New York's Best Food Halls and Markets

Food halls solve the oldest problem in group travel: everyone wants something different. One person is craving dumplings, another wants tacos, and someone else just needs a very good coffee. In New York's markets and food halls, you can have all three within a few steps of each other, usually with a bit of history thrown in.

Some of the city's markets date back to the 1940s, when the city moved pushcart vendors off the streets and into covered buildings. Others are brand new, built into piers, train stations and old industrial buildings. Here are the ones we recommend most often. Vendors rotate regularly, so treat any stall we mention as an example rather than a promise, and check current hours before you go.

Chelsea Market sign in NYC — The entrance to Chelsea Market on Ninth Avenue

Chelsea Market Lanterns — Industrial details and hanging lights inside Chelsea Market

Chelsea Market: where the Oreo was born

Chelsea Market fills the ground floor of a complex of brick buildings between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, from 15th to 16th Street. In the early 1900s this was the headquarters and bakery of the National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco, and the Oreo cookie was first produced here in 1912.

The market opened in the 1990s, and its designers kept the factory bones: exposed brick, old pipes, iron beams and even a waterfall fed by a repurposed pipe. The long central concourse is lined with bakeries, taco counters, seafood, noodle bars, ice cream and specialty shops, and the offices upstairs have housed some of the city's best-known media and tech companies.

Chelsea Market sits right beside the High Line, so it's easy to combine a snack with a walk on the elevated park.

Local tip: Chelsea Market is at its busiest on weekend afternoons. Go on a weekday morning, grab something to go and take it up to the High Line, which you can reach from the stairs at 16th Street. If you'd like the full story of the neighborhood, our Private High Line and Chelsea Walking Tour covers both.

Essex Market: the Lower East Side original

Essex Market opened in 1940 as part of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's campaign to clear pushcarts from the crowded streets of the Lower East Side and give vendors a clean, covered place to trade. For generations it served immigrant families shopping for fish, meat, cheese and produce.

In 2019 the market moved across Delancey Street into a bright new building, and it still feels like a neighborhood market rather than a tourist attraction. You'll find butchers, bakers, cheesemongers and produce stands alongside counters serving food from around the world, with seating upstairs. Pair it with a visit to the historic delis and appetizing shops nearby for a proper Lower East Side food crawl, and read our guide to New York's iconic foods for what to order.

Market 57: a food hall on the water

One of the city's newest food halls sits inside Pier 57, a former shipping terminal in Hudson River Park, a short walk west of Chelsea Market. Market 57 opened in 2023 and was developed with the James Beard Foundation, with a focus on local chefs and small food businesses, including some beloved New York names alongside newer vendors.

The best part may be upstairs. The pier's rooftop is a public park with wide views over the Hudson River toward New Jersey, and it's a wonderful place to watch the sunset. Check opening hours before you go, as the rooftop and food hall keep different schedules.

Dumplings at Nom Wah at Market 57 in New York

Moynihan Food Hall: dinner before your train

Penn Station has long been nobody's favorite place to wait for a train. Moynihan Train Hall changed that. Built inside the grand James A. Farley Post Office building across Eighth Avenue from the old station, it opened in 2021 with a soaring skylit concourse.

Its food hall brings together quick-service counters from well-known New York restaurants and bakeries, making it one of the best places in Midtown West to grab a bite before a Long Island Rail Road or Amtrak train, or before a show at Madison Square Garden.

More markets worth the trip

Grand Central Terminal

Downstairs in Grand Central, the Dining Concourse gathers counters and casual restaurants beneath the station's vaulted ceilings. The Grand Central Oyster Bar has been there since the terminal opened in 1913. Stand outside it, under the tiled arches, to try the famous whispering gallery.

Smorgasburg

This open-air weekend food market launched in Brooklyn in 2011 and has become a summer tradition, with dozens of independent vendors. In recent seasons it has run on Saturdays at Marsha P. Johnson State Park in Williamsburg and on Sundays in Prospect Park, roughly from spring to fall. Its locations and season change, so check the current schedule before you plan around it.

Arthur Avenue Retail Market

For something truly old-school, head to the Bronx. The Arthur Avenue Retail Market was built in 1940 under the same La Guardia program as Essex Market, and it's still packed with Italian delis, butchers and bakers. Read our guide to Arthur Avenue for the full story.

Olly Olly Market in New York — Olly Olly Market, one of the newer food halls in West Chelsea

New food halls keep opening, too. Olly Olly Market, in the landmarked Starrett-Lehigh Building on West 26th Street, is one of the newer arrivals in West Chelsea, with a mix of counters under one roof. It's a good option if Chelsea Market is too crowded, and a short walk from the High Line.

Tips for getting the most out of a food hall

Do a full lap before you buy anything
Split up, order from different counters and share
Go at off-peak times: weekday mornings or mid-afternoon
Look for the longest line of locals, not tourists
Carry a reusable bag for market shopping
Check which counters close early; many food halls wind down before the building does
Pair a market with a nearby walk: the High Line, Hudson River Park or the Lower East Side

Explore the neighborhoods behind the markets

Every market in this guide sits in a neighborhood with a story. On our Private High Line and Chelsea Walking Tour, a licensed guide shows you the old industrial West Side, from the Nabisco factory to the elevated rail line. Our SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown Walking Tour explores the immigrant neighborhoods that shaped the city's food, and the NYC in a Day Walking Tour is perfect if you want to see as much of Manhattan as possible.

New York Experience is run by ExperienceFirst, a New York tour company founded in 2009.

New York food hall FAQs

Chelsea Market is the best known, set in the former Nabisco factory where the Oreo was first made. It sits right beside the High Line.

Yes. There's no admission charge; you only pay for what you eat or buy.

Moynihan Food Hall, inside Moynihan Train Hall across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station, is the most convenient.

Weekday mornings and mid-afternoons are the calmest. Weekend lunchtimes are the busiest, especially at Chelsea Market.

It's primarily a warm-weather outdoor market, and its locations and schedule change. Check the official listings before you go.

New York's Best Food Halls and Markets

Chelsea Market: where the Oreo was born

Essex Market: the Lower East Side original

Market 57: a food hall on the water

Moynihan Food Hall: dinner before your train

More markets worth the trip

Grand Central Terminal

Smorgasburg

Arthur Avenue Retail Market

Tips for getting the most out of a food hall

Explore the neighborhoods behind the markets

New York food hall FAQs

Tours to pair with a market visit

Private High Line and Chelsea Walking Tour

SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown Walking Tour

NYC in a Day Walking Tour

Keep exploring

Iconic New York Foods

Walking the High Line: A Mile of Rail History Above Manhattan

Arthur Avenue, the Bronx's Little Italy