Ha's Snack Bar
Anthony Ha and Sadie Mae Burns send six snails out sizzling in garlic and tamarind butter at Ha's Snack Bar, with a warm hunk of baguette to soak up what is left in the dish.1
Why go
Ha's Dac Biet spent years as the pop-up other kitchens lent their rooms to, at Dimes, at Ops, at Yellow Rose, and in December 2024 the two of them took the 297 Broome Street lease.3 The dishes read French and the fish sauce under them is what makes the seasoning land: an onion soup rebuilt on a pho-like broth, chicken liver pate lifted with chilis, cilantro and a raisin agrodolce.1 Ligaya Mishan put it in the Times' hundred for 2026: The eggs mayo, spiked with Maggi and jeweled with trout roe, is a contender for best egg dish in town.
4 The James Beard Foundation made Burns and Ha semifinalists for Best Chef: New York State in 2026.6
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever raw dish is chalked up, which rotates through beef carpaccio with mam nem, salmon crudo under roe, and tuna with pickled rhubarb. Fitzpatrick's rule:
Whatever it is, you'd be wise to order it.
1 - Order: the chicken liver pate on toast. There is usually a toast on the board and this is the one Fitzpatrick calls a must-order.1
- Avoid: ordering the oysters by the half dozen.
They're nice, but at $5 each, one should be fine.
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What locals & experts say
- Molly Fitzpatrick, The Infatuation, 26 January 2026, rated 9.2:
the deceptively simple dishes, with punchy flavors you won't find anywhere else in the city.
On the snails:The smell alone could turn a nun feral.
1 - Matthew Schneier, Grub Street (10 December 2025): he does not review it, he assumes it.
By now, any regular restaurantgoer knows that Ha's Snack Bar is excellent. Its popularity and small space mean seats remain scarce.
5 - The Infatuation on the size of it:
The open kitchen barely has room for two chefs, and in the walk-in closet of a dining room, you might be asked to scooch over a stool to make room for someone else.
1
Good to know
- Timing: dinner only, and get there early. Fitzpatrick's rule is to arrive about forty-five minutes before the doors open for the first seating at the bar. Parties bigger than two wait, and so does anybody who turns up at opening rather than before it.1
- Booking: reservations drop about three weeks ahead and go fast. Walking in early is the better plan.
- The board: the menu is chalked and changes nightly, so treat every dish above as an example rather than a fixture.1
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Hot new opening Viet French - upcoming!" It has opened.
Verdict
should-visit — Fitzpatrick's 9.2 in January 2026 is for the seasoning: fish sauce and bird's eye chili under dishes that read French. The Times has it in the 2026 hundred at two stars, and Beard made Sadie Mae Burns and Anthony Ha semifinalists for Best Chef: New York State. The menu is chalked nightly, so the dish you came for may be gone, and the room holds about as many people as a walk-in closet.