Minetta Tavern
The Black Label burger is dry-aged prime beef on a Balthazar bakery brioche bun, built by the chefs who now run Le Veau d'Or, in a MacDougal Street room Keith McNally took over in 2009. Ruth Rogers comes straight here off the plane and orders the grilled rib-eye.
Why go
What Sonal Shah says brings her back is the way the room is run. Free glasses of bubbly go out to solo diners, to couples on an anniversary, and to anyone who waited too long for a table, and the crusty baguette arrives before you have ordered anything. Split a burger and each half still comes with what looks like a whole order of frites, double-fried in peanut oil.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Minetta French Dip if you are on your own. Horseradish clings to thin pink beef on crusty bread and the jus comes almost simmering in a gravy boat, and it ran $33 before tax when The Infatuation priced it in April 2025.2
- Order, for two: the dry-aged cote de boeuf, 40oz on the bone at $189 in April 2025, which comes with a half order of the roasted bone marrow, a little gem salad and toast.
- Avoid: brunch. Shah apologizes to the croque madame and the steak and eggs by name, and those are the dishes she calls indifferent.
What locals & experts say
- Ruth Rogers (The River Cafe, London), 2026-05:
The first place I go when I get off the plane is Minetta Tavern because it captures that New York energy and the kind of American food I crave.
Her order, a few lines later:I always go for the grilled rib-eye.
1 She rates McNally on how the staff are treated, and her stated tell is whether the waiter is grumpy. - Sonal Shah, The Infatuation, 17 April 2025, rated 8.8:
For every person who raves about the famous Black Label burger at Minetta Tavern, there's someone else just waiting to tell you it's overhyped. We do like that burger, and the slightly cheaper Minetta Burger, but neither of them are the reason we keep coming back.
2
Good to know
- Booking: book ahead. The room was a 1920s speakeasy before it was anything else, so it is small and the bar fills early.
Verdict
should-visit — Sonal Shah rated it 8.8 in April 2025, and I have not found anyone making the case for the cooking on its own. Book it for the room and the frites, not the kitchen.