The Resy Guide to Power Lunches in New York

Why not wheel and deal with a panoramic view of the New York City skyline below you? Dine on beef tartare with black sunchoke and Asian pear; foie gras and duck pie; or chicken with peaches, grits, and chanterelles. Who knows? The view may just inspire you and yours with the world’s next great idea.

They may be known for their power breakfast, but we’re here to tell you that their lunch packs just as much of a punch. Come for shrimp cocktail, a turkey club, or a dry-aged New York strip while you harken back to a time with smoking sections and three-hour martini lunches. Hey, at least one of those things is well within your reach here.

Koloman understands the importance of a good power lunch. Here, you can choose from two ($55) or three ($65) courses, with options like lobster burgers, warm apple strudel, and beef tartare. Finish it off with a glass of wine or two and enjoy the luxury.

Impress your guests with a finery that comes easily only to a caviar company. Caviar Russe offers several options for your most powerful lunch, including a tasting menu, an à la carte menu, and less formal small bites. Caviar baked potatoes, the signature Golden Egg, and of course, caviar service, are all at your service.

The glassed-in courtyard of Fouquet’s New York, complete with its red brick walls and relaxed Parisian wicker bistro chairs, is an idyllic setting for a power lunch if there ever were one, making you feel more like you’re in Paris than New York. Whether you’ve got business to discuss or simply want a change of setting, Par Ici has you covered, with an easygoing, yet sophisticated menu of café classics — everything from fattoush salad and a smoked salmon sandwich to chive milk bread and a half roasted chicken. Don’t sleep on the kouign aman ice-cream sundae.

“Share and pair” is the ethos of this more-casual offshoot of the haute Le Bernardin, named after its longtime head sommelier. In addition to the signature charcuterie tower, you can find crispy duck confit salad, black truffle arancini, and lamb merguez, as well as a list of more than 40 wines by the glass and more than 200 bottles.

Lunch with the coolest people you follow on Instagram at 53, an Asian-inspired, sultry spot conveniently located in Midtown, next to MoMA. The power order, to us, has to be crispy shrimp wontons, pea shoot sambal, and salmon carpaccio. Drag things into a more leisurely mood with the set lunch menu, available at $53 per person for three very generous courses.

This reimagined look at old New York makes the perfect setting for a leisurely weekday lunch. Chef Nick Anderer’s food is comforting and crowd-pleasing (think hand-cut angel hair Francese or a slow-roasted roast beef sandwich), and the drinks are plentiful and delightful. (If you please, do go ahead and indulge in one of their pitch-perfect martinis or Manhattans.)

This breezy Italian café from Ignacio Mattos draws tech and entertainment industry workers from Soho’s Hudson Square every day of the week for Italian classics like white bean and spinach soup, cacio e pepe, and malfatti with wild mushrooms. The best seats in the house? We’d have to say it’s the round table in the corner, right by the window.

If you work best over drinks and snacks, make this modern, all-day Mexican café from chef Enrique Olvera your new go-to meeting spot. Plates include flaxseed chilaquiles and suadero tacos, which you can chase with a selection of agua frescas and margaritas.

Andrew Carmellini’s “Italian-style chophouse” offers the best of both worlds — think rigatoni with dry-aged beef bolognese, a prime rib sandwich provolone and porcini aioli, and a classic chicken Milanese with wild arugula and charred lemon. Perched on Pier 17 in FiDi, the restaurant’s views of the Brooklyn Bridge are hard to beat.

Danny Meyer and chef Hillary Sterling’s ode to live-fire Italian cooking has already become a post-work favorite among the Hudson Yards office crowd. For lunch, they serve an array of pastas and some of Sterling’s biggest hits, including the wood-fired whole trout and a standout, must-order caramelized onion torta. Pro tip: Find out more about scoring a table at Ci Siamo here.

If Balthazar is the elder statesman of New York’s sceney French restaurants, then Frenchette is its hipster grandchild, in the form of a beautiful, gilded bistro. Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson cooked at an array of Keith McNally restaurants, including Balthazar, before opening this Tribeca bistro where you can lunch on French classics with a contemporary twist. Think poulet rôti, tartare frites, and brouillade. Their robust natural wine program is, of course, available throughout the day. When in France …

When Major Food Group took over the former Four Seasons space in the Seagram Building, they sought to return the power lunch to its former glory. With its Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson-designed interiors, and midcentury-influenced lunch specials like a club sandwich and cold-poached salmon, The Grill will make you feel like Don Draper.

Michael Solomonov’s latest concept riffs on the Israeli bakery (and is located just downstairs from his buzzy skewer spot, Laser Wolf, at Williamsburg’s Hoxton Hotel). The lunch menu offers an array of Jerusalem bagel and kubaneh sandwiches, as well as larger plates like cod chraime and a chicken schnitzel with yemenite pickles, tahina, and schug. Be sure to polish off your meal with a dessert from pastry chef Katreena Kanney, like a pistachio sticky bun or cinnamon walnut babka.

More than a decade after opening, this beloved West Village trattoria still charms with its exceptional Italian cooking and warm, generous service. The lunch menu also has many of the dinner menu’s greatest hits, so you don’t have to worry that you might be missing out on anything midday. Pro tip: Order a sleeper hit, the garganelli. And if you have any trouble getting a Resy, we’ve got you covered here.

Chef Ignacio Mattos elevated Rockefeller Center’s lunch options with the opening of this Italian all-day café, bar, and bakery in the former Bouchon Bakery space. Here, he focuses on northern Italian cooking, and all the bread, mozzarella, and ricotta are housemade (all breads and pastries are also milled in-house). It’s the kind of place where you can stop by for a quick porchetta panini, or linger over a plate of risotto with Salva Cremasco and radicchio and a spritz. Whatever you do, make sure you order a chocolate croissant, too.

Read on for everything you need to know about Lodi before you go.

For a light and airy lunch that packs a punch served in a space to match, look no further than The Mary Lane. We’re partial to the grilled vegetable and burrata sandwich, but the braised chicken cacciatore ravioli is nothing to scoff at. Score a table next to one of the many windows, and bask in the warmth of a long (long) lunch.

Note: The Mary Lane serves lunch Monday through Friday.

Beloved by media and entertainment power brokers since it opened in 1999, Michael’s specializes in California cuisine that won’t send you back to your desk in a food coma, including their renowned Cobb salad, and a grilled branzino with salsa verde, capers, and charred lemon.

Yes, you can get the $29 hot dog for lunch, and yes, it’s as good as they say. Finish it off with an order of the long tots, and don’t skip dessert here, ever. The booths are large enough (and comfy enough) to turn that hour you take for lunch into two.

Note: Mischa is open for lunch Monday through Friday.

One of Rockefeller Center’s most anticipated new openings, Naro features Michelin-starred Korean cooking from Atomix/Atoboy team Junghyun “JP” and Ellia Park. Lunchtime offers à la carte dishes inspired by Hansik, or traditional Korean cuisine, such as an asparagus-forward sanjeok, or tangpyeongchae — mung bean jelly topped with a variety of vegetables — as well as a three-course tasting menu.

Lunch reaches new heights at this contemporary American restaurant, located on the 101st floor of the tallest building in Hudson Yards. Yes, the views are spectacular on a clear day, but the food also steals the show. Former Seamore’s executive chef Christopher Cryer highlights his seafood expertise with dishes like hiramasa with coconut and cucumber and seared tuna with broccoli, chili, and pine nut, though there’s also a wagyu burger and chicken with tapenade. Beverage director and A Voce alum Zach Kameron has put together a 1,600-bottle-deep wine list, with a focus on French and Italian bottles. At lunch, the restaurant offers a two-course prix fixe for $71 or a three-course prix-fixe for $85.

This Milanese-style café from restaurateur Edoardo Mantelli is an elegant meeting place on Fort Greene’s bustling Dekalb Avenue. The menu offers a selection of well-executed Italian classics: chicories salad, pizza with mushrooms, fontina, arugula, and thyme, and salted Marcona almonds. And, of course, a range of amaro-based cocktails to sip on.

There’s a reason that the restaurant that launched Danny Meyer’s empire in 1985 is still going strong, even after moving to its current 19th Street location in 2017. Its lunch menu showcases only a slightly condensed version of its greenmarket-forward, crowd-pleasing approach, including the beloved bibb salad and ribollita, and a range of pastas. And of course, then there’s the burger, one of only two original dishes still on the menu.

This cozy trattoria from downtown dining power couple Rita Sodi and Jody Williams feels like a neighborhood haunt, but it doubles as a true destination restaurant, too. The all-day menu changes with the seasons, but always includes a range of creative vegetable preparations and Northern Italian specialties like cibreo toscano and olive all’ascolana. Pro tip: The chopped steak is a non-negotiable.