Restaurant in New York City, United States
Seasonal Italian that skips the performance.
King is a West Village Southern Italian restaurant with a daily-changing greenmarket menu and a bar worth arriving early for. Ranked #109 on Opinionated About Dining's Casual North America list in 2025, it delivers consistent, technique-driven cooking without the price or ceremony of a tasting-menu room. Easy to book and open for weekend lunch — one of Manhattan's more reliable calls for food-focused diners.
If you're choosing between King and a $$$$ tasting-menu room in New York City, stop and reconsider. King is the better call for most meals: a West Village corner restaurant with a daily-changing Southern Italian menu, a bar worth arriving early for, and nearly a decade of consistent execution behind it. It ranked #109 on Opinionated About Dining's Casual North America list in 2025, and has held a position in that ranking every year since at least 2023. For food-focused diners who want seasonal cooking without the ceremony of a multi-course format, this is one of the stronger options in Manhattan right now.
King opened on a sunny corner in the West Village as a collaboration between chefs Clare de Boer and Jess Shadbolt, who met working at London's River Café, and co-owner Annie Shi. The River Café lineage matters here: it shaped a philosophy built around greenmarket sourcing, restrained technique, and letting good ingredients carry the work. That's still the operating principle. The menu changes daily and reads short, which is a feature rather than a limitation.
A recent re-energising of the kitchen, with Jess Shadbolt and head chef Angeles Chavarria working the pass together, has sharpened the output. Opinionated About Dining's write-up notes the food as "complex, sensuous, often whimsical" — and credits the team with pushing the hand-rolled pasta and wine-braised preparations further each season. For a restaurant approaching a decade in operation, that kind of continued forward movement is not guaranteed, and it's the main reason to book now rather than wait.
The bar at King is not an afterthought. The front bar area is where most of the energy sits earlier in the evening, and it's a genuinely good place to eat. If you're coming solo or as a two-leading and haven't booked a table, arriving at the bar before 6:30 PM gives you a real shot at the full menu in a more informal setting. The wine list skews Italian and French, consistent with the kitchen's direction, and the room's overall ease — bright artwork, gleaming mirrors, natural light on weekends , makes the bar feel like a destination rather than a waiting area. For the West Village specifically, where many comparable rooms lean either too loud or too precious, King's bar sits at a useful middle point: animated without being difficult for conversation.
| Detail | King | Comparable West Village Options |
|---|---|---|
| Cuisine | Southern Italian, daily-changing | Varies by venue |
| Address | 18 King St, New York, NY 10014 | West Village / South Village |
| Dinner hours | Mon–Fri 5–10 PM | Typical: 5:30 PM onwards |
| Lunch/weekend | Sat–Sun 12–10 PM | Not always available at peers |
| Booking difficulty | Easy | Varies; some peers require 3–4 weeks |
| OAD ranking (2025) | #109 Casual North America | Few West Village peers rank this consistently |
| Google rating | 4.2 (508 reviews) | Typical 4.0–4.4 range |
Book King if you want a seasonal Italian-leaning dinner without a fixed tasting format, a wine-forward room that doesn't require a special-occasion budget, and a West Village address that's been consistent long enough to trust on a first visit. It's particularly well-suited for food and wine enthusiasts who appreciate daily-changing menus and kitchen-driven decisions over à la carte predictability. It's less suited if you're looking for a long tasting-menu experience or a room with significant ceremony.
Parties of two will find the room well-calibrated to their needs. Larger groups should note the intimate rear dining space, which has natural limits on capacity. Weekend lunch (Saturday and Sunday from noon) is worth considering if you want the full experience at lower noise levels than a Friday or Saturday dinner service.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| King | — | |
| Le Bernardin | $$$$ | — |
| Atomix | $$$$ | — |
| Eleven Madison Park | $$$$ | — |
| Masa | $$$$ | — |
| Per Se | $$$$ | — |
A quick look at how King measures up.
Book at least 2 to 3 weeks out, particularly for dinner Thursday through Saturday. King has been consistently ranked in Opinionated About Dining's top casual restaurants in North America since 2023, which keeps demand steady. The bar area sometimes yields same-day or walk-in availability earlier in the week, but don't rely on that for a weekend slot.
Yes, and it's a legitimate option rather than a fallback. The front bar is where the room's energy concentrates earlier in the evening, and the full menu is available there. If you can't secure a table, the bar is a reasonable first choice, not a consolation prize.
King works well for solo diners. The bar counter is the obvious seat of choice — active enough to feel social, compact enough that eating alone doesn't feel awkward. The daily-changing menu format also suits solo visits where you want to order freely without coordinating a shared tasting progression.
Dinner is where King has built its reputation, but Saturday and Sunday lunch from noon are worth considering if you want the same seasonal Italian menu with a less pressured pace. Weekday service is dinner-only (5–10 pm), so lunch is only an option on weekends.
The menu changes daily based on greenmarket sourcing, so no specific dish is guaranteed. Past menus cited by Opinionated About Dining have featured house-made ravioli and grilled wild striped bass — expect hand-rolled pasta, fresh fish, and vegetable-forward plates to anchor the menu. Panisse has appeared as a starter and is worth ordering if available.
King is a West Village neighborhood restaurant with a casual but considered room — bright artwork, gleaming mirrors, an intimate rear dining space. There is no documented dress code. Neat casual is appropriate; you won't feel underdressed in jeans or overdressed in a blazer.
King is an intimate restaurant, so large groups are difficult. The room suits tables of two to four most naturally. If you're planning a group of six or more, check the venue's official channels to ask about availability — the space is not described as having a private dining room, so larger parties may find it restrictive.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
