New York, January 2023 to September 2026
A night out with friends in New York now costs a median of $56 per person, up from $45 in 2023.
Every number on this page comes from itemized restaurant and bar receipts that groups split on Splyt. These are tables of friends splitting a check, not solo diners.
Where the money goes, neighborhood by neighborhood
45 neighborhoods clear the publishing floor: 23 in Manhattan, 14 in Brooklyn, 8 in Queens. Cost per person runs from $32.35 in Long Island City to $59.55 in Tribeca, and a cocktail from $8 in Jackson Heights to $18.44 in Tribeca.
Shapes are NYC Planning 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas, matched to every venue by its coordinates. The rest of the city is drawn but sits outside the dataset. Every figure on a card clears the minimums set out in the method. Signature drink is the reward for exploring: only 16 of the 45 order one drink far enough above the citywide rate to publish. Every neighborhood also has its own page.
Citywide
Four things the receipts say about New York
What New York is ordering now
The espresso martini stopped growing and the spritz passed it. Share of tables ordering each drink, April to September in each year.
Scale runs 0% to 13% of tables.
The $20 cocktail
About one in ten cocktails cost $20 or more in 2023. It is almost one in five now.
Share of cocktails priced $20 or more.
New York tips
77.6% of New York tables tip 20% or more, the highest of eleven cities measured. The median tip is exactly 20% in every one of them, so the difference is how many tables go below it.
Why the bill grew
Across all tables the rise is 25%. At the restaurants that appear in both 2023 and 2026 it is about 15%, so part of the increase is groups choosing pricier places. The rest is on the menu, and it is not spread evenly.
Method
How these numbers were made
A table
A receipt with two or more people where at least 80% of the bill was claimed. Cost per person is the full total including tax and tip, divided by the people on the receipt. All figures are medians.
Accuracy check
New York sales tax is 8.875%. On these receipts the scanned tax divided by the scanned subtotal has a median of 8.88%.
The minimums
A neighborhood is shown only when at least 30 tables from at least 15 different groups back it. A restaurant is listed only when at least 5 different groups split a check there. A signature drink is shown only when at least 20 tables back it and it runs at least 1.4 times the citywide rate. A figure that clears its floor is simply shown. One that does not says so instead of guessing.
Counts
Splyt does not publish how many receipts, tables or groups sit behind a figure. Scale is stated once, rounded, at the top of this page. The minimums above do the same job as printing every count.
Who is in it
These are groups who split a check with an app, mostly tables of three to seven. They are not a random sample of New York diners.
Period
January 2023 to September 2026.
Where groups go
The 30 most split restaurants in New York
The places where the most different groups have split a check, in order, with what a night there costs per person. This measures where groups go, not quality and not price.
- 1Ruby's CafeWest Village$45.39
- 2Bubby'sTribeca$51.98
- 3Rosemary'sWest Village$63.53
- 4Shoo ShooSoHo and Nolita$66.58
- 5JackdawEast Village$44.64
- 612 ChairsSoHo and Nolita$51.87
- 7Ruby's CafeEast Village$36.65
- 8Pete's TavernGramercy$46.23
- 9Café MaudEast Village$43.71
- 10Roey'sWest Village$37.90
- 11Rosie'sEast Village$57.20
- 12Brooklyn CrabCarroll Gardens and Cobble Hill$66.56
- 13Rosemary's EastStuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village$54.93
- 14Dudley'sLower East Side$43
- 15Tara RoseGramercy$35.96
- 16Thai DinerSoHo and Nolita$39.74
- 17Virginia'sEast Village$69.81
- 18Ruby'sMurray Hill and Kips Bay$31.61
- 19PastisWest Village$72.57
- 20Emmett's on GroveWest Village$53.05
- 21The GraftonEast Village$43.39
- 22American Bar - New YorkWest Village$66.76
- 23Caliente Cab Co.West Village$56.57
- 24SoothrEast Village$55.47
- 25Street TacoGramercy$39.59
- 26The Penny FarthingEast Village$39.75
- 27Jacob's PicklesUpper West Side$48.86
- 28Pink CactusGramercy$60.02
- 29The PenroseYorkville$42.75
- 30RintintinSoHo and Nolita$56.01
For reporters
Any neighborhood, dish or drink cut on request.
The same data exists for ten other cities. Tell us the cut you want and we will send it, with the sample sizes attached. Ask for Luis Barrera, who built this.