New York City food halls: Where to find them and food you should try
What is a food hall? Is it a large, loud place where dining areas with plastic tables and uncomfortable metal chairs are surrounded by chain restaurants, and where the aroma of Auntie Anne’s or Panda Express is a constant presence? No, you are thinking of a food court, the oft-derided, oft-mall-based destination that some consider a gathering of America’s worst eating habits under one roof and others the high school cafeteria of their dreams.
A food hall, on the other hand, aims for an immersive experience showcasing cool local chefs cooking cool food for cool customers in a building that’s actually pleasant to inhabit. As such, these halls are now sprouting up seemingly everywhere but Long Island. Their appeal has been variously attributed to consumers’ increased desire not to eat out of a bag, relaxed attitudes toward communal dining post-pandemic, and the growing number of dining parties that can’t agree on where to eat.
Ever alive to trends, New York City has embraced the food hall concept full-throttle in recent years, and, at present, there are at least 25 of them scattered throughout the five boroughs, so many that a cookie-cutter sameness now threatens to descend on the whole genre, all efforts to the contrary. Still, unique destination dining experiences may still be found at food halls, especially in Manhattan. Here are five of the best.
Urban Hawker
135 W. 50th St.
This Midtown food hall was born of its founders’ desire to duplicate the food and atmosphere of Singapore’s hawker centers, which were themselves born of the Singaporean government’s desire, in the 1950s, to collect street food vendors in one place, allegedly for reasons of public health. In any event, the food sold there became a sensation far beyond the Island, and eventually a UNESCO-certified "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in need of preserving. In that sense, the mission of Urban Hawker, which opened in Midtown in 2022 with 17 vendors, goes beyond selling great food, although its food is often great indeed.
The list of worthy Hawker stars, from Singaporean, Indian, Malay and Chinese stalls, is almost too lengthy to mention, but at the top of the list is Hainan Jones. It specializes in what some consider to be Singapore’s national dish, paper-thin slices of chicken over broth-soaked rice.
Urban Hawker, inspired by Singapore’s street food scene, is a food hall in Midtown Manhattan. Credit: Newsday/Scott Vogel
Pork and prawn soup and a Singapore sling cocktail at Prawnaholic Collections, an eatery inside Urban Hawker. Credit: Scott Vogel
And don’t miss the sweet and spicy lontong — a rice cake doused with an addictive sweet and spicy gravy of coconut milk and sambal, a chili paste — at Malaysian Padi D’NYC; or Prawnaholic Collections’ equally unmissable pork and prawn soup, a sort of seafood tonkotsu with large, head-on specimens; or the indescribably good Singaporean fried rice at Mr. Singapore; or the Indonesian rice bowls at Jakarta Munch, especially the one with ground beef over rice dressed with gulai, a spicy coconut curry.
A black sesame entremet, one of many confections at Lady Wong. Credit: Newsday/Scott Vogel
Food this dazzling deserves equally terrific desserts, no? Not to worry. Pastry shop Lady Wong is more than up to the task. To give but one example, its black sesame entremet, a beady obsidian dome encasing passion fruit mousse planted on a thin chocolate cookie, tastes even more exciting than it looks.
More info 212-381-1245, urbanhawker.com
Food Gallery 32
11 W. 32nd St.
Food Gallery 32 is a Korean and pan-Asian food hall in Midtown Manhattan. Credit: Newsday/Scott Vogel
A compelling case might be made for the entirety of West 32nd Street being one giant food hall, so abundant are the Korean restaurants, cafés and bars on a single block between Fifth and Sixth avenues. But that crowded strip has nothing on the crush of 10 eateries inside this three-level food hall, nine of which hawk pan-Asian delicacies on the first floor alone. There’s definitely a get-em-in-get-em-out vibe more typical of courts than halls ("vacate seat after dining" commands a sign), but Food Gallery, which opened in 2011, showcases a dependable level of cooking, often at very reasonable prices, along with dishes unique in flavor and execution. To wit, if there are better bowls of soup anywhere than the ones at Noona Noodles, we haven’t tried them. The shoyu broth in their cowboy ramen — so-named for its protein-packed combo of steak barbecued Korean-style, a fried egg, American and pepper jack cheeses — is life-changing, and it’s one of just 17 bowls about which folks rave.
Beef short ribs at Kobeque, one of the eateries at Food Gallery 32. Credit: Scott Vogel
Others include Noona’s jjamppong, in which seafood swims in the spiciest of broths, and the Frat Boy, which counts among its ingredients Spam and army stew-kimchi. Elsewhere, there are barbecued short ribs over rice along with Korean spins on nachos and tacos at Kobeque, and up on the third floor, Korean chain Pelicana’s fried chicken gives new meaning to the term KFC opposite a long bank of claw machines, a coin-operated karaoke kiosk ($5 for 10 minutes of singing) and large screens playing K-pop on an endless loop. For dessert, try one of the fish-shaped taiyaki at Mama (filled with cream cheese, Nutella or the traditional red bean paste) or a hot, made-to-order churro across the aisle — available in flavors from chocolate almond to Fruity Pebbles — decadently horseshoed into a cup of soft serve.
More info 718-210-6577, foodgallery32nyc.com
Market 57
25 Eleventh Ave.
Pan-fried noodles are paired with crispy chicken at Market 57. Credit: Olivia Falcigno
A food hall can be built around many things — cuisines, price points, or sometimes just the need to repurpose a historic structure. Now comes one built around an idea — namely the desire to showcase companies headed by women, minorities, and other groups often underrepresented in the culinary trades. The dozen or so purveyors at this hall, whose debut was in 2023, were selected with input from the James Beard Foundation, which has made inclusivity a major initiative, and includes such rising stars as Zaab Zaab.
From left, Nom Wah employees Jherson Suarez, Jack Campos and Parker Young prepare food for customers at Market 57. Credit: Olivia Falcigno
The restaurant has achieved near-legendary status on the strength of its larb, a ground beef salad, and other specialties of the Isan region of northern Thailand (don’t miss the lemongrass pork sausage), but also turns out fine-nigh-definitive khao soi and tom yum soups. The Nom Wah tea parlor quietly served excellent dim sum in Chinatown for more than a century before opening its second location in Market 57, thus ensuring that an even larger audience will come to rave about its heavenly panfried noodles with crispy chicken, shrimp-and-pork dumplings and the like.
Johnny Huynh, owner of Glizzy's, prepares a hot dog at Market 57. Credit: Olivia Falcigno
Bird & Branch is an artisan coffee kiosk built around its idea, the owners’ mission to train those with barriers to employment for jobs in the barista trade, even as Glizzy has built a thriving business around over-the-top hot dogs like Houston, We Have a Problem (dog + brisket), Mr. Lee (dog + kimchi) and so on. Perhaps most exciting of all? The market’s large and glass-walled show kitchen, features chefs-in-residence, classes, demonstrations and dinners with celebrity cookbook authors, all of them open to the public.
More info pier57nyc.com
Tin Building
96 South St.
Once it was the site of Fulton Fish Market, for decades a pilgrimage spot for chefs and serious pescatarians alike in Manhattan’s Seaport District. What opened on the same spot in 2022 was, in part, a Fulton that the Imagineers at Disney might have built, its neon signs and throwback fonts offering an experience wondrous, nostalgic and determinedly crowd-pleasing. (There’s even a souvenir shop for T-shirts and the like.) The brainchild of celebrated chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, much of Tin Building hawks quality meats, cheeses, baked goods and produce for home cooks not on a budget, along with plenty of hard-to-find ingredients that will send the mugwort and fenugreek set into conniptions. But also scattered over its two floors are a few bars and nearly a dozen eateries dedicated to everything from classic French (T. Brasserie) and high-end Chinese (House of the Red Pearl, cleverly hidden behind a curtain upstairs), to tacos (Taquito) and egg sandwiches (Double Yolk), plus standouts like a raw bar (Fulton Fish Co.) and vegetarian spot (abcV) with inspired takes on mushroom walnut Bolognese and hemp seed burgers. Some offerings justify their price points, some don’t, but Tin Building is worth a trip even if you don’t spend a dime. Its beautifully displayed fish on ice, exotically curated flower shop and The Spoiled Parrot — inch for inch the most exciting candy store we’ve ever seen — are all browsers’ delights.
More info 646-868-6000, tinbuilding.com
Mercado Little Spain
10 Hudson Yards
Finally, festooned in the colors of Spain’s flag and the product of a proud patriot, noted chef Jose Andres, this food hall’s tight theme functions as a giant advertisement for Spanish tourism, one heavily trafficked by Manhattan tourists flocking to the High Line and Hudson Yards. Opened in 2019, Mercado features a dozen lively kiosks devoted to such foods as paella, patatas bravas dripping with tomato sauce, potato-fortified omelets and bikini sandwiches (a Catalonian take on grilled ham and cheese). Many are clustered around La Barra, a large counter-service tapas place where every plate is a duality of complex flavors and simple preparations — thin slices of toast glazed with thin layers of tomato puree and olive oil, garlicky poached shrimp in a sauce that begs for bread, roasted onions judiciously topped with toasted hazelnuts and crumbles of blue cheese. Other Mercado restaurants focus on wood-fired meats (Lena), offer picturesque views (Spanish Diner) or, like Bar Celona, deliver potent sangrias and the like, as well as a well-priced weekday happy hour. And for dessert, there are plenty of imaginative sweets from the mind of El Bulli’s Ferran Adria, another Mercado backer. His cardinal is an unlikely if meltingly delicious fantasia of meringue, sponge cake, whipped cream and cherry liqueur.
More info 646-495-1242, littlespain.com
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.
