NYCGuide
The NYC Brunch Hit List: The Best New Brunch In NYC
All the new places for when you wake up on the weekend and actually have the energy to leave the house.
Weekends are a great time for trying new things, like learning to ride an electric Citi Bike or forming a flash mob to recreate that scene from The Wiz. Both of those activities sound fun, but if you’re looking for something a little easier, go get brunch from a place on this list. All of these spots recently opened or just started serving brunch, so if you like doing new things involving eggs or pancakes, this is where to start.
THE SPOTS
Baby Blues is a Greek/American spot in Williamsburg that feels like a mashup between a neighborhood coffee shop and an old-school diner. Appropriately, most of the decor is baby blue, including the huge shelf by the entrance that’s stocked with VHS tapes. Menu highlights include buttery scrambled eggs with pita and halloumi and baklava banana bread. There might be a wait if you stop by on a weekend, but you can always hang out up front and watch a VHS. Just be sure to pick a crowd-pleaser, because there’s only one TV.
Situated at the nexus of Chinatown, Nolita, and the LES, this fun Cantonese-American restaurant kind of reminds us of a movie theater and has very exciting food. The unequivocal best thing on the menu also happens to be perfect brunch food—salt & pepper fried chicken with scallion biscuits. If you come with a group, try and get the curved corner booth in the back right corner.
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K’Far’s dining room is a leafy, makeshift jungle in the lobby of Williamsburg's Hoxton Hotel, and it’s our new favorite place to luxuriate with some borekas and a cup of coffee. The Israeli restaurant is from the same team behind Laser Wolf and switches from cafe food during the day to a full dinner service in the evening. The daytime menu is light, but it does have a few bigger breakfast plates, and long, flat Jerusalem bagel sandwiches. Mostly, we love starting our day surrounded by the calm, low hum of the hotel lobby.
One of our Best New Restaurants in 2022 is now open for brunch, so you can start (and probably end) your day with rich Austrian food that makes you feel like you’re wrapped in a fur blanket when you eat it. You won’t find any of the dinnertime duck dishes or tartares on the brunch menu, but you can get things like “Styrian-style” soft scrambled eggs and Palatschinken with apricot jam. The space has a ton of cozy nooks and feels more like a pub, so you can come in whatever state you find yourself on a weekend morning.
You're not going to find Wenwen's brunch menu on their website, and you'll only find the occasional mention of it on their Instagram page, but this Greenpoint Taiwanese restaurant is open for brunch on weekends from 12-3pm. If you haven't been able to try one of their famous BDSM chickens (they only do five a night), the chicken sandwich on the brunch menu is your best chance at getting a taste. Other weekend items include tater tot dan bing, a cured salmon salad, and savory soy milk.
Little Flower Cafe in Astoria serves excellent food and some of the area’s best coffee. It’s worth traveling to from any borough. We highly recommend the Firni Doughnut and the gochujang chicken sandwich with tart pickles, slaw, and a creamy mayo, all smashed inside of a pillow-soft bun. Stop by for a leisurely afternoon meal with one other person, or just park yourself with a book and consume one excellent cup of coffee after another.
Vegan Hood’s fried chicken has marvelous, expertly seasoned skin, but the pea protein faux chick’n underneath doesn’t taste like an afterthought either. It only gets better from there—the super cheesy mac and cheese is nice and gooey with some smoky spice to it, and the greens are brimming with flavor. Come by at brunch to enjoy these plant-based soul food classics in a lively room covered in flowers.
Corner Bar is an American bistro run by Ignacio Mattos, the chef behind Estela, Altro Paradiso, and Lodi. At brunch, you can get well-executed entrees like vol-au-vent, boudin blanc, and saumon fumé. You can also enjoy a real scene—the kind where the person next to you might have sunglasses on during the meal. This place is in Dimes Square, but it draws a somewhat fancier crowd than the other places in the surrounding neighborhood.
Located in the Beekman Hotel, Daniel Boulud’s newest restaurant is inspired by the bistros of his native Lyon. Come at brunch and choose from six egg dishes that involve things like black truffle and Tomme de Savoie. To round out your meal, get the chilled watercress velouté and the escargots that are fried in a tempura batter and paired with pig trotters. This restaurant will remind you why everyone knows Boulud’s name in the first place: for cooking French food better than most people on this planet.
