What's on the menu? API
Overview
The What's on the Menu? API provides access to the New York Public Library's digitized collection of over 45,000 historical restaurant menus from the 1840s to today. You can search menus by keyword, date range, or location and explore human-transcribed dish data. It is a fascinating resource for food history research and data visualization projects.
Beginner Tip
Retrieve a list of menus with GET /menus.json?keyword=chicken and paginate through results using the page parameter. The API key goes in the query string as ?key=YOUR_API_KEY.
Available Data
Example Response
{
"status": "success",
"data": {
"result": "Data from What's on the menu?",
"description": "NYPL human-transcribed historical menu collection",
"timestamp": "2025-01-15T10:00:00Z"
}
} Field Reference
id Unique identifier for the menu name Name or description of the menu event date Date of the menu in YYYY-MM-DD format location Restaurant or venue where the menu was used page_count Number of pages in the digitized menu Implementation Example
const url = "http://nypl.github.io/menus-api/";
// Replace headers or query params with the values required by this API.
const response = await fetch(url, {
headers: {
"X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
}
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Matrix Score Breakdown
Partially tested on Apr 5, 2026
Technical Specifications
Related Tags
Similar APIs
View All →Chomp
The Chomp API provides detailed nutritional data for millions of grocery products and restaurant menu items, including macros, ingredients, and allergen flags.
Edamam nutrition
The Edamam Nutrition Analysis API parses natural-language food descriptions such as "1 cup of oatmeal" or "200g chicken breast" and returns detailed nutritional breakdowns including calories, macros, vitamins, and minerals.
Edamam recipes
⭐ Beginner's PickThe Edamam Recipe Search API lets you search a database of over 2 million recipes filtered by ingredients, diet labels such as vegan or keto, meal type, and cuisine.
Kroger
The Kroger API gives developers access to product catalog data, pricing, store locations, and promotions from one of the largest US grocery chains.
LCBO
The LCBO API provides access to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario product catalog, including wines, spirits, and beers sold in Ontario, Canada.