Eating in New York can be a lottery: over 13.000 restaurants have been reviewed on TimeOut online guide, but surely, there are a lot more. A good starting point is choosing both the type of cuisine and location in advance. After suggesting 7 design restaurants and 5 top sushi addresses (read also → 5 sushi da amare), we went looking for 5 top restaurants that will enliven New York waterfront during the summer.

Located at Pier 81, the Hudson is a three-story indoor-outdoor venue housed within a 10,000-square-foot yacht that will accompany you through a cruise along the river. Here you will enjoy a Mediterranean-style fish menu while comfortably sliding on the waters next to the Statue of Liberty. “The perfect place to watch a beautiful sunset through a glass of rosé”, as JustOpened wrote. The pride of the place is the outdoor terrace, located on the upper deck: more than 250sqm furnished with contemporary style upholstered furniture, just as in a real open-air living room. A project by Andrew Franz, who wanted to emulate the world’s most beautiful rooftop decks, matching unique nautical details such as brass planks, upholstered sofas, reclaimed teak floorings and semi-private outside cabins with an incomparable, stunning view.

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The panoramic view is also Cantina Rooftop’s main highlight, a bright and lively rooftop NY restaurant featuring a completely retractable roof than can be opened or shut according to the weather conditions. On sunny days, it wholly disappears, while during the winter it encloses the dining room without darkening light or barring the view. Its interiors feature a colorful, lively Mexican style, with bright cushions, wicker furniture, and vintage-looking painted metal chairs. The menu offers Mexican dishes as reinterpreted by chef Gonzalo Colin, the ideal cuisine to cure “winter depression”, JustOpened wrote.

At the Riverpark, chef Tom Colicchio in partnership with Sisha Ortuzar has managed to create a 4-star New American style restaurant to enjoy sitting by floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the East River. Here tones are soft, with a prevailing grey color palette in the terrace and wooden shades in the interiors, where a big counter surrounded by cream-colored stools plays the starring role.

Although not exactly brand-new, The District Bar & Restaurant well deserves to be mentioned, too. Styled by Gotham Magazine as a “French version of Eataly”, it is a hybrid between a market and a restaurant, where you can find almost anything, from croissants to oysters. A more than 2000sqm temple dedicated to French cuisine overlooking the Hudson River. The District features a super-chic style, with flowers and colorful dishes, matched with industrial style marble tables and stools placed everywhere. While each corner features little style variations, the ceiling with exposed installations lends harmony to the whole setting.

Let’s close our NY waterfront restaurants’ overview with the historic Pier A Harbor House at Battery Park, a more than 2500sqm Victorian style building where to enjoy Manhattan’s most stunning waterfront sunsets since 1886 (its history is actually a bit more complex and goes hand in hand with that of NYC itself, as Panorama explains). The ground floor features a convivial open space hall, while the second story provides a much more intimate setting, designed to enjoy the typical Hudson River Valley cuisine – cocktails included - and the third story, which offers an unmatched view on Lower Manhattan and the skyline of NY’s financial district, is dedicated to special events.