How to Pick a Restaurant in NYC When Everyone Lives in a Different Borough

Trying to pick a restaurant in NYC should be easy.

This is New York. We have restaurants everywhere.

Want handmade pasta? Done. Sushi? Obviously. Korean barbecue? Yes. Dumplings? Of course. Somewhere with a rooftop and a cocktail served in a glass shaped like a bird? We can probably find that too.

Finding restaurants is not really our problem.

The problem is that one friend lives in Astoria, another is in Brooklyn, someone works in Midtown but lives uptown, and one person is coming in from New Jersey.

Then someone asks:

“Where should we eat?”

And somehow this turns into a 47-message group chat, eight restaurant links, three completely different neighborhoods and one person saying:

“I’m good with anything!”

They are never good with anything.

So before everyone starts sending restaurant recommendations, stop.

If your group is scattered all over New York, the restaurant should actually be one of the last things you choose.

Here is how I would do it.

How to Pick a Restaurant in NYC When Everyone Is Starting Somewhere Different

First, figure out where everyone is actually coming from.

Not necessarily where they live.

Where will they be before dinner?

This matters more than you think.

Your friend who lives in Brooklyn may already be working near Union Square. Someone who lives uptown may be coming from an appointment in SoHo. Your Jersey friend may be arriving through Penn Station. Someone from Queens may already be in Midtown for the day.

Suddenly, meeting in Manhattan may make perfect sense.

Or it may not.

Before deciding on a restaurant—or even a neighborhood—ask everyone one simple question:

“Where will you be coming from before dinner?”

You don't need exact addresses. A neighborhood, subway stop, office area or major landmark is enough.

Now you have something useful to work with.

Where Should We Eat NYC? Choose the Meeting Area First

Once you know where everyone is starting, resist the urge to immediately search restaurants.

Choose the general meeting area first.

And here's the important part:

The geographic middle is not necessarily the convenient middle.

If one friend is in Astoria and another is in Williamsburg, a point exactly halfway between them on a map isn't automatically your best option.

New York does not work that way.

A neighborhood that is technically farther away but sits on a direct subway line may be far easier than somewhere closer that requires two transfers, a bus and an emotional support beverage.

Think about travel time and convenience, not just mileage.

Ask:

• Can most people get there on one subway line?
• How many transfers will people need?
• Is the neighborhood close to a major transportation hub?
• Is anyone coming via NJ Transit, PATH, Metro-North or LIRR?
• How difficult will the trip home be after dinner?

If you're doing this manually, check the MTA subway map while you're deciding.

It takes five minutes and can save one friend from quietly resenting all of you for making them travel 78 minutes for tacos.

Make the Commute Fair — Not Identical

You probably are not going to find a restaurant exactly 23 minutes away from every person.

That's okay.

The goal is fair, not mathematically perfect.

Maybe four people have a 25-minute trip and one person has a 35-minute trip.

Fine.

That's very different from four people traveling 15 minutes while one friend journeys from Queens to the far side of Brooklyn because someone found “the cutest little place.”

Be especially conscious of the person who is habitually asked to travel the farthest.

You know who they are.

Every group has one.

Decide Your Non-Negotiables Before Looking at Restaurants

Now, and only now, are we ready to talk about food.

Before anyone searches for an actual restaurant, establish the things that genuinely matter.

I would figure out:

Budget. Are we talking casual $25-per-person dinner or birthday dinner with appetizers, cocktails and absolutely no discussion of the credit card statement until next month?

Dietary restrictions. Allergies, vegan, vegetarian, halal, kosher, gluten-free or anything else that needs to be accommodated.

Cuisine. Does anyone specifically want—or absolutely not want—something?

Noise level. Are you catching up with friends you haven't seen in six months, or is this a “we don't care if we can hear each other because we're going somewhere afterward” dinner?

Group size. Dinner for four is very different from dinner for twelve.

Accessibility. Does anyone need step-free access, accessible restrooms, easy transportation access or another accommodation?

Timing. Does someone need to leave by 9:00? Does someone work until 7:00?

These are actual decision-making criteria.

“It's really cute on TikTok” is not.

Decide What Kind of Dinner You're Having

This is another step people skip.

Not all group dinners are the same.

Are you celebrating something?

Catching up?

Going somewhere before a show?

Having a girls' night?

Meeting coworkers?

Taking someone out for their birthday?

Looking for a long dinner where everyone hangs around for three hours?

Trying to eat before going out?

The answer affects the restaurant.

For a catch-up dinner, you may care about noise.

For a birthday, atthe atmosphere might rank higher.

For coworkers, proximity to the office may matter more than whether the restaurant is trendy.

For a group heading to Broadway afterward, suddenly the 7:00 reservation in Brooklyn isn't looking so brilliant.

Define the night before you choose where it happens.

Make a Shortlist — Not a Restaurant Encyclopedia

Now search.

And this is where I beg you:

Do not send 17 restaurants into the group chat.

More choices do not necessarily make choosing easier.

Usually, they make it worse.

After you've narrowed down the neighborhood and requirements, choose three to five legitimate contenders.

That's it.

Every restaurant on the list should already meet the basic criteria.

For example:

• Convenient location
• Reasonable price
• Food everyone can eat
• Right atmosphere
• Available around your preferred time

Now the conversation becomes:

Which of these do we like best?

Instead of:

Which restaurant in the entire city of New York should we go to?

Those are very different decisions.

Give Everyone a Vote — But Give the Vote a Deadline

This is important.

Once you have your shortlist, ask everyone to choose their favorites.

But don't leave this open indefinitely.

You do not need restaurant election season.

Say something like:

“Vote by 6:00 tonight and I'll book whatever gets the most votes.”

Done.

Everyone gets input.

One person is not stuck making the entire decision.

And you don't spend three days discussing dinner.

If there's a tie, use a simple tie-breaker:

Choose the one with the easier commute.

Choose the one with the better reservation time.

Choose the one that better accommodates the group's dietary needs.

Or flip a coin.

We are choosing dinner, not negotiating an international treaty.

Check the Trip Home Before You Book

One final thing before you reserve the table:

Check how everyone gets home.

This is especially important in NYC.

A route that looks simple at 6:30 PM might become far less appealing later at night.

Someone may need to catch a commuter train.

Someone may not want a long walk to the subway after dark.

Weekend service changes can affect the route.

A friend who came directly from work may have a completely different trip home.

Make sure the restaurant works on both ends of the night.

Then make the reservation.

Once You've Decided, Stop Looking

I cannot emphasize this enough.

Once the group chooses the restaurant:

We are done.

Do not reopen Yelp.

Do not send another TikTok.

Do not enter the chat at 4:12 PM and say:

“Wait, what about this place?”

No.

The polls have closed.

We have a government.

Dinner is at 7:30.

Or...You Could Let Pixx Do a Lot of This for You

Everything above works.

You can absolutely figure out where everyone is coming from, compare travel times, collect dietary restrictions, narrow down cuisines, research restaurants, create a shortlist, send it to the group, collect everyone's opinions and determine the winner yourself.

But you may have noticed something.

That's...a lot.

And that is exactly the problem Pixx was built to solve.

Most restaurant apps help one person find restaurants.

Pixx is designed around the much more annoying question:

Where should WE eat?

With Pixx, you create the meal and invite your group. Pixx can factor in everyone's locations, food preferences and dietary requirements when suggesting restaurants for the group. Friends can then participate in the decision and vote on the options. Pixx's Smart Location feature is specifically designed to help identify a meeting area that minimizes travel time for the group, including different ways people are getting there.

So instead of one person doing this:

Where are you coming from?

What don't you eat?

How much do you want to spend?

Italian?

No?

What about Thai?

Is Flatiron okay?

Did you look at the restaurants I sent?

HELLO?

...Pixx helps the group make the decision together.

Because New York does not have a restaurant-discovery problem.

We have approximately seven million opinions about where to eat.

You don't need another giant list of restaurants.

You need your group to pick one.

Ready to Stop Asking “Where Should We Eat?”

Let Pixx help your group decide where to eat.

Create your meal, invite your people and turn the group chat from an endless restaurant debate into an actual dinner reservation.

Then go eat.

Everyone is now happy.