1. Babbo

Greenwich Village

Babbo is Italian cooking amped up. Even after spending over a year working there in the kitchen, I still love the food. It's the most genius pasta you are ever going to eat. Try the lamb's tongue salad, which is a fantastic starter and the two-minute Sicilian calamari, a clever preparation of squid in a spicy sauce. For dessert, the panacotta is like a richer, more intensified version of anything you would get in Italy. Babbo has an encyclopaedic and adventurous wine list. There'll always be something you'll be surprised by, even if you know Italian wines. During the week, the restaurant is noisy, groovy and rock-and-rollish, but the best time to go is Sunday, when it's just the locals.

2. Jean Georges

Central Park

This is probably the best restaurant in New York. It has an incredibly sophisticated menu and impeccable service. The best thing to do is to put yourself in the hands of the chef. You will be dazzled, dish after dish after dish. The starter of slow-scrambled eggs, served in their shell and then topped with vodka crème fraiche and caviar is one of the signature dishes. And the desserts are a thing of brilliance. There is a comprehensive wine list, the kind you would expect from a three-star Michelin restaurant.

3. Casa Mono

Union Square

The name means Monkey House. This is a tiny restaurant on Irving Place, not far from the Union Square Greenmarket. Started by the former executive chef of Babbo, Andy Nusser, the restaurant is an example of truly brilliant cooking. Most of the menu is driven by what's available from the market, but there are always certain staples. The croquetas, made with either baccalà (salted cod) or cheese and squash and served with homemade aioli, are simple but delicious. The wine list is the best you'll find outside of Spain. The restaurant is hard to get into as there are very few tables. The space is cramped, but that's part of the experience. It's intensely sociable.

Babbo, 110 Waverly Place, 00 1 212 777 0303

4. Balthazar

Soho

Balthazar is everybody's longtime favourite for a perfectly cooked steak and a really appealing red wine from the Rhone at one o'clock in the morning. And it does the best frites, served with mayonnaise, in the city. It's fast, it's efficient, it's reliable. It serves the same menu all the time, but it's always brilliant. It is a haunt of the actor/literati set. Its inspiration is those big, noisy late-night French bistros. Intense public sociability is such a feature of New York and Balthazar is one of the best expressions of that. If you want a little tranquillity away from the noisy carnival, sit in the booths.

5. Dumpling House

Chinatown

There is nowhere in New York that has dumplings that are as good as the ones here. I get my chickens, ducks and quails at a place called Bobo Poultry which is on Broom Street and that's how I discovered Dumpling House, which is just around the corner. It's always packed and you can get 10 dumplings and a Pepsi for $2.50. They also have some exotic sandwiches that they serve in a flatbread, but really you go there for the dumplings. These are handmade by a couple of Chinese ladies in a minute kitchen right at the back of the restaurant and are dished out over a counter at the front where everyone barks their order at the same time and you are served in a completely arbitrary way. It's a great place.

Jean Georges, Trump International Hotel and Tower, 1 Central Park West at Colombus Circle and West 60th Street, 00 1 212 299 3900

Casa Mono, 52 Irving Place, 00 1 212 253 2773

Balthazar, 80 Spring Street, 00 1 212 965 1785

Dumpling House, 118A Eldridge St, 00 1 212 625 8008

· Bill Buford's Heat is published by Jonathan Cape, £16.99