BARS • First Round
No Work Allowed is not a speakeasy. Yes, the slim, brick-encased Thai-Japanese restaurant successfully presenting as a jazz bar is located down a sideways staircase in Midtown, with a street-level sign that’s easy to miss. And at least on a recent Friday, it was kind of a pain to (almost not even) get a table. But it all conspires to make No Work Allowed seem like an incidental pleasure, rather than a studied hospitality project. It’s all just way more fun — and more convincing, as a pseudo-secret — than any New York City spot in the contrived speakeasy category, even as popular as the infant operation is.
Brilliantly located a few doors down from Tomi Jazz, No Work Allowed must collect some of the stragglers who can’t abide the long lines that gather outside of the older, social media fan favorite. That might account for No Work Allowed’s idiosyncratic-but-earnest reservation schema. It can’t be found on any of the typical platforms, someone answering their public phone number might direct you to a different line to text, which could result in relegation to a waitlist before narrowly being turned away at the door (or ultimately, somehow, winning one of a few dozen tables).
Back underground, servers somehow catch spoken orders of small plates like crispy chicken karaage and bright somtum over boisterous three-piece bands. Larger items, like the crying tiger, mingle pleasantly expected low heat and near-sweetness throughout the thinly sliced beef, and the crab fried rice similarly stays on book with plenty of liberated shellfish. Sake is also available by the bottle (the list tops out at $75 per), plus beer and wine, mostly by the glass, and shochu-based cocktails.
Is it a hassle? Undoubtedly. But in the New York City of 2025, the uncontrived, legitimately cool-in-its-bones establishment that hasn’t yet been entirely blown up by influencers might be worth a little bit of trouble. –Amber Sutherland-Namako
→ No Work Allowed (Midtown) • 235 E 53rd St, basement • Jazz hours Sun-Thu, 730-1030p, Fri 730-1130p, Sat 545-1130p • Try (212) 371-2947 to reserve.