What are these restaurants that don't have the hostess give you menus? The lowest class ones have menus printed on the little table placemats, middle ones always have a pile of menus the host grabs from when seating you (and calls you Party of X, always), and the highest ones either arrange for wine first, or you're getting a menu from the server right as you're seated by the hostess.
I suppose there's some middle-ground "seat yourself" style ones but I can't recall any recently.
Pretty common for restaurants not to have a host, you just ask a waiter nearby and they tell you to sit anywhere you like, and that someone will be by to serve you.
Hosts are expensive and NYC restaurants are often quite small so it's very common not to have them.
I suppose there's some middle-ground "seat yourself" style ones but I can't recall any recently.