Once related to a long-ago restaurant chain with branches in several neighborhoods, Pepe Rosso is one of the few still standing. It offers bargain appetizers, salads, and a long list of pastas in a corner of the neighborhood that retains much of its Italian charm, with pasta store Raffetto’s and butcher shop Pino’s Prime Meat just steps away. Homemade focaccia and grated parmesan in a tub accompany every order, and beer and wine is available.

A perennially popular spot, Charlie Bird serves up lighter pastas, like cavatelli with sausage, saffron, and mint. Don’t miss the raw bar selection, which might include razor clams with fennel in addition to oysters and trout belly on a recent evening. Among small plates, the seasonally changing farro is a highlight. Large plates are primarily seafood- and fowl-centric, and the wine selection makes this a hospitality industry hang, accompanied by a hip-hop soundtrack.

Niche Niche is an unstuffy restaurant for wine tasting, hidden away on a side street, where wine experts from around the country curate their favorite wine pairings with prix-fixe menus that change weekly. Downstairs, owner Ariel Arce also oversees a basement retro hangout called Special Club where blues, soul, and jazz musicians perform as people sip champagne, cocktails, sake, and wine. Don’t you dare call it a speakeasy!

A Brazilian bakery and snack shop founded by Mariana Vieira, Brigadeiro specializes in the eponymous buttery chocolate balls, along with two dozen other globular pastries in the same vein, including lemon, dulce de leche, strawberry, and pecan pie. Pao de queijo (the delicious and bouncy tapioca-flour cheese bread) and other savory snacks are on sale. Brigadeiro also functions as a neighborhood coffee bar.

Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja creates flavorful, colorful dishes that meld Tunisian, Moroccan, and Italian influences at this Eastern Mediterranean restaurant. Her brunch menu is a Soho favorite (opt for the shakshuka or the lamb burger), while the dinner menu focuses on dips, mezze, and kebabs. Large groups are accommodated with a fixed-price feast. The space is lovely, with ample windows in both the street-facing room and the greenhouse-like back area.

Bagels, lox, and a schmear get theatrically updated at Major Food Group’s very expensive take on a (very un-kosher) Jewish appetizing joint. Seed-crusted bagels are stacked tall on wooden dowels for the dramatically plated spreads of salmon, sable, sturgeon, and whitefish salad. There’s an entire caviar section, available with scrambled eggs, latkes, lobster benedict, or as a supplement to any dish. Other options include sticky buns or egg scrambles and sandwiches incorporating smoked salmon and salami.

The draw at this longtime French bistro is the burger, even though it’s only available semi-secretly in limited supply at the bar. But now it’s been added to the regular brunch menu, comprised of a peppercorn-crusted brisket blend, seared in butter, topped with creamy Saint-Andre cheese, watercress, onions, and cornichons, and served on a challah bun with duck-fat fries and cream-and-cognac sauce. Beyond the burger, opt for bistro classics like escargot, pate, frisee with lardons and a poached egg, or steak tartare.

From its founding in 1981, when it was one of a very few restaurants in Soho, Omen Azen became a hang for celebrities and artists. The list included Yoko Ono, Richard Gere, Patti Smith, and Bill T. Jones, who became regulars for the simple and elegant Japanese food. The sashimi platters have become legendary in this walk-up dining room with a jazz soundtrack, but noodles, hot pots, and tempura are also good choices.

This tiny sandwich shop dating to 1986 was one of the first in town to offer real Italian panini rendered on quality bread and deploying imported cold cuts and cheeses. The menu is appropriately inscrutable — it’s not the kind of place you wander in and request a roast beef on rye with Russian dressing. Instead, be prepared to study the detailed sandwich list, offering names like Pinocchio, Michelangelo, and Fellini. A favorite is the Fiorello, stacked with mortadella, fresh mozzarella, and eggplant caponata.

The Estela team is behind this much larger and airier restaurant that might remind you of a bus depot, where the focus is Italian cuisine. Chef Ignacio Mattos applies his subversive style to a menu that has included riffs on cacio e pepe, a wagyu burger, and beef carpaccio. The space, just west of Soho’s boundaries in Hudson Square, is drenched in sunlight and lined with a low, handsome cognac-hued leather seating.

Yes, people still line up early in the morning to get a Cronut in one of Soho’s great tribal spectacles, but there are plenty of other great pastries of an unusual sort that customers grab and go. And there are sandwiches, too, made on predictably great bread from a shifting roster that includes a toasted cheese and a dijon chicken salad dotted with pistachios. Croissants with a variety of stuffings also available.

This Spanish restaurant was one of the earliest to reinvigorate the tapas bar when it opened in Flatiron 15 years ago, offering outstanding selections of charcuterie and cheese with Iberian flair. The Soho branch is perhaps the most comfortable, on a tree-lined street with an angular bar that is the center of activity. Recommended dishes have included grilled squid, steak served with pimentos, mixed seafood paella, and, for dessert, churros dipped in chocolate.

On a quiet, darkened street in the southwestern section of Soho lies Piccola Cucina Estiatorio, part of a small international chain that specializes in Sicilian food, and seafood in particular, sometimes with a Greek flair. The grilled sardines are spectacular, and there’s a fine seafood misto served with lemon and aioli that makes a shareable appetizer. Don’t miss the miniature rice balls, attributed to restaurateur Philip Guardione’s hometown of Catania. Pastas are another strong point, along with a new wine list favoring Sicilian vintages.

This sleeper in the southwest corner of Soho, now a decade old and named after a Caananite god who may have been the forerunner of Beelzebub, specializes in falafel that’s freshly fried. But it also offers all sorts of other chicken and vegetable sandwiches and pita pizzas. For this rather expensive neighborhood, the prices are a steal, but there’s not much seating, so head to one of the nearby parks along Sixth Avenue.

A refuge of Los Angeles expats, Lupe’s offers the typical menu of that city’s Mexican-American cuisine in a brightly colored setting full of chrome and Formica. The burritos are an obvious choice, but the bill of fare also presents options such as potato-filled taquitos and steaming bowls of chile colorado and chile verde. Strong cocktails are available, too, at this place that never ceases to be hip.

This branch of the mighty Artopolis — Astoria’s best Greek bakery, which closed during the pandemic but reportedly is on the verge of reopening — persists in a sunny Broome Street location with tables in front that are a great place to grab an espresso and a hand pie like spanakopita or galaktoboureko. Step inside the antique-filled interior and inspect the collection of cookies, pastries, casseroles, and salads, then assemble a choice selection for one of Soho’s most pleasing and relaxed lunches.

The specialty of this Japanese import are thick spongy soufflé pancakes, served with fresh fruit. While its specialty isn’t good for eating everyday, there are many other all-day breakfast and brunch options, making this an interesting pit stop until late afternoon. These include sandwiches served with good fries, boba teas, entree salads, and fried chicken with waffles. The upstairs dining room provides good views of this bustling Soho corner.

Located in the Soho Grand Hotel, this isn’t a real diner despite its name. Rather, it’s a fanciful recreation of a diner with today’s eclectic food tastes incorporated at somewhat hiked-up prices. Breakfasts excel with huevos rancheros and buttermilk pancakes, while lunch and dinner selections include a chicken pot pie, and a Buffalo-style beef on weck sandwich on a caraway-seeded roll slathered with horseradish sauce that few places in town attempt, unusual enough to merit a visit on its own.

The neighborhood is full of coffee bars and French bistros, but why not go for a coffee at this Vietnamese cafe, and look at it drip like a slowly leaking faucet while people-watching on Lafayette Street? The menu is top-notch, too, including some very engaging breakfast and luncheon fare, running to a breakfast banh mi, eggs benedict with a steamed bao instead of english muffin, avocado toast, and a fundamental crisp baguette with good butter

Finally, a place for belt-busting breakfasts and decent burgers served with average french fries. The burgers are fine, but the breakfasts are much better than fine, with tasty pancakes not too thick or thin, eggs cooked perfectly to order, and well-buttered toast. Diners walk away sated for not much money. FC 7/14

This unabashedly luxurious French spot, in a massive, chandelier-filled space within the posh 11 Howard Hotel, serves all sorts of old-school French classics in digs that feel decidedly sexy, not stuffy. Restaurateur Stephen Starr and chef Daniel Rose, the latter of whom came from Paris’ acclaimed Spring, serve up starters that include whole lobsters, foie gras terrine, and beef tartare topped with caviar, followed by entrees such as sole Veronique and an entire rabbit. Don’t skip dessert.