Eight adults were hurt -- including the driver, who was the only person in the car.
The crash happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday night on West 119th Street.
Firefighters quickly put out the blaze.
"All we saw was fire. The people on the corner on the edge there, they were really messed up because they were like stuck under, under the table," said witness Tracey Offett. "And we were like the next table over, seemed like the whole building just shook."
The driver and three customers in the restaurant were critically injured. Four others had non-life-threatening injuries.
There was no word early Sunday on what caused the crash.
