Eater NY names its picks for the best takeout and delivery in NYC right now
Eater NY published an updated list on September 8, 2026, titled “The Best Takeout and Delivery Right Now in NYC,” arguing that the city’s takeout and delivery options have never been stronger. According to Eater NY, the current mix includes restaurants that started delivering out of necessity during the pandemic alongside newer spots built around takeout from the start. The list is a snapshot of where New Yorkers can order Taiwanese dumplings, California burritos, and other dishes that hold up during transit, across all five boroughs.
The guide arrives years after the initial pandemic disruption forced restaurants citywide to rethink how they operate. What started as survival tactics for many kitchens is now just how New Yorkers eat.
How the pandemic reshaped delivery across the five boroughs
New York’s restaurant industry didn’t choose delivery so much as it was forced into it. Dining rooms closed, foot traffic disappeared, and takeout became the only revenue stream for thousands of businesses. Eater NY’s reporting frames this shift as permanent rather than temporary: the infrastructure and habits built during those early shutdown months never fully receded, even after indoor dining returned to normal.
Restaurants that started delivery to survive and never stopped
Many restaurants that added takeout and delivery purely to stay afloat during the pandemic kept those services running long after indoor dining resumed. According to Eater NY, these businesses make up a significant share of the current best-of list. They folded delivery permanently into their operations rather than treating it as a stopgap, reworking menus, packaging, and staffing in ways that outlasted the emergency that prompted them.
Newer spots built around takeout from day one
A second category of restaurants never operated any other way. These newer establishments opened after the pandemic reshaped consumer expectations, and they designed their entire operation around takeout and delivery rather than retrofitting a traditional dine-in model. Eater NY’s list includes spots exporting dishes like Taiwanese dumplings and California burritos across the five boroughs: foods that travel well and seem to be a core part of the concept rather than an afterthought.
The dishes defining the list: Taiwanese dumplings, California burritos and other durable orders
The specific foods named in Eater NY’s summary point to a pattern: the dishes chosen for the list tend to survive a trip across a borough without falling apart. Taiwanese dumplings and California burritos both appear as examples of food built to withstand time, temperature changes, and the jostling of a delivery bag. These aren’t dishes that happen to travel well by accident. A wrapped dumpling or a foil-wrapped burrito is built for transit in a way that a delicate soufflé is not.
What makes food “delivery-durable”: packaging, distance and timing
Eater NY’s framing suggests that durability has become a defining criterion for what makes a restaurant’s food worth ordering for delivery rather than eating on-site. The publication doesn’t lay out a formal checklist, but the examples it cites, dumplings and burritos, share qualities that matter for any food traveling by courier: they hold heat, resist sogginess, and stay intact once packed. Restaurants building menus with delivery in mind are increasingly designing dishes around these constraints from the start, rather than simply packing whatever they already serve in-house into a to-go container.
Etiquette rules Eater flags: tipping couriers and how to order
Eater NY’s guide doesn’t stop at recommending restaurants. It also tells customers how to behave when placing these orders, treating courier compensation and ordering method as part of the takeout experience.
Why a $5 minimum tip matters for couriers
Eater NY recommends tipping couriers at least $5 per order. Delivery workers depend on tips as a meaningful part of their income, and a flat minimum gives customers a clear benchmark rather than leaving the amount to guesswork. The guidance applies regardless of order size or distance, treating the $5 figure as a baseline rather than a ceiling.
Ordering by phone or restaurant website instead of apps
The publication also advises placing orders directly with restaurants, either by phone or through a restaurant’s own website, rather than through third-party delivery apps. This detail signals a preference for the ordering method that most directly benefits the restaurant and its workers, over routing an order through a platform that takes a cut of the transaction.
Where this leaves the third-party delivery app debate
Eater NY’s advice to order by phone or through a restaurant’s website implicitly positions direct ordering as preferable to using third-party apps. The publication doesn’t detail its reasoning beyond the recommendation itself, but the guidance fits a broader pattern of media coverage encouraging consumers to bypass delivery platforms when possible. For restaurants that spent years building direct delivery operations, whether out of pandemic-era necessity or by design, steering customers toward phone and website orders reinforces the value of that infrastructure.
What to expect as the list keeps evolving
Eater NY treats its takeout and delivery guide as a living document that tracks an ecosystem still in motion years after the disruption that created it. Restaurants continue to enter and exit the delivery business, and dishes suited for transit keep finding new audiences across the five boroughs. For New Yorkers deciding what to order tonight, the practical takeaway from Eater NY’s guidance is straightforward: pick food built to travel, order it directly from the restaurant when possible, and tip the courier at least $5.
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