Open since 1982, 188 Bakery Cuchifritos, a Caribbean neighborhood staple, is a go-to for orders of chicharrones, pernil, cuajito (meaty pig stomach), as well as morcilla. Of the latter, critic Ryan Suttonsays, “the sausage, paradoxically light yet also earthy and rich, serves as a reminder that if you’re not considering Puerto Rican pork within the scope of the city’s grand meat and charcuterie traditions, you’re not doing it right.”

Now over a century old, Marios on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx is as old-school as it gets. The Migliucci family still owns this restaurant that started as a pizzeria, serving dishes like linguine with red clam sauce and veal marsala. The interior looks untouched, full of oil paintings, Michelangelo statuettes, and white columns. Don’t miss the dessert trolley, and be sure to finish off with an espresso paired with a shot of complimentary anisette.

Dubbed “the Queen of Soul Food,” Sylvia Woods opened the doors on Sylvia’s Restaurant in 1962, bringing generous servings of Southern comfort food to Harlem. The neighborhood restaurant is world-famous for its timeless cooking and Southern charm, which still endures decades after opening. While Woods died in 2012, her family continues to run the restaurant.

This Astoria beer garden has been around since 1910, and is the oldest of its kind in the city. It’s a sprawling place with an enormous garden, which makes it especially popular in warmer months. The beer selection is solid, there’s a range of sausage and schnitzel to soak it up, and pitchers top out at around $20.

New Yorklost the restaurateur Joe Allenin 2021, yet after nearly 60 years, his namesake restaurant lives on; this Theater District staple remains a haunt for theatergoers and actors alike. Get the La Scala salad with iceberg, salami, and provolone; the Joe Allen burger or steak frites; and save room for the epic banana cream pie.

Grand Central Oyster Bar has occupied the subterranean space in Grand Central Station since 1913. The award-winning room, with its vaulted, tiled ceilings is one of the main attractions here, and one of the best seats for slurping more than a dozen kinds of oysters is at the bar.

One of Manhattan’s oldest and greatest steakhouse institutions Keens has stood on 36th Street since 1885, and it remains one of Midtown’s best restaurants. It’s famed for its mutton chop (though the steaks and the hash are also a good choice) and for the thousands of clay pipes hanging from its ceiling, which used to be rented out to regulars for $5 a year.

Old Town Bar is one of a handful to survive Prohibition. The space itself, with its tiled floor, wooden booths, and mahogany bar, is one of the main attractions, but Old Town also serves a superb burger and wings. Dine downstairs, and your food might just be delivered to the bar via dumbwaiter from the kitchen upstairs.

Katz’s has stood on the corner of East Houston and Ludlow streets since 1888, and the pastrami alone is a New York icon. The expansive, cafeteria-style dining room is almost always bustling, and diners have to know how to navigate the system. Get in line, remember to tip the slicer (they might give you an extra piece to snack on), and no matter what, don’t lose that ticket.

Lombardi’s is the first pizzeria in New York City and, supposedly, the country. It relocated a few decades ago — from the home it had occupied since 1905 to a storefront down the block — but it’s still one of the city’s few coal-oven pizzerias. Go early or late to avoid the onslaught of tourists, and get a basic red or white pie.

Opened in the ’80s, the comely neon-lit Odeon “is a movie set that doubles as a restaurant,” according to a decades-old piece inVanity Fair. Opened by Lynn Wagenknecht, her then-husband restauranteur Keith McNally, and his brother Brian, it’s still run by Wagenknecht (while Keith has gone on to open a restaurant empire). In spite of the many lives New York has lived since it opened in what was then remote Tribeca, the Odeon feels both of the ’80s and of the moment. Other plusses: No server will ask if you’ve dined here before. The dining room, usually crowded, is neither too loud nor too quiet. The music is a backdrop but not intrusive. And your Odeon burger, three-egg omelet, or croque monsieur will arrive as satisfying as you would hope.

Chinatown’s oldest restaurant serves up fresh and consistently delicious dim sum, ordered off a menu rather than a cart. The dining room, dating back to 1920, is a relic. Order the pork buns, the sticky rice in lotus leaves, the shrimp and chive dumplings, and any of the rice rolls. During peak dim sum hours (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) there may be a line, but it’s worth waiting in.

Wo Hop, founded in 1938, takes the distinction of the city’s second oldest Chinese restaurant. (Only Nom Wah Tea Parlor, started in 1920 and also on this list, is older.) Its longevity is due to both the reliability of its Chinese-American fare and the small, subterranean nature of the real estate it occupies. Try the massive platters of chicken chow mein, sweet-and-sour pork, subgum egg foo young, and beef chow fun. While the address listed here is considered the original Wo Hop, the street-level part of the restaurant is dubbed Wo Hop Next Door.

Founded in 1924 when Ridgewood was a German immigrant enclave, Gottscheer represents a group of ethnic Germans who had previously lived under theHabsburg Monarchyin what is now Slovenia. This sturdy beer hall, which looks every year of its age, has a barroom open to the public whereGerman and American beersare dispensed, and an agreeable but limited menu of sausages, goulash, pretzels, and cutlets is served. Don’t miss the potato pancakes.

L&B Spumoni Gardens was founded in 1939 and is always at its best in the summer when it’s warm enough to sit at the picnic tables outside. The restaurant sprawls across three buildings, each offering a different L&B specialty. Order the spumoni, of course, famed thick-crusted Sicilian pizzas (served “upside down” with the sauce on top of the cheese), and巨大的meatball heroes.

Even if it’s since grown into a wide-reaching franchise, Nathan’s Famous remains a true New York institution. The Coney Island original opened in 1916, selling hot dogs for five cents. They cost more now, of course, and come in vegan varieties, but otherwise not much has changed about the experience of eating a cheap, greasy dog on the boardwalk.