New York museums - with benches and nice cafes?

8 weeks after a major foot surgery I was visiting our daughter in New York City. I was still recovering and couldn’t stand for any period of time. I was delighted to discover that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a robust accessibility program offering a fully accessible entrance and routes through the museum, folding stools and manual wheelchairs to borrow on a first come first served basis. https://www.metmuseum.org/visit-guides/accessibility
The museum has several cafe options but looking at the website it looks as if at least two are temporarily closed. The American Wing Cafe appears to be open. It’s very casual but good food and visually lovely with a view out to the park on one side and an open sculpture gallery on the other.

If you are interested in Austrian and German art, I can recommend the Neue Gallery. Just up 5th Ave from the Met, this small museum has an entire room of Klimt paintings including “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” aka “The Lady in Gold.” I was just there in November and sat on a very comfortable bench in front of Adele. The museum also offers wheelchair loans per their website. Although I haven’t eaten at the very upscale Cafe Sabarsky on the entrance level of the museum, I’ve peaked in and it has a lovely, old world charm and always a long line to get in.

I haven’t been to The Frick since the recent renovation but that might be a nice manageable option. Also not far from the Met.

I have some experience with that as my elderly mother lives in NY. Agree that most areas of the Met have places to sit and rest, although not necessarily in every room. The Frick not so much in the galleries themselves as I recall, but it is not a large place, and there is a central atrium with benches.

Consider borrowing museum wheelchairs. They typically are in great condition and make navigating a museum mire pleasant.

The Morgan Library has a Renoir exhibition at the moment, and they have a very nice atrium cafe.

I second the Morgan--it also has a small enough footprint to not be too taxing.

Hi. The Cafe on the Met balcony has salads sandwiches and baked goods. That's where I usually go. Others have mentioned the accommodations for wheelchair etc. I would not recommend the Frick as it's very small. You need reservations for the cage which you can only make when you get there. It's a wonderful collection but not a lot of places to sit and no walkin cafe

Another vote for the Morgan - small galleries with generally great exhibitions (and benches!) as well as the Pierpont Morgan library rooms. Cafe is nice, has a great tea for 2 (or 3!) as well ($85 - cheap by NYC tea standards!). Museum of Modern Art also has benches and a good cafe - yummy sandwiches, a really good tomato soup, etc. And pricing that isn't too ridiculous.

The Whitney is another option that I seem to recall has lots of seating (and cafes, although I have not eaten there. I think first floor cafe is a Frenchette outpost (very well-regarded NYC restaurant).

The Frick just re-opened recently, and is also a smaller, manageable museum, although I am not sure about seating there now - you could check online. There is a cafe, also new, so I have no experience on that.

The Cafe at the Frick is very small..more like a restaurant. You need a reservation which can only be made once you are in the museum the day of your visit. I'd recommend the Met

For the Met: the out-of-state (well it’s a set mile radius from NYC) memberships are reasonable and allow early access and at-grade entry. You might appreciate the early quiet time.