Where to Eat Before a Union Square Event

Almost anything inside a ten-minute walk of Union Square can work before a show, so the constraint that matters is not distance, it is the clock. The question is whether you have ninety minutes for a seated dinner or forty for something at a bar. Nothing in the query “italian restaurant union square” carries a curtain time, which is why every result looks equally workable and roughly half of them are not. Get that wrong and you either rush a good meal or stand outside a venue for half an hour. This guide sorts the options by time available rather than by cuisine, with walking distances from Irving Plaza at 17 Irving Place, the neighborhood’s busiest event address.

The short answer

If you have ninety minutes or more, book a table on East 19th or East 20th Street and walk east to the venue afterward. If you have less than an hour, go to a bar that serves food during the late afternoon, because most kitchens near Union Square do not seat a full dinner service quickly between 6pm and 8pm.

At a glance: what fits in the time you have

Time before doors	What works	Where
2 hours	Full seated dinner	Union Square Cafe, Rezdôra
90 minutes	Dinner, ordered promptly	Il Cantinori, Casa Mono
45 to 60 minutes	Bar seats, small plates	Isabelle’s Osteria, Casa Mono bar
Under 30 minutes	Skip the meal, eat after	Most kitchens serve until 10pm or later

Getting around Union Square

The 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R and W all stop at 14th Street-Union Square, which is why so many events land here in the first place. Irving Place runs south from 20th Street along the park’s east side, and Irving Plaza sits at number 17, roughly a five-minute walk from the subway exits on the park’s east side.

Worth knowing if you are coming early: the Union Square Greenmarket runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 8am to 6pm, year round, on 17th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South and along Union Square West. On those four days the north and west plazas are busy well into the evening, which is pleasant if you have an hour to spare and slow going if you are late.

Two hours before doors

Union Square Cafe, 101 East 19th Street, on the corner of 19th and Park Avenue South. Lunch runs Monday to Friday 11:30am to 2:30pm, brunch Saturday and Sunday 11am to 2:30pm, a midday menu daily from 2:30pm to 5pm, and dinner daily 5pm to 10:30pm. That midday service is the useful part for an early show. The room is designed for people who intend to sit for a while, so it is best suited to an evening where the dinner matters as much as the set. Reserve through OpenTable; walking east to Irving Place takes about six minutes.

Rezdôra, 27 East 20th Street, three blocks north of the park. Dinner runs nightly 5pm to 11pm, with lunch Tuesday to Friday noon to 2:30pm and a weekend midday service from 11:30am. The menu is grounded in Emilia-Romagna rather than Italy broadly, which means egg pasta and slow ragù rather than a survey. This is a destination dinner, not a quick one. Give it the full two hours and expect to walk about eight minutes to the venue afterward.

Ninety minutes before doors

Il Cantinori, 32 East 10th Street between University Place and Broadway. Dinner starts at 5pm nightly, running to 10pm Sunday through Thursday and 10:30pm Friday and Saturday. It is further from Irving Plaza than the others here, so factor that in. The trade is a Tuscan room that has been on the same block since 1983.

Casa Mono, 52 Irving Place at 17th Street, just east of Union Square and about two minutes from Irving Plaza. Spanish rather than Italian, built around small plates and an all-Spanish wine list, open noon to 11pm seven days. Small plates are structurally faster than a three-course meal, and the proximity means you can stay until the last possible minute.

Under an hour before doors

This is where most pre-event plans fall apart. Sitting down for a full dinner at 6:45pm for an 8pm show is optimistic in this neighborhood.

Isabelle’s Osteria, 245 Park Avenue South, three blocks north-east of the park and about a seven-minute walk from Irving Plaza. Its Aperitivo Hour runs Monday through Friday from 2pm to 6pm at the bar, with small bites, spritzers, cocktails, wine and beer each at $5. For a weekday event with doors at 7 or 7:30, that window lines up almost exactly with the gap between leaving work and needing to be somewhere.

The room is contemporary Italian with house-made pasta, seats 150 and has a long bar, so it also works as a full dinner if you have the time. But the reason it belongs in this section is the timing: a 5pm bar seat, a few small plates, and a short walk south to the venue. Best suited to someone who wants a real drink and something to eat without committing to a table. Isabelle’s in Gramercy Park publishes its menus but not its daily hours, so call (212) 388-1145 the same day if your schedule is tight.

Eating after instead

There is a reasonable argument for skipping the pre-show meal entirely. Several kitchens in this area serve until 10pm or later, and a restaurant at 10:15pm on a weeknight is a very different, generally better experience than the same room at 6:45pm. If your event ends by ten, book the late table. The eight rooms around the square, sorted by how late each kitchen runs is the list to work from, and if you would rather drink first and eat afterward, the weekday aperitivo windows near the square start at 2pm.

For a wider view of the blocks just north of here, this walking guide to the Madison Square Park area covers what sits between 20th and 26th Streets, and the guide to eating along the 6 train in Gramercy helps if you are arriving from uptown.

Frequently Asked Question

How early should I arrive for a show at Irving Plaza if I want to eat first?

Plan to be seated two hours before doors, not before showtime. Doors typically open an hour or more ahead of the advertised set time, and if you want to be near the front you will want to be in line at doors rather than at the end of dessert. Working backward from a 7pm doors time, that means a 5pm reservation, which happens to be when most kitchens in this neighborhood begin dinner service. Check the specific event page for your show, since doors and set times vary, and confirm the restaurant’s hours the same day. A 5pm table on a Monday is a very different proposition from a 5pm table on a Saturday.

Before you book

Check doors time first, then the restaurant’s hours, then reserve. In that order. Most pre-event dining problems in this neighborhood come from booking a table before checking when the venue actually opens.

Union Square is unusually forgiving for this kind of evening. Nearly everything is walkable from the park, and the subway access means a late change of plan is rarely fatal.

Editor’s note: Isabelle’s Osteria is affiliated with this publication. Restaurants were selected using the criteria described above.