Chelsea Market is a real time commitment — fit it in only if it's a priority.
Allow 45–90 min.
Exposed brick and pipework, a long industrial corridor packed with food stalls — lobster rolls, tacos, doughnuts, ramen. It's lively and easy and the building has real character, but it's firmly a tourist circuit now, crowded and pricey at lunch. Perfect High Line bookend; not a destination on its own.