With a reservation needed to gain entrance, one is brought to a fine dining brasserie in the basement. Serving dishes from Mexican style grilled corn to ceviche, a selection of Mexican food is served. Read more.
Run by King Phojanakong, Kuma Inn offers an Asian tapas-style experience, with several smaller dishes. They have several signature dishes on the menu, from a yellowfin tuna tartare to grilled salmon. Read more.
Originally a ramen shop led by Lindsay Salminen, the shop has now taken a Thai direction under Chef Nam. Dishes range from Bok Choy to Fish ball Noodle Soup. Read more.
Through the kitchen of this stylish Austrian eatery in Soho is a hidden room. Mimicking an Apres bar in the alps, fondue and raclette are served during the colder months. Read more.
Hidden inside the Le Parker Meridian Hotel, a burger shop is located behind curtains in the hotel’s lobby. The burgers happen to be some of the best in the city, giving reason for the often long line. Read more.
This small Nordic eatery in Greenpoint is accessed through a door in the back of the craft beer bar Tørst. The front bar is one of the better beer bars in the city with over 20 beers on tap. Read more.
Styled as a “Japanese brasserie,” this unique restaurant is a unique dining experience, and the restaurant offers both a la carte and an eight course omakase tasting menu. Read more.
The warm, cozy space is modeled on Scottish bothies—bare-bones cabins up in the hills where people can camp out for free provided they leave something useful behind for the next guest. Read more.
The rules: no reservations, no groups larger than four, no standing room, and no yelling. Ascend the stairs and enter through the unmarked door to the left of the sushi counter in Yokocho restaurant. Read more.
In a non-descript two floor brick building between a transmission shop and a taxi lot, Dutch Kills is an unmarked gem, save for a neon BAR sign. The vibe has always been deliberately divey and fun. Read more.
To get to Fig. 19, you have to walk through an art gallery above the popular subterranean dance spot Home Sweet Home and open up the door in the very back. Once you’re inside, it feels like home. Read more.
Venture inside, past the velvet curtain, and you’ll find yourself in a glowing jewel box of a bar. The white subway tiles continue inside, completely covering the ceiling, like in the Paris métro. Read more.
You get to Featherweight by going through the restaurant Sweet Science next door. It is one little room with a bar, three roomy mint-green booths, and some additional seating along the back wall. Read more.
With chic couches, old books, stacks of vintage suitcases, a pipe organ, old radios and authentic wallpaper, it’s got the makings of a Wes Anderson set, but better because you get to party in it. Read more.
Inside the landmarked 69th Regiment Armory, an active armory on Lexington Avenue and 25th Street, a bar that began as an officers club but is now welcome to military personnel and their guests. Read more.
To access the bar, you have to walk into North River first, then head down the staircase. Press a doorbell, and await further instructions. Read more.
Up a flight of steps and behind a nondescript townhouse door in midtown, Bar Centrale feels a world away from the hustle and bustle of the Theater District. It’s glamorous, but not showy. Read more.
Hidden above Five Guys burgers, walk to the very back of the fast food joint and up a wooden staircase. It’s the type of spot where you can start day drinking at 2pm on Saturdays. Read more.
Bohemian is as exclusive as it gets in NYC–it can only be experienced by referral from a previous guest. The New York iteration is tucked down a long hallway next to Japanese Premium Beef. Read more.
For the connoisseurs of French bread and pastries, this understated bakery hidden inside a 1920s Tribeca office building is one of the best and most authentic in the city. Read more.
Amid all the bright lights and neon signs of the old school joints in Little Italy, you have to be looking pretty hard for the unmarked red door with a little red light that serves as the entrance. Read more.
You need to be in the know because its entrance is located in the basement of a nondescript Midtown office building, past the security desk and through a pristine white lobby. Read more.
This oyster bar is in no ordinary building—it’s tucked into an alleyway from the 1800s, which was uncovered and carefully restored. The outdoor-indoor barrier is certainly tenuous here. Read more.
At St. Mazie, an easy-to-miss door across from the bar opens onto a staircase that descends to the cellar where you’ll feel transported back to the 1880s. Read more.
El Sabroso has been open for 20 years with the same owner serving affordable Hispanic food. The non-descript sign outside reads “Aqui ahorra y come bueno” meaning “Here you will save and eat well.” Read more.
Although the UN Headquarters can be visited on tours, one of the best secrets is the Delegates Dining Room. Despite what its name suggests, the restaurant is open to the public with a reservation. Read more.
Looking for an unmarked subterranean Mexican restaurant in the middle of Chinatown? Probably not, but now that you know it exists, you want to see it for yourself, don’t you? Read more.
Step inside and head down the stairs to the basement, where large round tables and folding chairs sit atop a linoleum floor. A small buffet station is set up at one end of the room. Read more.