Walk all the way through to the back "garden" area for fairy lights and a lovely laid-back atmosphere. The hot mud is the best, but the lemonade and iced tea are also great.
We've tried many a bagel, but Tompkins is our favourite (so far). Skip all the specialty sandwich offerings (which are a bit stingy in servings) and go for walnut raisin cream cheese or roast beef.
A tiny little spot that's always busy, and rightly so: the soup noodles are incredible, and everything's good value. Get the roast duck noodle soup and steamed pork & veg dumplings.
SUCH a beautiful location - and it's nice and quiet too. There's a surprising amount of seating, plus outlets and good wifi. The cold brew is out of this world.
We crave a "Zon" sandwich almost as soon as we've finished eating the last one. This is top-notch banh mi.
The pastrami reuben is far cheaper and waaay better than some of the more famous sandwich shops around - and the chopped liver w/turkey is crazy good too. Lovely, old-school diner atmosphere.
This place needs to be on more "Best burger in NYC lists". It looks a bit nothingy from the outside, but the burgers are superb, the sweet potato fries are incredible and the owner is lovely.
Sandwiches so beautiful you almost don't want to eat them. Get the Sexier Beast or the Smokey Joe.
Tompkins Square Bagels in the East Village is still our overall favourite, but this place has unbeatable pumpernickel bagels.
Underwhelming iced tea, surly staff and iffy wifi are rescued by a great location (opposite Tompkins Square Park), plenty of seats, and the world's best brownie.
Grumpy's is on par with Stumptown when it comes to coffee quality. There's lots of seating at this branch, but still strictly no laptops.
Underrated (or else very much under the radar)! ToJ has superb chicken sandwiches, delicious burgers, and super-lovely servers. Such a nice, laid-back atmosphere too.
It's right in the middle of the city, there's a big green lawn for sunbathing on, plenty of chairs, free wifi, outlets, events, classes, readings... it's wonderful.
The coffee is meh and the wifi is horrendous, but there's a nice big table for laptop users, plenty of air-con, and a PRINTER! If you can tether, this place is great for getting work done.
This new location is nowhere near as good as the last one (it looks a bit half-finished), but perhaps it'll get better in time. The cold brew is just as good as always.
Check out the events calendar: they have some really fun and original free events almost every night.
A wonderful place to work from. Huge, bright and interesting with good wifi. The iced fruit tea is yumsome.
Come on a weekday morning for breakfast in nice, unhurried peace! The pancakes are huge and delicious, the oatmeal is superb, and the coffee is topped up frequently. Need to go back for lunch/dinner!
Much smaller than their other locations, but the coffee's great and so are the brownies. There's no wifi, but plenty of people on laptops.
Skip all the rice and fried stuff, and stick with the AMAZING pork buns, sticky rice in lotus leaves, and dumplings.
Huge! Great wifi and great coffee. It's a shame it always looks a bit messy and dirty, but nevertheless it's a great place to hang out and work for a few hours.
Absolutely everyone here is on a laptop - even though there's no wifi at this particular location. It's big, always busy, and serves great coffee.
Admittedly we haven't tried any other cuban sandwiches in NYC, but we don't really feel the need to bother: these ones are delicious.
HUGE portions! The laffa bread is amazing, and the falafel is nice and crunchy. Get takeout: while there's plenty of seating, the atmosphere is a bit dull.
It gets packed at 6pm for an insanely good happy hour (free food!), but even then it isn't too loud or annoying. Lovely servers.
It's a nice place for working if in the area, but the coffee isn't as great as we hoped it'd be.
While we LOVE the burritos here, we get that they're probably not so great if you're a burrito expert! Still, this place is so much fun and you should go anyway. The frozen margaritas are a must.
The best place to go if you're feeling down! There's always someone playing Broadway classics on the piano, and at least a few others singing along at this cute little bar in the West Village.
FRRRR-EEZING! They really like the air-con in this place! It's a nice spot to work from if you happen to be in Alphabet City, but the coffee's a bit lame. Bring a jacket. And scarf. And mittens.
A wonderful place for a lazy morning of coffee, newspaper-reading (they have plenty available there) and people-watching.
There's a Stumptown next door for coffee, and - as long as you're able to grab a space on one of the comfy sofas - you can sit and work from the Ace's lobby area for as long as you want.
Stumptown coffee plus lots of tables and decent wifi. It's not the most vibetastic place on the planet, but it's a solid option for this part of town.
Papa bear with cinnamon roasted apples, white chocolate chips, dried figs and dulce de leche. You're welcome.
This very minimalist coffee shop has seats that are as uncomfortable as hell, but it's a surprisingly peaceful and relaxing place to work from - with friendly staff and big mugs of coffee and tea.
One of the loveliest cafes we've ever been to. Amazing coffee, loads of comfy seats, outlets, friendly staff, fast wifi, great air-con. The best.
Very poor delivery service, but amazing, high-quality sandwiches. The Venezuelan and El Penzini were delish.
It's a bit pretentious, but it smells amazing and the coffees are perfect. We just stopped here for a quick break, so didn't try the wifi.
Great for people-watching. Kids play football in the middle while people run, rollerblade or push strollers around the track. Then there's the outdoor gym and everyone hanging out on the grass.
The servers couldn't be more up-themselves and annoyed that they have to serve you (we're talking worse than 9th Street Espresso). But the coffee's good and there's plenty of space to work.
Lovely new place with the most eager-to-please owner we've ever come across! We tried our very first cemitas here so we have nothing to compare them to, but they were delicious.
Super-friendly servers and fantastic cold brew. We haven't done any laptop work from here, but it looks like a good place for it.
What's with the servers here?! They're all so darn rude. But the space is lovely and it's open until 9pm. We haven't tried any of the crazy coffee concoctions, but they sound good.
Surprisingly quiet (considering Think and Bean nearby are rammed). A great place to work with a lovely backyard. Reminds us of the cafes in Bangkok/Chiang Mai.
Go at lunchtime when it isn't packed! Peruvian chicken with sweet plantains is incredible; ditto lomo saltado.
There aren't many wifi cafes on the UWS. This one's pretty good, although you'll need to tether.
A cafe with a real estate office at one end... interesting. There are plenty of seats here, the carrot cake is amazing, the coffee is great and the music is joyous Chinese pop (we think)!
Chocolate chip pancakes and oatmeal for dinner: one of the many things we love about NYC (and the server didn't bat an eyelid at the order - and asked if we wanted the oatmeal as a starter).
BEAUTIFUL restaurant - both the downstairs and the roof deck with twinkly lights. Surprisingly reasonable prices. Amazing chicken sandwich.
The roof deck view is a bit of a disappointment, but the super-strong cocktails at happy hour more than make up for it.
A convenient place to work from if you're in DUMBO. The coffee's great and the servers are lovely.
INCREDIBLE. The barbacoa cemita is out of this world. (It's not on the menu but they do it if you ask).
A great place to work from during the day: it's quite empty, there are lots of tables and outlets, the wifi is great and the owner is lovely.
Cute little place with great coffee! Never worked from here - and apparently it gets really busy during the day.
