongo, crisp chicharrones, or bouncy blood sausages with cilantro. 

A bubbling cauldron of Sichuan hot pot is a communal affair, but the dry hot pots at this Upper West Side restaurant are an incendiary pleasure that can be enjoyed alone. Join the throngs of Columbia students at 108 Food Dried Hot Pot in the evening and compose a bowl from 50 different ingredients. Chicken gizzards, tofu skins, squid, fish balls, and cabbage all are equally tasty when doused in the custom blend of oil tinted scarlet from dried chiles and medicinal herbs.

At this under-the-radar food court, find around two dozen stalls, mostly Chinese and Taiwanese businesses whose prices are affordable and whose menus are only sometimes translated into English. 8090 Taiwan, specializing in grilled meats, is one of the best options for solo diners. Its most popular item, a Taiwan-style steak, is drenched in black pepper sauce and served over noodles with corn kernels, eggs, and a salad on the side. It’s a full meal.

The 40-foot counter at S&P Lunch makes it an ideal option for a meal alone. Pull up a chair, where customers dine elbow-to-elbow alone and in pairs, and pick from an old-school menu with affordable pastrami, egg creams, and peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. The restaurant is surprisingly affordable for the area.

A food hall is one of the best places you can eat alone: Almost everyone is dining solo, and those who aren’t (colleagues or classmates) probably wish that they were. Lou Yau Kee, which specializes in Hainan chicken rice, is one of the best options at the Urbanspace food hall in Union Square. A large portion of poached chicken over rice costs about $15.

Few things are more comforting than a bowl of slow-cooked, marrow-slicked bone broth with chewy noodles and braised beef. There used to be little else on the menu at Ho Foods, and that was fine because you didn’t need much more than Taiwanese beef noodles this good, but the small restaurant now has zha jiang noodles, sesame noodles, pork chops with rice, lu rou fan, and Taiwanese breakfast on weekends. Getting more than one of the 10 seats at peak times can be a challenge, making this ideal for an unaccompanied diner.

Dashi Okume, a dashi shop and grilled fish counter, is one of several Japanese businesses that operate out of the building at 50 Norman Avenue in Greenpoint. Salmon, mackerel, and other fish are imported from Japan’s Toyosu Fish Market and then grilled as part of set meals that come with miso soup, rice, and seasonal sides. There are only three tables, with more seats at a counter, but the restaurant feels lively thanks to customers milling about at other businesses in the space.

Husband-and-wife duo Mika Ohie and Yoshihito Kida have owned several Japanese restaurants in New York, including Shabushabu Macoron. Cocoron, which opened in 2011, remains a jewel in their small Manhattan constellation of businesses. The earthy, ethereal soba noodles here are rolled out in-house daily and make for extremely enjoyable slurping at one of the communal tables. The recently opened Cocoron Market over on Delancey offers takeout and has only eight seats — friendly to solo visitors.

Shu Jiao Fu Zhou, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, is a solid option for a quick meal alone. Around dinner time, the dining room at this counter-service restaurant is usually full, with many customers sitting alone, or sharing larger tables with other solo diners. The restaurant’s most popular dish is an order of peanut noodles heaped onto a plastic plate; it costs just a few dollars.

When Ichiran opened in Bushwick in 2016, it attracted hundreds of customers who waited in lines for its ramen, designed specifically for solo diners. The hype has died down, making it easy to grab a seat, but the experience remains largely the same. Sit at one of the sectioned-off booths designed for individuals to slurp on noodles alone, where orders are written down and sent to the kitchen via a button.

Making the most of a visit to Win Son means sharing an excessive number of dishes family-style around a lazy Susan. But when dining alone, head across the street — where the same team opened an all-day restaurant and bar in 2019. Order at the counter, then find a seat in the dining room, where customers sip cocktails and work on laptops side by side. Taiwanese American dishes like mochi doughnuts, fried chicken, and scallion pancakes have kept this restaurant sequel popular years after opening.