16 Comfort Food Restaurants for You to Try Right Now

Known for its decadent, over-the-top burgers and variety of sauces and add-ons, Island Burger & Shakes opened its third Manhattan location this winter. The ingredients will please the foodies in your group, including grass-fed and antibiotic-free meat, and breads from Sullivan Street Bakery and Eli Zabar’s.

From the owners of Bushwick Country Club comes this relaxed restaurant and bar featuring burgers, steaks and salads and an enticing $9 burger and beer special.

Serving stick-to-your-ribs food like grilled cheese with cheddar, Bechamel and black truffles and baked mac and cheese for dinner and brunch, the main draw of this new spot is its lengthy whiskey list. There are also plenty of traditional cocktails like a Sazerac or a Boulavardier as well as craft beers. Locals describe it as a “gracious” and long overdue neighborhood bar.

The farm-fresh comfort food at this new Gramercy spot is just what you need to get you through the winter doldrums. Sourced from Midwinter Farm in upstate Ancram, NY, the food is best paired with one of the restaurant’s innovative cocktails.

While not exactly new, longtime neighborhood favorite Sage General Store reopened with a new concept, new menu items and a new name. Now called the Sage Roadhouse, the eatery offers some of its old favorites, like its mac and cheese, as well as new dishes like a lamb shank lasagna. It also has a full bar and started running a weekly open mic night on Mondays.

Fill your belly with duck confit nachos, lamb skewers, bacon butter meatballs, or beer battered mushrooms before settling in at the area’s first movie theater that opened up last week.

The food truck Frites‘n’Meats, which slugs out scrumptious burgers, now has a brick and mortar joint on Grand Street in Williamsburg that opened this past November. You can build your own heart-stopping burger by selecting your kind of meat, choice of bun, cheese and toppings, all served up with their double fried Belgian-style fries.

Open since: Last week of October 2015

The owner of La Bodega decided to transform his Latin restaurant into a new Mexican food place that specializes in “authentic San Francisco street food.” The menu includes steak and onion stir fry, slow roasted pulled pork, short rib chili nachos and sweet potato pancakes.

Cousins is an American restaurant with a Greek flair, offering comfort food like burgers, hand cut fries and sandwiches to traditional Greek fare based on the owners’ mothers’ recipes.

Hartley’s, which opened last month in the space that formerly housed Sip Bar, brings authentic Irish comfort food to Clinton Hill. The small, cozy pub offers favorites like traditional Irish soda bread, potato and leek soup and, of course, Guinness on tap. But it’s not all beer and bread at Hartley’s — cocktails include the Mary O, made with Old Overholt Rye, Campari, Carpano Antica and Prosecco.

Expect delicious meals all day long at this cafe, bar, restaurant hybrid that opened in early December. Terra Firma offers grits, breakfast burritos in the morning, pulled pork sandwiches and ratatouille for lunch and trout and steak for dinner among other tasty options.

Copper Kettle Kitchen has an intriguing cocktail menu featuring classic drinks with a twist, like the “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” pink jasmine cocktail named after a Daft Punk song. Its food menu is varied with comfort food like mac n’ cheese and paninis to something a little more fancy like a duck breast confit or braised short rib.

Three years after Hurricane Sandy wrecked Grandma’s House in the South Street Seaport just a few months after it opened, the eatery is back. This time, Grandma’s House has opened on Atlantic Avenue with classic comfort food mac & cheese, breakfast food, ribs, pies and a host of delicious sides. There’s also “Grandma’s Original” menu with chili, pot pies and Grandma’s Famous Bucket of Brooklyn Chicken Chips.

Moda Grill, a new American comfort food restaurant in downtown Jamaica, serves mostly old-fashioned eats, like burgers, chicken wings and steaks. Patrons who like to eat light will also find a variety of healthy items on the menu, including salads as well as several vegetarian dishes, like penne pasta in marinara sauce with broccoli, zucchini and carrots. The eatery replaced CityRib, a high-end barbecue restaurant that closed after two years.

This American comfort food spot offers a convenient option for anyone looking to grab a bite before a performance at Lincoln Center. With both upscale options, like steak and a raw bar, and low-key snacks and dishes like deviled eggs or mac and cheese, there’s something for all palates.

The classic cocktail bar has added a full brunch menu, with their take on breakfast comfort food, including “chicken n’ biscuits” and a “grilled cheddar cheese toastie.”