Monday is one of the best nights of the week for dining out. The chaotic Thursday-through-Sunday crowds have died down and grabbing a walk-in seat at popular restaurants is usually easier to swing, even at peak dining times. While many restaurants tend to be closed Mondays, plenty of businesses keep their doors open for their peers in the hospitality industry, who might have the day off, and regulars in the neighborhood looking for a bite to eat. Here are some of our favorite places to eat on a Monday right now.
Read MoreThe Best Restaurants Open on Monday in New York City
Wood-fired pizza, diner fare, Thai skewers, and a longtime favorite pub
Cafe Luxembourg
There is no shortage of French brasseries in the city, but few restaurants have a scene like Cafe Luxembourg. The dining room and bar are gathering spots for longtime Upper West Side residents, New York Philharmonic performers, Broadway actors, and all sorts of creative types, from poets to architects. The menu offers reliable standards like strip steaks and pan-roasted salmon, but it’s the buzzy downtown energy in a room full of regulars that makes hanging out here feel like a night out.
P.J. Clarke's
Though it’s now expanded into a chain of pubs, the original P.J. Clarke’s has been open on Third Avenue since 1884. This is the one with the ancient mahogany bar, the old jukebox, and the taxidermied dog at the bar. Over the years it’s attracted regulars like Jackie Kennedy and Frank Sinatra, and the bacon cheeseburger is called the “Cadillac” because that’s how Nat King Cole once described it.
Chi Restaurant & Bar
From the duo behind Spy-C Village in Forest Hills comes Chi, a very good Hell’s Kitchen Chinese restaurant. You might call it fancy because of its sleek decor, elaborate cocktails, or a beef tendon and caviar dish that happens to have been inspired by Wylie Dufresne. Don’t miss the mushrooms with duck egg yolks.
Ci Siamo
Chef Hillary Sterling, a James Beard nominee, has turned this restaurant opposite Hudson Yards into a destination. Get the onion torta, any of the wood-fired vegetables (smashed potatoes, smoked carrots, Brussels sprouts), and the braised beans, followed by rapini agnolotti. For entrees, consider the whole trout, braised lamb, or bistecca.
Çka Ka Qëllu
Critically praised Çka Ka Qëllu is an impressive display of Albanian food and culture that keeps expanding at a steady clip. The menu at the rustic, relatively new Murray Hill outpost, like its siblings in the Bronx and Connecticut, features platters of smoky grilled sausages, ground veal-stuffed dumplings, and slices of dense, crepe-like fli paired with a block of tangy feta.
Sappe
Sappe is a new Thai restaurant from the owners of Soothr, known for its noodle soups and curries. Their second restaurant specializes in grilled skewers, salads, and rice dishes, with an eye for raw beef and seafood. Cocktails are a focus, too: They come in every observable color mixed with salted plum powder and vodka-fermented sticky rice. The dining room is quite large, making it possible to walk in. The owners’ first restaurant, Soothr, is also open for lunch and dinner on Mondays.
Chama Mama
Georgian stalwart Chama Mama can get slammed on the weekends, but Monday diners are rewarded with shorter wait times and faster access to tangy pickled vegetables, plates of hefty, broth-filled khinkali, and the fan-favorite blistered cheese vessels known as adjaruli khachapuri.
Lord’s
One of Eater’s best new restaurants in America is open on Mondays. Lord’s, from Dame’s Patricia Howard and Ed Szymanski is the owners’ second restaurant. It’s serving the type of food that coursed its way through New York’s gastronomic zeitgeist more than a decade years ago: hay-smoked trout, pig head terrine, monkfish, sweetbreads. Get there early for a shot at one of the restaurant’s limited ; only a handful are made each night.
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Superiority Burger
Restaurant workers with Mondays off can hit up Superiority Burger, known for its meatless sandwiches made with collard greens, tofu skin, and more. The restaurant has a front dining room and more seats at a counter in the back. If there’s a wait: Head to the back bar, where you can order beers and shots, or eat homemade salty snacks dispensed from an old-school gumball machine. You can now eat at the back bar, too.
Ayat
Ayat has five locations in the city, and one in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Each of them faithfully performs the duties of a Monday night restaurant: The vibe is lively, the portions are large and reasonably priced, and most important, there are reservations available tonight. There’s no alcohol on the menu, but there’s lots of tea and the restaurant is BYOB.
Mam
Mam, home to the city’s “most exciting Vietnamese food,” is the definition of no frills: The food — flavorful pho, fried chicken tendon — is delicious, but you might eat it on a small plastic stool on the floor of a hallway turned into a makeshift dining room. Don’t be dissuaded by the website, which allows patrons to order in advance: It’s possible to walk in here without a reservation and order in person.
Francie
Francie, from restaurateur John Winterman and chef Chris Cipollone, is open on Mondays, with a discounted 20 percent off every bottle of wine in the restaurant. Go for dishes like souffle cakes, cabbage with truffles, lobster ravioli, and short ribs with spaetzle.
Ops
If you live along the L subway line, might we remind you about Ops? The Bushwick pizzeria hasn’t been the hottest restaurant in town for years, but it’s packed nightly with locals looking for well-made wood-fired pies and specialty calzones, whose flavors change nightly. For dessert, don’t skip the flourless chocolate cake. And there’s a great natural wine list, too.
Rolo’s
Rolo’s takes reservations, but it’s usually possible to walk in with a short wait on a Monday night. The restaurant is popular for its straightforward menu anchored by a wood-fired oven, which turns out polenta breads, charred head-on shrimp, and one of the borough’s best burgers. If you’re looking for something more casual, like fried fish sandwiches and queso fundido, try around the corner, where the owners recently opened Hellbender, a Mexican cocktail bar with a full food menu.
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Place des Fêtes
This French-sounding bar specializes in Spanish wines and seafood in a cozy subterranean Clinton Hill dining room from the owners of the Michelin-starred restaurant Oxalis (closed for the moment). Look for small plates from sardine toasts to fancy ham or a Castelfranco salad with hazelnuts. Wines by the glass start at around $15.
The Fly
The Fly comes from the same owners as Hart’s and Cervo’s, known for their clam toast and lamb burger, respectively. The specialty of this third spot is affordable rotisserie chicken. It comes on hot, wide plates with piles of fries and Caesar salad, or sopping wet in sandwich form. The full menu is served from the wrap-around bar, and there’s additional seating in the dining room at the back, making the Fly a great option for walk-ins.
Red Hook Tavern
Remember Red Hook Tavern? The five-year-old Red Hook restaurant still draws a crowd for its popular burger, now served with cottage fries instead of wedges. It stays open on Mondays with a portion of its dining room set aside for walk-ins.
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