I love them both. I have a preference. I will get to that. First, let me actually compare them honestly, as someone who has eaten on both sides, walked on both sides, and once spent twenty minutes lost in the residential blocks of the UWS in February looking for a coffee shop I was certain existed. (It did. It was worth it.)
The Vibe
The Upper East Side has a reputation for old money and conservative polish, and while this is somewhat overstated, it is not wrong. The avenues below 86th Street in particular have a formality to them that you do not find in most Manhattan neighborhoods. Women in silk scarves walking dogs of considerable breeding. Men in suits at 9am on a Saturday. Very nice flowers in the lobby of buildings I will never live in.
The Upper West Side has a reputation for intellectual liberal families who have strong opinions about public schools and subscribe to more magazines than anyone else they know. This is also somewhat overstated and also not entirely wrong. The brownstones feel lived-in in a different way than UES brownstones. The coffee shops have newspapers. The bookstores are very good.
Neither of these descriptions is an insult. They are just different neighborhoods with different personalities, and knowing which one appeals to you will tell you something about yourself.
upper-west-side-2769-683x1024.jpgUpper West Side
The Museums
The Upper East Side wins the museum battle so completely it is not a competition. The Met is one of the greatest museums in the world and is on 5th Avenue at 82nd Street. The Guggenheim is on 5th at 89th. The Frick (currently in a beautiful renovation return) is at 70th. The Cooper Hewitt, the Neue Galerie, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of the City of New York – they are all on the UES in a stretch of Fifth Avenue known as Museum Mile.
The Upper West Side has the Natural History Museum and the Hayden Planetarium, which are both extraordinary, but they are outnumbered by the east side concentration. If museums are your primary reason to visit, you want to be on the Upper East Side.
The-Met-2024-1006162-1-684x1024.jpgThe Metropolitan Museum of Art · Upper East Side
DSC08279-1024x683.jpgAmerican Museum of Natural History · Upper West Side
The Food
This is where it gets more interesting and more contested.
The Upper East Side has 2nd Avenue Deli, which is one of the best delis in New York and the place I go when I want a pastrami sandwich that reminds me why pastrami sandwiches exist. The mushroom barley soup. The matzoh ball soup. The tongue sandwich if you are adventurous. Address: 1442 1st Ave at 75th St
2nd-Ave-Deli-1004951-684x1024.jpg2nd Ave Deli · Upper East Side
The UES also has Cafe Boulud, JG Melon (the burger there is a New York institution), and a stretch of excellent Italian restaurants on the 80s block of Second and Third Avenue. The food here is reliable and often very good, but it skews more expensive than the UWS equivalent.
The Upper West Side has Levain Bakery, which I will discuss momentarily because it deserves its own paragraph. It also has Barney Greengrass, the Sturgeon King on Amsterdam Avenue, which has been selling smoked fish since 1908 and is one of the great New York experiences for a weekend morning. The zabar’s situation. Zabar’s is on the UWS and is a food emporium unlike anything on the east side.
Levain Bakery at 167 W 74th Street makes cookies that are thick as a fist and genuinely one of the best things I eat in this city. The chocolate chip walnut is the one people go for. The dark chocolate peanut butter chip is my personal preference. The line is always there. Move through it quickly and eat the cookie while it is warm. Address: 167 W 74th St, Upper West Side
LEVAIN-09013-1024x683.jpgLevain Bakery · Upper West Side
The Bars
Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side is one of the great bars in New York. The walls are covered in the original murals by Ludwig Bemelmans, who created Madeline. The drinks are expensive. The room is extraordinary. It is the kind of place where you order one very good cocktail and sit with it for a long time and feel like you are in a different era of the city.
spork-Bemelmans-1005994-684x1024.jpgBemelmans Bar · Upper East Side
The Upper West Side has the Dead Poet (cozy, good beer selection, books everywhere) and a handful of reliable neighborhood bars that do not have the same glamour but are considerably easier to get a seat in. For a regular evening out, the UWS wins on accessibility. For a special occasion, Bemelmans wins everything.
Parks Access
Both sides have Central Park, which is the obvious answer, but the access is slightly different. The Upper West Side has Riverside Park along the Hudson River in addition to Central Park, and Riverside is one of the most underrated parks in the city. It stretches from 72nd Street to 158th Street along the river with bike paths, a promenade, a marina, and significantly fewer tourists than Central Park.
The Upper East Side has Carl Schurz Park near the river at 86th Street, which is small and pleasant. The advantage of the UWS in terms of park access is real, especially for the Riverside Park addition.
upper-west-side-1879-683x1024.jpgThe Dakota · Upper West Side
For Families vs Singles
The Upper West Side is the better family neighborhood. The school situation is generally considered strong, the parks are excellent for children, and the general feel of the neighborhood is accommodating to strollers and playgrounds and the kind of family logistics that make certain blocks more or less functional than others.
The Upper East Side is better for someone who wants the museum access and does not mind a quieter evening scene. The neighborhood gets residential very quickly above 86th Street, and the vibe is more about the institutions than the nightlife.
Which is Better for Tourists
If your primary goals are museums and upscale dining, the Upper East Side is the answer. You can walk to the Met, the Guggenheim, and the Frick from a single hotel, eat excellent food within a few blocks, and have a genuinely complete New York experience without crossing the park.
If your goals are more varied – you want parks and food and bookshops and a neighborhood that feels lived-in – the Upper West Side is my recommendation. Columbus Circle at the southwest corner of the neighborhood gives you access to the rest of Manhattan, the Natural History Museum is extraordinary, and the general feel of the neighborhood is warmer and easier to navigate as a visitor.
Columbus-Circle-1002550-684x1024.jpgColumbus Circle · Columbus Circle
My Preference
Upper West Side. I find it more human-scaled and more interesting to walk through, the food situation is better for my personal taste (Levain, Barney Greengrass, Zabar’s, the UWS pizza places), and Riverside Park is genuinely one of the best places to spend a morning in the city.
The Upper East Side has better museums and Bemelmans Bar, and I go there regularly for both. But if I had to choose one side to stay on for a week, I am taking the west side every time. This is a personal preference and reasonable people disagree, including many reasonable people who live on the east side and are very happy there.
Upper-East-Side-Snow-1006017-2-684x1024.jpgUpper East Side
The good news is that they are separated by one of the greatest parks in the world and a fifteen-minute walk across it. You do not actually have to choose.