Manhattan / Harlem
Harlem
Restaurants
Seven closed restaurants are still being recommended by four major guides. Here are fourteen that are actually open.
Africa Kine runs to 1am seven days — the latest kitchen up here.
- 14 verified restaurants
- 7 closed and still listed elsewhere
- 1am the latest kitchen
- 0 Michelin stars or Bibs
Looking for a drink deal instead? → Harlem happy hours
The best restaurants in Harlem right now are Africa Kine and Ponty Bistro on Adam Clayton Powell, which serve to 1am and midnight seven days; Red Rooster on Lenox, whose bar runs two hours past its kitchen; and ia, a Georgian kitchen that opened in August 2026 and is on no other guide yet. This is a food page. Drink deals, prices and happy hour windows live on our Harlem happy hour guide instead. Here is why this page exists. Seven Harlem restaurants are closed and four major guides are still recommending them. Michelin’s own Harlem listing still surfaces Oso, which closed in June 2026 and is now a Georgian restaurant. The Infatuation is running a live review of Pikine. OpenTable has a page for Zoma headed “Updated 2026.” Lolo’s Seafood Shack has been shut since February 2024 — two and a half years — and is still in current roundups. Teranga, Abyssinia and Chaiwali are gone too. There are no Michelin stars and no live Bib Gourmands in Harlem, and no Harlem restaurant is a 2026 James Beard semifinalist — checked against the full list. We would rather give you fourteen places that are open than twenty that are not.
The short version
- Nobody else has itia — Georgian, opened August 2026 in Oso’s old room, open 8am to 11pm six days.
- LateAfrica Kine to 1am seven days, Ponty Bistro 10am to midnight. Both on Adam Clayton Powell, not 116th.
- The one on 125thCharles Pan-Fried Chicken at 439 W 125th — cast iron, not a deep fryer.
- Go lateRed Rooster‘s bar runs 90 minutes to two hours past its kitchen.
- Read this firstOso, Teranga, Lolo’s, Zoma, Abyssinia, Pikine and Chaiwali are all closed — and Michelin, The Infatuation and OpenTable are all still listing one of them.
At a glance
Strongest first within each group. Tap a number on the map to place it.
| Restaurant | What to order | Days | Hours | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Rooster Harlem | American with a soul-food spine · bar open later | Daily | 12–9:30pm, bar later | $$$ |
| Amy Ruth’s | Chicken and waffles · dishes named after people | Daily | 11:30am–9:30pm | $$$ |
| BLVD Bistro | Shrimp and grits, double-cut pork chop, fried chicken dinner | Daily | 12–10pm, weekends from 10am | $$$ |
| Melba’s | Strawberry Henney $16 · Rum Punch $16 · wine by the glass $12–13 | Not published | Not published | $$$ |
| Africa Kine | Thiebou djen, yassa, jollof, cow foot soup | Daily | 1:30pm–1am | $$$ |
| Ponty Bistro Harlem | Crab croquettes, Senegalese branzino, sirloin with African spices | Daily | 10am–midnight | $$$ |
| Le Baobab | Lamb mafé, bissap | Seven days | Not published | $$$ |
| La Savane d’Afrique | Dibi mouton, grilled whole fish with jollof, attiéké, alloco | Varies | Not published | $$$ |
| Charles Pan-Fried Chicken | Pan-fried chicken, cast iron · two Harlem locations | Daily | 11am–10pm | $$$ |
| Sottocasa Harlem | Neapolitan pizza, wood-fired | Daily | 5–10pm, weekends from noon | $$$ |
| Settepani | Italian-Mediterranean with Ethiopian influence | Not published | Not published | $$$ |
| Vinatería | Spanish-Italian · happy hour Tue–Fri 5–7pm | Daily | 5–10pm, brunch weekends | $$$ |
| ia Georgian Kitchen | Khachapuri and khinkali · under $30 a head | Tue–Sun | 8am–11pm | $$$ |
| Malecon Express | Seafood rice, whole chicken, mangu with shrimp, tres leches | Daily | 9am–11pm | $$$ |
Map: where these 14 restaurants are
The 2/3 at 116th or 125th gets you to most of this. Adam Clayton Powell and the 145th Street entries are worth the extra stops, and they are the ones open latest.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for directions.
The names, and the corrections attached
The most-searched rooms in Harlem, with what the guides have wrong about them. More in our best soul food in NYC guide.
Red Rooster Harlem Open now
Marcus Samuelsson’s Lenox Avenue flagship, and still the name most people mean when they say “dinner in Harlem.” The detail worth knowing, and the one nobody prints: the bar runs ninety minutes to two hours past the kitchen — to 11pm most nights and midnight on Friday and Saturday — so if you arrive late, you are not out of luck, you are just eating at the bar. Sunday opens at 10am. One correction while we are here: the James Beard semifinalist attached to Samuelsson in 2026 is for Hav & Mar, which is in Chelsea. It is not a Red Rooster credential and several listicles blur the two. No published prices.
redroosterharlem.com · See our best soul food in NYC
Amy Ruth’s Open now
The chicken-and-waffles house on 116th where the dishes are named after people, and the practical argument for it over the newer rooms is simple: it opens for lunch every single day. Most of Frederick Douglass Boulevard does not open until five. If you are up here in the afternoon and you want to eat properly rather than snack, this is the answer, and it has been for a long time. Prices are not published, which is true of almost everything on this page.
amyruths.com · See our best soul food in NYC
BLVD Bistro Open now
Biscuit-forward soul food with a wrap-around bar and a chef’s table — the double-cut pork chop, jumbo shrimp and grits, and a southern fried chicken dinner with collards, potato salad and a homemade biscuit. Now the thing to get right: it moved. BLVD Bistro is at 2149 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, not on Lenox Avenue where several booking sites still send you, and its old web domain has lapsed and now redirects somewhere unrelated. Weekend brunch starts at 10am; Sunday shuts early at 8. No published prices.
boulevardbistrony.com · See our best brunch in NYC
Melba’s
The only restaurant in Harlem where we can tell you what the drinks cost and not the food, which is an odd distinction and an honest one. The Strawberry Henney, the Harlem Iced Tea and the rum punch are $16, the sexy sangria $15, wine by the glass $12 to $13, and a Harlem Brewing pale ale $10 — all first-party. The food menu is a PDF image, so no numbers. The honest caveat is bigger: its own Hours & Locations page 404s, and has across every path we tried over two research passes. Call before you go. Melba Wilson also runs the Grand Central Terminal outpost, which is a different room with published hours.
melbasrestaurant.com · See our best soul food in NYC
Little Senegal, and the late-night corridor
The 116th Street storefronts publish nothing; the two Adam Clayton Powell rooms run to midnight and 1am daily. That is the finding — the late-night West African corridor is on ACP, not on 116th.
Africa Kine Open now
Open until one in the morning, seven days a week — which is the single most useful fact anyone can give you about eating in Harlem, and it belongs to a Senegalese restaurant rather than to any of the soul-food names. Thiebou djen, yassa, jollof rice, fataya, brochettes and cow foot soup. It does not open until 1:30pm, so it is a dinner and late-night proposition, not a lunch one. And check the address before you go: Africa Kine is at 2267 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard. Tripadvisor still prints its old 116th Street address, which it left in 2015 — a decade-stale listing in a major guide. No published prices.
Ponty Bistro Harlem Open now
French technique applied to West African cooking — crab croquettes, Senegalese branzino, roasted chicken, a grilled sirloin with African spices — and the widest service window of anything we verified in Harlem: 10am to midnight every single day, and to 1am on Friday and Saturday. Put it next to Africa Kine six blocks south and you have the real finding here: the late-night West African corridor is on Adam Clayton Powell, not on 116th Street where the guidebooks send you. No published prices.
pontybistroharlem.com · See our best French restaurants in NYC
Le Baobab
The anchor of the 116th Street Senegalese corridor, and the lamb mafé is what people come for. It publishes almost nothing about itself — its own site says it is open seven days a week and stops there, with no clock times and no prices anywhere. That is worth saying out loud rather than papering over, because it is the whole reason this block is invisible to every list assembled by machine. Phone 212-864-4700 before you make the trip.
lebaobabharlem.com · See our best cheap eats in NYC
La Savane d’Afrique
Started by two former taxi drivers, one from Côte d’Ivoire and one from Guinea, and it is the other half of the 116th Street story alongside Le Baobab. Dibi mouton, grilled whole fish with jollof rice, attiéké and alloco. Its own site tells you plainly that hours vary and to call before visiting, so that is what we are telling you too rather than inventing a window. It sits directly across 116th from where Pikine used to be — which The Infatuation is still running a live review of, two years after it closed.
savanedafrique.com · See our best cheap eats in NYC
One block off 125th Street
Twelve of the thirteen addresses verified for this page sit on a north–south avenue or a side street. Exactly one thing on the 125th Street strip is worth planning a trip around, and it is Charles Pan-Fried Chicken at 439 W 125th. The Studio Cafe in the Studio Museum opened in November 2025 but it is a museum cafe, not a dinner plan. Dinosaur Bar-B-Que sits at the far western end by the river and we could not verify its hours, so we are not printing them.
Charles Pan-Fried Chicken Open now
The successor to Charles Gabriel’s legendary operation, and the distinction that matters is in the name: this is chicken pan-fried in cast iron, not dropped in a deep fryer, and the difference is the entire point. The flagship is at 340 West 145th Street. There is a second location at 439 West 125th Street, and it is the one unambiguous reason to eat on 125th Street itself — see the note above this section. Same hours at both: 11am to 10pm, 11pm on Friday and Saturday. No published prices.
Sottocasa Harlem Open now
Wood-fired Neapolitan on Malcolm X Boulevard, and the thing most listings get wrong is the clock: dinner only on weekdays, lunch only at weekends. Monday to Friday the door does not open until 5pm; Saturday and Sunday it opens at noon and runs straight through. That is a useful distinction if you are planning a Saturday afternoon up here, and an annoying one if you turn up on a Tuesday at two. No published prices.
harlem.sottocasanyc.com · See our best pizza in NYC
Settepani
On Lenox since 2000, and the reason it is on this list rather than filed as another Italian room is a line from its own About page: the menu carries Ethiopian influence through it. That matters right now, because Central Harlem has just lost both its Ethiopian restaurants — Zoma on Frederick Douglass and Abyssinia on 135th are both closed — and this is the closest thing left on a menu in the neighborhood. The group also opened Settepani on the Meer at the Harlem Meer in December 2025. The caveat: no hours published anywhere on its own site.
settepani.com · See our best Italian restaurants in NYC
Newer, and further uptown
Two of these opened in the last year. See also our Upper West Side restaurants guide.
Vinatería Open now
The Black-owned Spanish-Italian dining room on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and the correction worth carrying is that there is no weekday lunch — several third-party listings say otherwise and they are wrong. Monday to Friday it opens at 5pm. Weekend brunch runs noon to 4, then dinner from 4. It also runs a happy hour, Tuesday to Friday 5 to 7 and weekends 4 to 7, which puts it on our Harlem happy hour guide as well. No published prices.
vinaterianyc.com · See our best wine bars in NYC
ia Georgian Kitchen Open now
Nobody else has this yet. ia opened in August 2026 in Hamilton Heights, in the room Oso vacated — Georgian cooking, khachapuri and khinkali, under $30 a head, and open from 8am to 11pm six days a week, which is a remarkable service window for a new restaurant. Closed Mondays. And the room it took over is the story of this whole page: Oso held the only Michelin Bib Gourmand in the Harlem area, it closed in June 2026, and Michelin’s own Harlem listing was still surfacing it months later.
See our best breakfast in NYC
Malecon Express Open now
Broadway at 143rd, and one of the very few real breakfast options this far uptown — it opens at nine, seven days. Dominican rotisserie: seafood rice, a whole chicken with a side, mashed green plantain with shrimp, a Cuban sandwich, tres leches. One disambiguation, because it trips people constantly: the Malecon that everyone reviews is at 4141 Broadway, which is Washington Heights and a different neighborhood. This is the 3500 Broadway one. No published prices.
maleconnyc.com · See our best breakfast in NYC
Union Square restaurants: FAQ
What are the best restaurants in Harlem?
Africa Kine on Adam Clayton Powell is open to 1am seven days and is the best late-night food up here. Ponty Bistro, six blocks north, runs 10am to midnight daily. Red Rooster on Lenox is the most-searched name and its bar stays open two hours past the kitchen. Amy Ruth’s on 116th is the chicken-and-waffles house that opens for lunch every day. And ia, a Georgian kitchen that opened in August 2026, is on no other guide yet.
Which Harlem restaurants have closed?
Seven that are still being recommended elsewhere. Oso at 1618 Amsterdam Ave closed in June 2026 and the space is now ia, a Georgian restaurant — Michelin’s own Harlem page was still listing Oso months later. Teranga at The Africa Center closed 15 June 2025. Lolo’s Seafood Shack closed at the end of February 2024. Zoma and Abyssinia, Harlem’s two Ethiopian restaurants, are both gone. Pikine on 116th is closed and The Infatuation still runs a live review of it. Chaiwali on Lenox is closed.
Does Harlem have a Michelin-starred restaurant?
No, and it has no live Bib Gourmand either. Oso held the only Bib Gourmand in the Harlem area in the 2025 New York guide and it closed in June 2026. There are no Michelin stars in the neighborhood. Be careful with James Beard claims too: no Harlem restaurant or chef is a 2026 semifinalist. The trap is Fariyal Abdullahi, a 2026 semifinalist for Hav & Mar — which is Marcus Samuelsson’s Chelsea restaurant, not Red Rooster.
Where should I eat on 125th Street?
Charles Pan-Fried Chicken at 439 W 125th St, and honestly that is the list. Twelve of the thirteen verified addresses on this page sit on a north-south avenue or a side street rather than on the 125th Street strip. The Studio Cafe at 144 W 125th opened in November 2025 in the Studio Museum’s lower level, but it is a museum cafe rather than a dinner plan. The real eating in Harlem is one or two blocks off the main drag.
Where is the West African food in Harlem?
Two clusters, and the difference between them matters. On 116th Street, Le Baobab at 120 and La Savane d’Afrique at 239 are the anchors of Little Senegal — but neither publishes hours, so call first. On Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd, Africa Kine at 2267 runs to 1am every day and Ponty Bistro at 2375 runs 10am to midnight. The late-night West African corridor is on Adam Clayton Powell, not on 116th.
Last updated: August 2026. Menus, prices and hours change – confirm with the restaurant before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
