Rachael Ray’s Top 14 Restaurant Picks

Rachael Ray has long been a favorite of Food Network viewers. Her appeal is that she is an everyday cook like the rest of us who understands the value of fast, easy meals. Whether she’s giving viewers tips on how to make stuffing mushrooms easier or reducing the time you need to prepare avocados, she focuses on getting tasty food on the table that looks like it took longer to make than it really did.

Ray hasn’t been shy about recommending her favorite restaurants both in New York and across the country. She’s got favorites from the Adirondacks to Los Angeles. While some of these are restaurants you’d go to only for special occasions, others are neighborhood joints where you hang out as if you were a local. She’s got a favorite for just about every category of food, so if you want to try one of Rachael Ray’s favorite restaurants, you’re bound to find at least one that you’ll love.

The first entry on this list is Rachael Ray’s favorite Italian restaurant, Via Carota. This West Village establishment is perennially popular, and getting a table can be difficult. The restaurant itself is gorgeous, and while the interior might seem a little crowded, that’s part of the fun. The interesting thing about Via Carota, as people online have pointed out, is that it’s a good, solid neighborhood restaurant that accidentally developed a following. This does mean, however, that someone will occasionally eat there and not understand why it seems so popular. The restaurant is geared toward getting a good, filling meal, rather than having an “experience.”

Customers have noted that, rather than serving dishes that are about the pasta, Via Carota focuses on other ingredients like vegetables. The pasta is good, but it’s a backdrop instead of the star of the show. Customers claim that this makes the dishes at Via Carota stand out compared to other Italian restaurants. The restaurant also gets kudos for excellent cooking technique. Some have also advised aiming for reservations at earlier times if you want to try eating there.

When Rachael Ray wants comfort food, her go-to restaurant is Loring Place in New York City. However, this isn’t a diner or a “food like Mom used to make” type of place, which people often associate with comfort food; Loring Place actually serves California cuisine. A clean, spacious interior and an outdoor seating area shaded by both awnings and trees let diners relax as they eat dishes that are heavy on vegetables and made with ingredients from local farms.

Loring Place is featured on the Michelin Guide website and was included as one of the better places to go on a date. Professional reviews were mostly complimentary regarding the space and food, although one reviewer did think the number of ingredients in the dishes made them overly complicated. One online poster tried to take the restaurant down a notch, asking if anyone noticed declining quality. However, the responses were unanimous, claiming that Loring Place was just as good as ever.

There’s only one place that Rachael Ray calls her favorite for smoked meats and cheese, and it happens to have her favorite bacon, too: Oscar’s Adirondack Smokehouse in Warrensburg, New York, west of Lake George. Ray has gone here since she was a first grader, and she’s actually shared the smokehouse’s bacon recipe on her website. Oscar’s has been in business for more than 70 years, run by multiple generations of the same family. In 2024, the smokehouse was added to Warrensburg’s Historic Business Preservation Registry.

Customers have advised allowing yourself a lot of time if you visit there because you’ll want to browse. While the smokehouse’s products are sold in local stores, going to the actual smokehouse means you’ll see all the products it produces — and, at least five years ago, the smokehouse had a vending machine outside where you could buy packages of smoked meat and cheese. That alone would be worth a visit.

If you want to visit one of Rachael Ray’s favorite places for pizza, you’ve got three choices. One is the Harvest in Queensbury, New York, north of Albany. Ray has reportedly gone there so much to get one particular style of pizza that the restaurant renamed it after her. In fact, she started going there for pizza as a child, so this truly is one of her favorite places to go. The Harvest uses a family recipe for the dough, provolone for the cheese, and — for the Rachael Ray pizza — oregano, red onion, green bell peppers, and hot cherry peppers. The Harvest was sold in February 2025, but the new owner, a Queensbury native, has promised not to change anything.

For pizza in New York City, Ray goes to Motorino, a chain with several locations in New York City and others in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. Customers have praised Motorino’s Neapolitan pizza. For toppings, specifically, Ray chooses Speedy Romeo, a Michelin Guide-featured Brooklyn pizzeria that mixes Italian-American food with St. Louis influences.

No list of favorite restaurants would be complete without a choice for ramen, and Rachael Ray’s favorite ramen place is Ippudo in New York City. This is the U.S. outpost of a famous Japanese chain known for its tonkotsu, a type of ramen with a creamy, pork-based broth (not to be confused with tonkatsu, a breaded pork cutlet). Ippudo does serve other dishes, but reviewers have recommended sticking to the different soups that the restaurant serves.

Reviews for the ramen call it superb with compliments for the noodle texture and the mix of flavors in each type of ramen. It’s usually recommended as one of the better places for ramen overall. However, there have been complaints over the past few years about minor changes made here and there, such as using pork loin instead of the pork belly the restaurant used to use. Another person complained about the removal of pickled ginger. Overall, however, the ramen still gets high marks.

Rachael Ray provides another tie for her favorite restaurants overall in the United States. One is Le Coucou in New York City, a Michelin-starred tribute to old-school French restaurants that’s elegant and, more importantly, lives up to its reputation. The menu offers dishes with sauces that, according to one reviewer, are filled with butter and cream but are not heavy or overwhelming. Reviews note the dishes are well-balanced with rare missteps, and any missteps are along the lines of a dessert plating that seems too casual after having such formal main courses. Customers adore Le Coucou, noting that it’s as good as the hype makes it seem.

Another overall best is WU Chow (the restaurant does use all capital letters for WU) in Austin, Texas. The chefs here cook up a range of dishes from several Chinese cuisines; they don’t change the recipes often, but they do use more local ingredients (such as Gulf shrimp). The restaurant serves dim sum on Sundays, too. Reviewers love the food, although some have noted the seating arrangements in one corner of the restaurant could be improved.

Owned by the same people who run Via Carota is Bar Pisellino, which is Rachael Ray’s favorite place to go for cocktails. This isn’t an upscale bar with muted lighting meant for after-dinner drinks, though — this is a bright, hotel-style bar serving not only cocktails but also coffee and pastries. It was modeled after Italian cafes and hotels. While it’s not meant to be a place where you can linger all day, it is meant to be a place where you can stop for something to eat and drink after work on your way home.

Reviewers and customers love it. Those who’ve traveled to Italy say it does remind them of places they ate at on their trip, and some call it a good place for a casual date. When the weather is good, the bar has plenty of outdoor seating to let you enjoy some sunshine while chatting with others and having one of the bar’s drinks.

Rachael Ray gives a shout-out to some regional favorites outside New York, and as you’d expect, they’re both amazing. One is her favorite restaurant in Philadelphia; that would be Zahav, which won the James Beard Award for Best Restaurant in America in 2019. Zahav serves Israeli cuisine and is one of those places that, as one reviewer put it, you start dreaming about from the moment you make your reservation (and while reservations are not required, they’re definitely recommended). Zahav’s meals come in several courses, so even if a portion appears to be small, according to reviews, you’ll still end up with a lot of food.

Another of Ray’s regional favorites is Wa Sushi, which has a main location in Alhambra, California, with a smaller izakaya-style sibling restaurant in San Gabriel. The restaurant actually first opened in Massachusetts before moving to Texas and then California. The menu has something for everyone, from traditional sushi to non-fish dishes to non-meat dishes. The restaurant also has desserts and a good selection of drinks.

Ray did have another regional favorite: GT Fish & Oyster in Chicago. However, that restaurant closed at the end of 2022.

Rachael Ray has a few ties on this list where two restaurants vie for the same category, but now, she has one that’s a favorite in two categories. Mamoun’s Falafel is her favorite for both cheap eats and late night food. This take-out-only restaurant opened in 1971 and has become an institution in the New York food scene. It’s expanded to three different states over the years; it had actually opened a location in a fourth state, Georgia, but that location has since closed.

Customer reviews appear mixed, with some saying it’s a great place for falafel, but not much better than other falafel joints. However, most seem to agree that the food is decent at the very least, and many do really like the place. When people ask for falafel recommendations, Mamoun’s is usually mentioned several times in response. It’s a convenient restaurant to go to when you need something overnight that won’t cost you your grocery budget for the week.

Rachael Ray offers two options for Mexican food, if you want to eat at a favorite restaurant of hers. One is Oxomoco, a Brooklyn restaurant that offers Mexican fusion (think black sesame horchata), along with several options for tacos and tostadas — both of which are among the dishes that earned the restaurant a Michelin star. Reviews are very positive, with “negative” reviews being more general and along the lines of quality not being like it used to some vague amount of time ago.

The other restaurant is Casa Enrique in Long Island City in New York. This is a neighborhood establishment with regulars and a menu that sticks to the basics rather than attempting to follow the latest food trends. However, it’s also mentioned in the Michelin Guide and has moderate pricing, large servings, and dishes that, according to reviews, will make you swoon. One reviewer even noted that her food got better with each bite as she ate an entree.

Sometimes, you just need a sandwich, a pastry, or a nice, comforting breakfast like you might get at a neighborhood deli. Occasionally, you want to have your comforting sandwich when you’re traveling outside New York. Rachael Ray’s favorite place to grab a sandwich is Sadelle’s, a mainstay on the New York food scene since 2015 that’s expanded to 10 locations, four of which are outside the U.S. Sadelle’s focuses on both baked goods, like bagels, rugelach, and its amazing sticky buns, as well as New York delicatessen-type fare like sandwiches and smoked fish.

Sadelle’s is one of those places that’s become so iconic that its dishes often show up in requests for copycat recipes. Its U.S. locations are mainly on the East Coast, but it now has outposts in Dallas and at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, where its sky-blue ceiling and walls just beg for you to take photos. Reviews are positive; one person mentioned finding the line intimidating, but they also mentioned that it went very quickly. The few negative reviews that exist tend to focus on issues like seating location, slow service, or construction nearby. Some weren’t impressed with the food, but overall, the restaurant is a favorite of most customers.

The steakhouse shouldn’t be a controversial concept, yet some critics appear to recoil at the format. Either it’s too stodgy and a relic that they wouldn’t want to go to, or it’s gone off the rails in any number of ways. However, Rachael Ray’s favorite restaurant for steak dinners manages to impress even those reluctant diners. The Bowery Meat Co., established in New York City in 2015, still focuses on classic steak cuts, but its expansive menu covers a wide range of culinary territory. Along with porterhouse and tomahawk steak main dishes, you’ll find a long list of starters, salads, sides, and potatoes, and if steak isn’t your thing, you have a choice of several other mains including chicken, lamb, and even vegetarian options. The menu options include new takes and combinations, such as kung pao duck wings.

Reviews are mainly very good, with some waxing poetic over the duck lasagna. The restaurant’s atmosphere is less old-school steakhouse but doesn’t tip over into latest-design-fad territory; the atmosphere has mostly been described as friendly. Customer reviews have been very complimentary in general, although there is the occasional speed bump. For example, some online reviews gush over the steak, but there is one that mentions how a complaint about a steak order was not taken seriously by staff. That said, the majority appear to adore the restaurant — and they keep raving about that duck lasagna, too.

People need somewhere to go when they want food but are deciding at the last-minute to get something to eat. That would be Madame Vo, according to Rachael Ray. This Vietnamese restaurant opened in 2017 and focuses on family recipes for pho, rice paper rolls, and more. The restaurant has received rave reviews from critics, although online customer reviews are a little more mixed; most love the place, though, and only a few have made comments to the effect that the food was OK, rather than the best ever. Still, even some of those commenters noted the food was better than at other places, and one commenter loved the fact that there were several meat-free dishes.

If you can’t get to the restaurant itself (or if the line out front makes you turn around), you can order food for delivery through a few platforms. The menu will be familiar to anyone who eats Vietnamese food regularly, but some dishes are lumped together in one entry; for example, the different varieties of vermicelli noodle bowls are together under the “vermicelli bowl” listing, rather than being separated out into bún chả giò, bún tôm heo nướng, and so on.

The last entry on this list of Rachael Ray’s favorites is Chinese Tuxedo, which opened in 2017 in New York’s Chinatown. Ray deems it the best hidden gem, and customer reviews are positive. One online comment showed appreciation for the decor, which reminded the commenter of Wong Kar Wai films; many others have called the food solid and the vibes fun. Note that this is not related to a previous New York restaurant named Chinese Tuxedo that was open decades ago.

The restaurant serves what could be called fusion food. The menu categories look like standard Chinese-restaurant fare, with sections for dim sum, vegetables, and rice and noodles, for example. However, the dishes often have a twist, such as the shu mai featured on the restaurant’s menu webpage, which have fish roe and a flower as a garnish. You’ll also find unexpected dishes, such as “Strange Flavor Burrata” (burrata is a type of cheese, with a shell of mozzarella around a creamy center).