New York City is filled with some of the country’s most dynamic and opulent restaurants, including more than 200 Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winners—more than any other city in the world. Yet even among these, some stand above the rest—the “kings of the hill, top of the heap,” so to speak.
They’re our 12 New York City Grand Award winners—some of the best restaurants for wine across the globe. In the Big Apple, each Grand Award winner offers more than 1,600 wines. Their cellars offer outstanding depth across leading producers, with mature vintages and coveted large-format bottles, alongside top-tier presentation and service. Each one has earned a Grand Award for delivering exceptional wine selections that can appeal to any enophile or budding wine lover.
The Best New York City Restaurants for Wine
- Ai Fiori
- Daniel
- Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse
- Eleven Madison Park
- Gabriel Kreuther
- The Grill
- Jean-Georges
- Le Bernardin
- The Modern
- Nice Matin
- Per Se
- Sistina
Explore our 99 Grand Award winners across the globe!
Ai Fiori
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Burgundy, Piedmont, Tuscany, Italy, California, Bordeaux, Champagne, Rhône
Wine Selections: 1,600
Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: Italian/French
Known For: Wine Tastings/Events, Private Event Space, Date Night, Special Occasions, Bar Scene
A few blocks from the Empire State Building, Ai Fiori draws inspiration from coastal Italian cuisine and the French Riviera. Notable dishes on chef Lauren DeSteno’s menu include swordfish brochettes, tuna tartare Niçoise and Colorado lamb with squash blossoms and mint, alongside house-made pastas. Wine director Francesco Grosso oversees a program of approximately 1,600 selections, specializing in Burgundy and Piedmont, including verticals from producers such as G. Roumier and Produttori del Barbaresco.
Tip: At Bar Fiori—the restaurant’s dedicated cocktail lounge—guests can enjoy drinks inspired by the French and Italian Rivieras. (On weeknights from 5–6 p.m., Ai Fiori also hosts a martini hour, offering a martini with either oysters or a house burger for $40.)
Daniel
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône, Germany, Champagne
Wine Selections: 2,500 Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: French
Known For: Private Event Space, Date Night, Chef’s Table Experience, Historic Location, Special Occasions
At Daniel, chef Daniel Boulud’s flagship on the Upper East Side, vibrant paintings by Ouattara Watts line the walls, where they echo the equally artistic dishes. Think of elegantly plated kataifi-crusted trout with couscous cromesquis, veal tenderloin and roasted artichokes with dollops of sauce blanquette and cured salmon with ramps and a fennel–watercress marmalade. Three- and five-course prix fixe menus are available ($195 and $235 per person, respectively), as well as a seven-course tasting menu ($295). Wine director Erin Healy oversees the 2,500-selection list, featuring some of the most prestigious names in wine, including Keller, Château Léoville Las Cases, Billecart-Salmon and Mayacamas.
Tip: One of the most exclusive reservations in New York is Daniel’s Skybox—a glass-encased four-person dining room that overlooks the bustling kitchen pass.
Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: California, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, Italy, Spain
Wine Selections: 1,800 Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: American
Looking out onto Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse pairs a classic American steak house menu with one of the city’s most ambitious wine programs. The restaurant—marked by a soaring triple-height dining room—is part of hospitality mogul Tilman Fertitta’s Landry’s hospitality group. Chef Jaquon Rawl’s menu is filled with luxurious steak house classics: broiled Alaskan king crab with drawn butter, succulent Kobe beef and double-bone Kurobuta pork chops. Wine director Curtis Burdine’s program includes vertical offerings of Bordeaux first-growths, including Château Haut-Brion going back to 1955, and all the E. Guigal “La La” Côte-Rôties. There’s no shortage of big-name Napa producers, such as Abreu, Colgin Cellars and Harlan Estate.
Tip: Not in New York? There are 14 other Restaurant Award–winning Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouses across the country.
Eleven Madison Park
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Burgundy, Rhône, California, Bordeaux, Italy, Germany, Champagne, Austria, Alsace, Loire
Wine Selections: 4,100 Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: American
Known For: Wine Tastings/Events, Private Event Space, Historic Location, Special Occasions, Bar Scene
Inside the landmark Metropolitan Life North Building overlooking Madison Square Park, chef Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park is a trailblazer in fine dining backed by a 22,000-bottle cellar. After four years of being entirely plant-based, in 2025 the destination started reintroducing meat and animal products to its menu, with Humm bringing back dishes from his repetoire such as the lavender honey duck and lobster poached with cabbage and pear. (The tasting menu is $385 per person.) Wine director Brady Brown’s list is especially strong in Burgundy and California and large-format bottles. Standout names include Giacomo Conterno, Domaine Leflaive and R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia.
Tip: Above Eleven Madison Park, Clemente Bar serves cocktails and small bites in a lounge clad in custom paintings from artist Francesco Clemente.
Gabriel Kreuther
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône, Alsace, France, Italy, California
Wine Selections: 2,350 | Inventory: 10,000
Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: French, Farm to Table
Known For: Wine Tastings/Events, Private Event Space, Date Night, Chef's Table Experience, Special Occasions
French chef and restaurateur Gabriel Kreuther says he’s adored wine since the moment he first tasted grand cru Burgundy. This passion is clear at his namesake restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. Kreuther serves farm-to-table dishes that draw from traditional Alsatian cuisine, such as hay-smoked duck breast (sourced from New York’s Hudson Valley) with eggplant and his signature sturgeon and sauerkraut tart with imperial Kaluga caviar. Wine director Chris Fagan focuses on France, which shows strength in Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône and Kreuther’s native Alsace, of course. Notable producers on the list include Alsace’s Trimbach, Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and the Rhône’s M. Chapoutier.
Tip: In 2026, Kreuther opened his second restaurant, Saverne—a live-fire brasserie in New York’s Hudson Yards.
The Grill
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Italy, Champagne, Rhône, France
Wine Selections: 3,795
Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: American
Known For: Date Night, Historic Location, Special Occasions, Bar Scene
The Grill brings new life to the legendary Four Seasons dining room. Co-owned by Major Food Group’s Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick alongside Aby Rosen, the restaurant has held a Grand Award since 2019. Chef Alex Clark crafts a menu of glitzy American steak house favorites—think steak and anchovy tartare, honey mustard duckling, whole-grilled squab and prime aged steaks. Wine directors John Slover and Amy Thurmond-Spina oversee the cellar of more than 22,000 bottles. Jean-Louis Chave, Tenuta San Guido and Opus One are among the many iconic producers represented, and the list is stacked with verticals, horizontals and rare treasures—including more than five pages dedicated to François Raveneau Chablis.
Tip: The Grill serves many dishes tableside—the prime rib trolley, the duck à la presse, wild mushroom omelet and others—for added spectacle and historical flair.
Jean-Georges
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône, France, California
Wine Selections: 2,150
Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: Asian, French
In 1997, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened his namesake restaurant overlooking Central Park and Columbus Circle. Vongerichten’s creations utilize American, Asian and French techniques, with dishes such as fennel with sunflower dukkah, young garlic soup with frog legs, tuna ribbons with a ginger dressing and diver scallop in a bonito jus. Wine director Rory Pugh’s list spans iconic regions, with notable selections including Jean-Louis Chave, Egon Müller and Benanti. (Read our Nov. 30, 2025, cover story on Vongerichten here!)
Tip: Jean-Georges offers an expansive selection of dishes across four seasonal tasting menus—the six-course omnivore ($298 per person), the 10-course omnivore ($398), the six-course vegetarian ($238) and the 1997 Classics ($478).
Le Bernardin
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Burgundy, Bordeaux, Germany, Austria, Champagne, California
Wine Selections: 1,450
Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: Seafood
Since opening in 1986, Le Bernardin has become a standard-bearer for refined French dining and flawless service in New York. Led by chef and co-owner Eric Ripert, the serene Midtown dining room is a temple to seafood. Dishes include a chilled cucumber medley bathed in green gazpacho and finished with seaweed caviar, shrimp tartare with a lemon-saffron emulsion and a poached skate wing topped with a confetti-like jalapeño-radish salad. Longtime wine director Aldo Sohm oversees the cellar. The Champagne section includes major houses such as Bollinger and Krug, alongside grower Champagnes from Agrapart & Fils, Armand Rousseau and Château Cheval Blanc. Other iconic labels appear alongside discoveries from lesser-known regions, including the Jura in France and Spain’s Canary Islands.
Tip: An insider move is to go to Le Bernardin for lunch (three courses for $139).
The Modern
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Burgundy, California, Rhône, Piedmont, Bordeaux, Champagne, Australia, Germany, Alsace
Wine Selections: 2,900 Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: American
Known For: Chef’s Table Experience, Special Occasions, Great View, Private Event Space, Focus on Sustainability
Attached to the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan, the Modern features the crown jewel wine cellar in restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group. In the main dining room, with white-tablecloth settings and floor-to-ceiling windows peering into MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, guests can choose from two dinner tasting menus from chef Thomas Allan: Impressions or Abstractions ($175 for seven courses and $275 for ten courses, respectively). Adjacent to the dining room is the more casual bar room, where the full wine list is served alongside bites such as fried chicken and miniature caviar-topped hot dogs. (A full dining menu is also available.) Wine director Jan Van Heesvelde guides the 2,900-wine program, which notably highlights Burgundy’s William Fèvre, Napa Valley’s Kongsgaard and Abruzzo’s Emidio Pepe.
Tip: The Modern offers a generous corkage policy—only $35.
Nice Matin
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Bordeaux, California, Burgundy, Italy, Rhône, Champagne
Wine Selections: 2,495
Wine Pricing: $$ | Food Pricing: $$
Cuisine: French
Known For: Cozy & Intimate
Nice Matin is a beloved Provençal bistro that is a cornerstone of the Upper West Side. The restaurant is one of Chef Driven Hospitality’s 12 Restaurant Award winners across New York City, including Marseille, Monterey and Nizza. Chef Andy d’Amico helms the kitchen, serving French classics such as escargot, Niçoise salad, steak frites with béarnaise sauce and a Comté and leek omelet. Aviram Turgeman, beverage director for the Chef Driven group, oversees the wine list. The predominantly French program notably carries Château Cos d’Estournel Bordeaux, Château Peyrassol rosé, Domaine de la Vougeraie Burgundy and Louis Michel & Fils Chablis, as well as approximately 25 by-the-glass options that change frequently.
Tip: Beyond dinner, Nice Matin offers breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch and an apéro hour.
Per Se
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Italy, Rhône, Champagne
Wine Selections: 2,010
Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: American, French
Known For: Great View, Vegetarian/Vegan, Date Night, Cozy & Intimate, Special Occasions
On the fourth floor of the Deutsche Bank Building, Thomas Keller’s Per Se serves world-class tasting menus set against views of Central Park. (Fellow Grand Award winner The French Laundry is Per Se’s West Coast counterpart.) Some recent menu items include Maine sea scallop poêlée, citrus-cured hiramasa and Keller’s signature “oysters and pearls.” Wine director Michel Couvreux’s list champions California and France. The by-the-glass list changes regularly and showcases premium pours such as Pol Roger, Château d’Yquem and d’Oliveira Madeira.
Tip: In recent years, Per Se has started hosting marked down lunches specifically for first-time diners and diners under 30 to welcome new guests to fine dining.
Sistina
Grand Award
Wine Strengths: Tuscany, Piedmont, Italy, Bordeaux, Burgundy, France, California
Wine Selections: 5,000 | Inventory: 125,000
Wine Pricing: $$$ | Food Pricing: $$$
Cuisine: Italian
Sistina brings the Old World into its sunny, art-adorned dining room on the Upper East Side. Inside a historic townhouse, the restaurant serves Italian cuisine inspired by chef and co-owner Giuseppe Bruno’s upbringing. Menu items include grilled octopus with roasted peppers and white beans, vitello tonnato and suckling pig with green apple purée. Bruno also manages the extraordinary wine program—stocked with 125,000 bottles—which shows strength in Italy and California, with Piedmont’s Bartolo Mascarello and Gaja, Napa’s Shafer and Sonoma’s Ramey.
Tip: The upstairs lounge offers light bites and wine by the glass.
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