The best wine bars in NYC right now split into two camps: no-reservation spots you can walk into on a Tuesday, and deep-list destinations worth planning a whole night around.
Half of them are natural-wine dens that started as a Lower East Side experiment and are now a whole ecosystem of their own; the other half are the classic wine-room throwbacks that never needed to change. Both camps have a seat with your name on it somewhere on this list.
Here are the 8 spots serving some of the best wine bars in NYC has to offer, whether you’re after a walk-in stool tonight, a serious natural-wine list, or a date-night splurge.
Four Horsemen – 🏆 Bowery Beat Editor Top Choice
Address: 295 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Phone: (718) 599-4900
Style: Natural & biodynamic wine bar with an ever-changing New American small-plates menu
Vibe: Buzzy, packed, Williamsburg’s original wine-bar destination
Price: $$$ (bottles $50–$750; small plates change weekly)
Website: fourhorsemenbk.com
James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem opened this Grand Street spot back in 2015, and it’s still the reason every roundup of the best wine bars in NYC starts in Williamsburg instead of downtown.
The list runs 800-plus bottles deep, split between natural producers and old-guard traditionalists, and the by-the-glass program changes often enough that regulars just ask what’s open tonight.
It earned a Michelin star in 2019 and hasn’t gotten precious about it — reservations move fast on Resy, but the bar itself still takes walk-ins if you’re willing to wait.
Come hungry. The small-plates menu turns over weekly, and pairing decisions here are taken about as seriously as the wine list itself.
Wildair
Address: 142 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002
Phone: (646) 964-5624
Style: Natural wine bar with inventive small plates
Vibe: Tiny, loud, unfussy — ten years in and still the Lower East Side standard-bearer
Price: $$ (small plates $5–$30; wine by the glass under $20)
Website: wildair.nyc
Wildair helped invent the whole natural-wine-and-small-plates format on the Lower East Side a decade ago, and it hasn’t needed to reinvent itself since.
The list pulls from Mexico to Hungary and beyond, poured by a staff that will happily talk you out of the obvious choice.
Portions are small enough to order six things, which is the point — this is a wine bar for people who came to graze, not commit to one entrée.
Closed Mondays, and it doesn’t hold every seat for same-week reservations, so a little flexibility helps.
The Ten Bells
Address: 247 Broome St, New York, NY 10002
Style: Natural wine bar with tapas, charcuterie, and oysters
Vibe: Candlelit, cave-like, made for lingering
Price: $ (small plates $7–$14; happy-hour carafes $20)
Website: tenbellsnyc.com
Ten Bells has been quietly running a $1.50 oyster and $20 carafe happy hour since before natural wine was a TikTok hashtag — proof the best wine bars in NYC don’t have to be expensive to be serious.
The list leans almost entirely French and mostly natural, with pours generous enough that the bottle math actually works out in your favor.
It’s been on Broome Street since 2008, which in wine-bar years makes it practically an elder statesman of the neighborhood.
Ruffian
Address: 125 E 7th St, New York, NY 10009
Phone: (212) 777-0855
Style: Natural and orange wine bar with a vegetarian small-plates menu
Vibe: Intimate, open kitchen, serious about Eastern European and Caucasus wine
Price: $$ (glasses from $13; small plates $15–$18)
Website: ruffiannyc.com
Ruffian has been the East Village’s answer for orange and skin-contact wine since 2016, with a 250-bottle list that leans hard into small producers from Georgia, Slovenia, and beyond.
The kitchen is entirely vegetarian, which sounds like a limitation until you taste what they’re doing with root vegetables and fermentation.
Happy hour (weekdays 4–6, weekends 3–5) knocks $5 off every glass, and the pre-7pm $5 small-plates menu is one of the better cheap-eats deals attached to any wine bar in the city.
Stars
Address: 139 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003
Style: Walk-in-only wine bar, 1,000+ bottle list
Vibe: Twelve stools around a horseshoe zinc bar, the buzziest opening of the past year
Price: $$ (glasses $11–$19; 88 bottles priced under $88)
Website: stars-ny.com
Stars, from the team behind Claud and Penny, opened in late 2025 and has already become the East Village’s hardest 12 seats to get.
There’s no reservation system at all — it’s walk-in only, which means the wait is real, but so is the payoff: a 1,000-bottle list with 88 selections capped under $88.
This is the pick if you’re chasing whichever name on the list of the best wine bars in NYC people are currently posting about, and also the pick if you just want a serious glass without the ceremony.
Lelabar
Address: 422 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014
Phone: (212) 206-0594
Style: Classic wine room with charcuterie, cheese, and small plates
Vibe: Warm, tin-ceilinged, unmistakably West Village
Price: $$ (daily happy hour 4–6pm)
Website: lelabar.com
Lelabar has been pouring from a 700-bottle list on this stretch of Hudson Street for going on two decades, which in West Village years is basically a landmark.
The daily 4-to-6pm happy hour is the move — the oval bar fills in fast, the sommeliers steer you away from anything too safe, and there’s zero attitude about it.
It’s an easy answer if you want a wine bar built for a date instead of a crowd.
Le Dive
Address: 37 Canal St, New York, NY 10002
Style: French Tabac-inspired natural wine bar with oysters and steak frites
Vibe: Parisian sidewalk café upstairs, disco basement downstairs
Price: $$
Website: ledivenyc.com
Le Dive plays it two ways: a light, café-bright wine bar at street level, and a disco club in the basement once the natural-wine crowd upstairs starts thinning out.
The list is low-intervention and French-leaning, and the kitchen’s oysters, pâté, and steak frites hold their own against the wine.
It sits right in Dimes Square, so expect a scene — this isn’t the wine bar for a quiet conversation, it’s the one for people-watching.
Sauced
Address: 331 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Style: Natural and organic wine bar, no formal wine list
Vibe: Laid-back, no reservations, backyard patio
Price: $$ (glasses from $13; happy-hour flights $21 for three)
Website: saucedbklyn.com
Sauced doesn’t bother with a printed wine list — tell the staff what you’re in the mood for and they’ll pour to match, which takes the decision fatigue out of the whole night.
No reservations, limited seating, and a backyard patio that makes it one of the better warm-weather picks among Williamsburg’s wine bars.
The 5-to-7pm happy-hour flight — three wines for $21 — is a good way to actually taste through the list instead of committing to one bottle.
So, What Are the Best Wine Bars in NYC Right Now?
Finding the best wine bars in NYC really depends on what you’re in the mood for.
If you want the name that started it all, Four Horsemen has it.
If you want the newest thing everyone’s fighting for a stool at, Stars delivers.
If you want real value without sacrificing the pour, Ten Bells and Ruffian are hard to beat.
If you’re heading to Brooklyn anyway, Sauced is the easy no-reservation call.
There isn’t one single answer, and that’s kind of the point — this city has room for all eight.
Start with whichever stool is open tonight, then work your way down the list. And if you’d rather chase a view than a pour, our rooftop bars guide has you covered too.
