NYCGuide
The Best Brunch In The West Village
Where to go when you want to eat anything from banana pancakes to monkfish and eggs on a day that starts with the letter S.
Finding brunch in the West Village is like looking for hay in a haystack. It’s everywhere, and a lot of it should be fed to horses. Don’t settle for horse food. Some of these places are new, some have been around for decades, and every single one is perfect for when you want to sit somewhere pleasant and eat some eggs on a weekend afternoon.
THE SPOTS
Come to The Noortwyck if you want a brunch experience that skews more grown-up than rowdy. This restaurant has a nice, relaxed atmosphere and serves food that tastes like it has a graduate degree in haute cuisine. Brunch items include matcha pistachio babka french toast and a breakfast sandwich with aged cheddar mornay, and we highly recommend going for the "all of the above" option when it comes to the sweet section of the menu.
There will always be a line for brunch at Buvette. And we think getting there at 7:45am to be at the front of it when they open is good enough reason not to stay out too late the night before. If the weather is nice, angle for a table in the extremely pleasant backyard and pretend you’re eating breakfast in the courtyard of your Parisian pied-à-terre. All the food here is small and French, and the croque monsieur in particular is perfect. Get it with a few pastries on the side, a cafe au lait, and a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.
Brunch reservations at L’Artusi are nearly impossible to get, and the wait for walk-ins can extend for hours. But just take that as another sign that you should eat here. L’Artusi serves some of the best Italian food in the city, and their brunch menu has everything from perfectly executed bucatini to a scramble with bacon and sausage. If you have something to celebrate on a weekend morning, this is the table to get.
Llama San does Nikkei food in a space that feels soft, soothing, and expensive, like a Pinterest board titled “blonde wood interiors.” This restaurant is on the pricier side, but if you’re looking for a truly creative brunch menu, come here for some monkfish and squash lorco. Llama San isn’t particularly formal, but it’s also not a party spot ringing with everyone’s outside voices.
If you’re not in the mood to spend your entire week trying to reserve a coveted table, or the entire morning standing in line with a bunch of hungry people, skip the fuss and meet up with your friends at Do Not Feed Alligators. This cafe-slash-gallery space has a great courtyard, and some of the best coffee in the city. The food menu is small but kind of perfect: you can get charcuterie, conservas, or simple things like transcendent bread and butter, and sunnyside eggs.
If brunch isn’t happening before noon, Nami Nori is an excellent choice. With lots of blonde wood, natural light, and people talking at a normal volume, it's a good place to go when you don't want to deal with a typical West Village brunch crowd. Gentle-parent yourself into the day with a matcha latte and a glass of something bubbly, then get some chips and dip for the table. We think temaki is a highly underrated brunch food, and at $28 for a set of five, it’s a good deal for the neighborhood. Get an order of lemon curd mochi churros before you leave.
This all-day cafe in is a popular import from LA. It's known for its oatmeal griddle cakes, which look like pancakes but are pre-sweetened and served without syrup. We're fans, but so is everyone else— so get here early or be prepared to wait in a long line.
No matter what you go to Nat’s for, a meal at this party restaurant feels like an intimate get-together full of oyster-slurping regulars who live nearby. There’s a loud scene inside and out, full of people eating glorious towers of raw fish and seafood-centric entrees under a disco ball. Their infamous seafood towers are listed on the menu under a section titled “!!BALLER SHOT CALLER TOWERS!!,” so you get the idea.
La Bonbonniere is an old-school diner where nothing is too precious and most of the pictures on the wall have been taped up there. Keep it simple and stick to pancakes, eggs, and bacon. La Bonbonniere is reasonably priced and cash only, and it’s one of the reasons why the West Village still feels like a neighborhood and not just a well-curated collection of expensive townhouses.
Rosemary’s is always packed, but it’s not impossible to get a table for brunch if you book on Thursday or Friday—so yes, plan ahead, but not like, a week ahead. They have a rooftop garden where they grow a bunch of produce, a big rustic interior that feels like the set for an HGTV show, and a ton of sidewalk tables. The food is farm-to-table Italian, and we appreciate that you won’t find out-of-season vegetables on their menu. You can add an hour of unlimited mimosas to your meal for $25, but if you’re in more of a wellness era, their house green juice is great.
