Murray Hill

The deli that Abe Lebewohl opened on Second Avenue in 1954 and that his nephew moved to East 33rd Street in 2007 after the old lease went. Still glatt kosher, still cures its own pastrami, still puts a bowl of pickles and a dish of chopped liver on the table before you order. Matzo ball soup, kasha varnishkes, egg creams at the counter.

Daily, 11am to 8pm

The New York outpost of a Chennai group that started in 1964, cooking Chettinad food, which means black pepper and curry leaf and a good deal more heat than the dosa places up the street. Pepper chicken and mutton chukka off the board, biryani by the plate. This is the one on Lexington where the tables are full of people speaking Tamil.

Mon to Fri, 11:30am to 3pm and 5:30pm to 10pm. Sat and Sun, noon to 4pm and 5:30pm to 11pm

Soon tofu arrives at the table still boiling in a stone pot, and you crack a raw egg into it yourself while it is spitting. A bowl of purple rice comes with a dozen banchan. The bill stays short. The 32nd Street branch opens at half past ten in the morning and runs to five on a weekend night.

Sun to Thu, 10:30am to 1am. Fri and Sat, 10:30am to 5am

Named for the truck-stop canteens of the Grand Trunk Road and built around a tandoor, on the Curry Hill stretch of Lexington. Heavier and more northern than its neighbors, with kebabs off the skewer and a lunch service that runs straight into dinner at 3pm. The kitchen stays on until half eleven every night of the week, which almost nothing else on this block does.

Daily, 11am to 11:30pm

Separate counters fill three floors behind one door on 32nd Street. You order at whichever stall you want, take a number and sit at a shared table, so a group can eat Korean fried chicken and knife-cut noodles and a bowl of shaved ice at the same time without anybody compromising. Trays, plastic water cups, nobody hovering.

Daily, 11am to 11pm

Third floor of 28 West 32nd, where you take a booth by the hour with a remote, a couple of microphones and a tablet of songs rather than singing to a bar. The drink order comes to you. It runs to half three in the morning on a weeknight and four on weekends, which is later than almost anything else on the block.

Mon to Thu, 6:30pm to 3:30am. Fri and Sat, 6pm to 4am. Sun, 7pm to 3am

Open on the lower level of the terminal since 1913, under Guastavino tile vaults that carry sound in odd directions. Sit at the curved counter rather than in the dining hall and you get the same pan roast cooked in front of you in a steam-jacketed kettle. The Saloon along the side is the cheaper end of the same kitchen.

Mon to Sat, 11:30am to 9:30pm. Closed Sunday

The concourse ceiling is a night sky painted backwards, which nobody caught until after it was finished, and there is a dark patch left unrestored near Cancer so you can see what seventy years of tobacco smoke did. Down the ramp outside the Oyster Bar the tiled arches carry a whisper diagonally across the corner. Free, and open until two in the morning.

Daily, 5:15am to 2am

A Korean supermarket down a flight of stairs on 32nd Street, tighter and busier than the suburban ones. Tanks of live fish at the back, a wall of kimchi by weight, instant noodles in a range no other shop on this island carries, and a row of rice cakes by the till. Open until eleven every night.

Daily, 8am to 11pm

Pakistani food ordered off a board at the counter on the Curry Hill block of Lexington, with the tandoor visible from the sidewalk and goat karahi on the steam table. Seats are plastic and shared, the bill is small, and the place has fed cab drivers on this corner for years.

Mon to Fri, 11am to 2:30pm and 5pm to 10pm. Sat and Sun, 11am to 10pm

Homestyle Korean on 31st, a block southeast of the 32nd Street crush, built around set meals that arrive as a tray of banchan, a soup, rice and a main. It opened around 2015 and made its name feeding office workers at lunch. Makgeolli comes in a brass bowl and there is a short soju list behind the bar.

Lunch Mon to Fri, noon to 3pm. Brunch Sat and Sun, noon to 3pm. Dinner Sun to Thu, 5pm to 11pm. Fri and Sat, 5pm to midnight

A counter in the tiled passage that runs from the main concourse out to Lexington Avenue, which means you drink it standing in a corridor of Grand Central with commuters going past. Joe started on Waverly Place in 2003 and roasts its own. Espresso and drip come by the cup. A cortado and a short pastry case fill out the counter.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 7pm. Sat and Sun, 9am to 6pm

Up a staircase to the second floor of 22 West 32nd, where the extraction hoods come down over the grill at your table and someone else does the cooking and the cutting. Thick-cut pork belly and marinated short rib go on the grill. Banchan is refilled without asking. The kitchen runs to midnight on a weekday. Walk-in parties sit at the counter along the side.

Sun to Thu, 11:30am to midnight. Fri and Sat, 11:30am to 1am

A slice window on the corner of 33rd and Fifth that runs to four in the morning, and five on weekends. Plain slices are held under the counter lamp and reheated. A Sicilian square waits beside them with a stack of paper plates. You eat standing at the shelf along the window.

Sun to Thu, 9am to 4am. Fri and Sat, 9am to 5am

Three floors of grills on the south side of 32nd Street, running around the clock every day of the week. Each floor has its own character and the top one is quieter than the street suggests. Charcoal under the grate rather than gas, and the banchan keeps coming.

Open 24 hours, daily

A narrow Curry Hill grocery with sacks of basmati on the floor and spices sold loose by weight rather than in jars. Lentils and flours along one wall, Indian snack mixes and sweets at the front, and a fridge of paneer and frozen parathas at the back. Cheaper than the better-known shop two doors along and rarely busy.

Mon to Sat, 10am to 9pm. Sun and holidays, 11am to 8pm

Trading on this block since 1993 and still burning real charcoal under the grate rather than the electric plates most of its neighbors moved to. You cook your own meat at the table, the banchan arrives without being asked for, and the kitchen stays on until five in the morning. Two floors, the upper one quieter.

Daily, 10am to 5am

A single gallery and a shop in the Shuttle Passage off the main concourse, run by the Transit Museum that lives in a disused Brooklyn station. Rotating exhibitions on the subway and the buses, and a shop selling actual retired line signs, token cufflinks and roll signs alongside the usual. Admission is free.

Mon to Fri, 10am to 7:30pm. Sat and Sun, 10am to 6pm

The 32nd Street branch opens at five in the morning, which nothing else on this block does. Trays and tongs at the door, then a wall of milk bread, red bean buns, cream-filled pastries and the sweet-savory garlic bread, and a coffee counter at the back. Seats upstairs if you want to sit with it.

Mon to Wed and Sun, 5am to 10pm. Thu to Sat, 5am to 11pm

An unreconstructed Irish bar on 40th that pours until four in the morning every night of the week and runs happy hour all day, every day. Televisions on, Guinness on tap, a back bar with seats and a few tables out on the sidewalk in warm weather. No one is policing what you are wearing.

Mon to Sat, 11am to 4am. Sun, noon to 4am

On Lexington since 1996, South Indian, entirely vegetarian and kosher certified, which is an unusual combination anywhere and a normal one on this block. Dosas, uttapam, idli, and a thali that arrives as a tray of small steel bowls. The vegan items are marked on the menu rather than guessed at.

Sun to Thu, noon to 9:30pm. Fri and Sat, noon to 10pm

South Indian vegetarian on the Curry Hill stretch of Lexington, open from nine in the morning for idli and a coffee. The paper dosa comes a good deal longer than the plate and they bring sambar and three chutneys with it. Entirely vegetarian and it always has been.

Sun to Thu, 9am to 10pm. Fri and Sat, 9am to 10:30pm

Abe Katz was a police sergeant when he opened this on Third Avenue in 1964, and the family still runs it. Pastrami cured on the premises, hand-cut, piled on rye. A fire gutted the place in 2012 and they rebuilt it and reopened rather than taking the insurance and going.

Daily, 10am to 10pm

The old Mid-Manhattan branch across Fifth Avenue from the lions, gutted and rebuilt in 2021 as the largest circulating library the system has. Open reading floors stacked up the building, a long central stair, and on the seventh floor a roof terrace with seats and a view north up Fifth. Everything is free and nobody asks why you are there.

Mon to Thu, 8am to 9pm. Fri, 8am to 8pm. Sat and Sun, 10am to 6pm

Known as the Little Church Around the Corner since 1870, when a nearby parish refused to bury an actor and sent the family here instead. It is built low and rambling like an English village church, set back behind a lychgate with a garden in front, and the stained glass inside includes a window of Edwin Booth as Hamlet. The garden is open in daylight and costs nothing.

Garden open daily in daylight. Church interior Mon to Fri, 9am to 4pm, and Sunday between and after the morning services until about 3pm

Pierpont Morgan's private library of 1906, three tiers of walnut shelving behind brass grilles, with a ceiling painted to look like a Renaissance vault. His study next door still has the red silk on the walls. The newer galleries change shows every few months and there is a glass-roofed court in the middle with a cafe in it.

Tue to Thu, 10:30am to 5pm. Fri, 10:30am to 8pm. Sat and Sun, 10:30am to 5pm. Closed Monday

A proper English pub on 39th with cask ale pulled on hand pump, which almost nothing else in this part of Midtown does. Dark wood, a long bar, and a rotating cask list you have to ask about because it changes. Food is pub food and it is fine.

Mon to Fri, 11:30am to midnight. Sat, 3pm to midnight. Closed Sunday

One price, no menu, and they keep bringing Gujarati food until you tell them to stop. The dining area is built as a village set with banyan trees and low seating behind screens, which sounds worse than it is and has not changed in decades. Entirely vegetarian.

Sun to Thu, 5pm to 9:30pm. Fri and Sat, 5pm to 10pm