8 ranked date night restaurants in Upper West Side, New York City — with ratings, must-try dishes and live availability.
8 picksThese are the 8 best Upper West Side restaurants for a date-night dinner, ranked. Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi is the pick if you want the surest thing — 4.8 stars across 598 reviews. This is a higher-spend list — plan accordingly. If you only order one thing, make it the bodega special (the dessert) at Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi. 1 of the 8 take online reservations, and the live availability badge on each card shows what is actually open tonight.
The Upper West Side is built for regulars — Columbus and Amsterdam run on neighborhood restaurants that have kept the same tables full for decades.
The #1 restaurant in NYC two years running — Kwame Onwuachi's Afro-Caribbean kitchen at Lincoln Center is the most important American restaurant of the decade
Must-try: Bodega special (the dessert), Oxtail croquettes, Curried king crab
📍 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023
A big, handsome Greek room doing coastal Mediterranean with upscale polish
Must-try: Beef moussaka, Lamb chops, Whole grilled fish
📍 217 W 85th St, New York, NY 10024
A smooth operation and the right pre-Lincoln Center table for upscale seafood
Must-try: Lobster aguachile, Tuna tostadas, Grilled oysters
📍 155 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10023
Ed Schoenfeld and Joe Ng's inventive dim sum on the Upper West Side — Pac-Man dumplings and serious Cantonese technique
Must-try: Pac-Man shrimp dumplings, Katz's pastrami egg roll, Crispy beef
📍 2170 Broadway, New York, NY 10024
Traditional omakase with noticeably thicker cuts than the high-end standard
Must-try: 17-course omakase, Tempura fried hake, Smoked goldeneye snapper collar
📍 244 W 72nd St, New York, NY 10023
a pastel, foliage-draped room doing a beachy take on the Mediterranean
Must-try: Kubaneh with feta, Crispy roasted lamb, Chicken schnitzel
📍 2454 Broadway, New York, NY 10024
a red-leather-booth institution and a reliable place to spot notable Upper West Siders
Must-try: French onion soup, Steak frites, Martini
📍 200 W 70th St, New York, NY 10023
A hyper-seasonal Sicilian kitchen that rewrites the menu around whatever peaked
Must-try: Housemade pastas, Porchetta, Seasonal vegetables
📍 164 W 75th St, New York, NY 10023
Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi — 4.8 stars across 598 reviews, the highest on this list. The #1 restaurant in NYC two years running — Kwame Onwuachi's Afro-Caribbean kitchen at Lincoln Center is the most important American restaurant of the decade.
1 of the 8 book online — Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi. The rest are walk-in or phone-only. Each card here shows live availability for tonight where the restaurant publishes it.
The bodega special (the dessert) at Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi, the beef moussaka at Elea and the lobster aguachile at El Fish Marisqueria. Those are the dishes regulars point to first.
Ratings and review volume decide the order, but the list itself is drawn from restaurants people actually post about — 7 of the 8 here have a TikTok attached to their card. Every entry is checked as open before it ships.