Any good restaurants at a reasonable price in Midtown ?

[stuv]

Any good restaurants at a reasonable price for a French family visiting NYC next April? We will be staying on East 54th Street. We enjoy all sorts of cuisines, but we avoid restaurants where they serve only fish, as one of our boys is allergic to fish. Any help will be very much appreciated! Merci beaucoup!

[rkaene]

Nirvana, Indian, on Lexington & 39. Great food, fabulous drinks, beautiful atmosphere & great service. Their lunch buffet is a bargain at 13, for very high quality food.

[smokeandapancake]

pescatore is an option as well

[smokeandapancake]

any price restrictions?

[stuv]

Around 25/30 $ per adult and around 15/20 $ per child. Our boys are 9 and 11.
many thanks!

[smokeandapancake]

for some good sichuan i would go to
Grand Sichuan Eastern1049 2nd Ave | Btwn 55th & 56th St

pizza/italian
Angelo's Pizza1043 2nd Ave | At 55th St

pubby food...Pj Clarke's
P.J. Clarke's915 3rd Ave | At 55th St

[stuv]

Thank you for the tips!

[yebo]

-If that price includes wine for the 2 adults, 3 courses, tax and tip (tax 8-3/4%, tip 15%), it will make the main dish price need to be for adults around $15, I roughly figure. I'm wondering if you think you'll be comfortable with subwaying to more reasonable parts of town for eating (e.g., 9th Avenue or downtown or street food for lunch)

[stuv]

We don't mind subwaying in safe areas of the city but we really want to avoid the chain restaurants and the tourists trap places! any recommendations will be greatly welcomed. Merci!

[Jane A.]

If they get desparate for moules while away from home, just walk down 54th going east and they'll get to Jubilee (347 East 54th). They have a dinner prix fixe and always have moules with frites at a reasonable price. See their menu on menupages.com
Angelo's pizza is on 2nd Ave at 55th Street has already been mentioned. Taksim on 2nd Ave bet. 54 & 55th is an interesting little Turkish place in the right price range. These restaurants are all very "neighborhood." Panda Restaurant (that's how it's listed on menupages - we just call it Panda) is on the corner of 54th and 1st Ave. and is our standard neighborhood chinese place. Just down first Ave from there is Tal Bagels - really good smoked salmon. If you need a diner - Madison on the corner of 53rd & 1st is the local hangout. The advantage of these restaurants is that they're all within easy walking distance of the hotel at the end of a long tourist day. They'll need a reservation for early dining at Jubilee - the early prix fixe is quite popular.

[stuv]

Thanks for the recommendations! As for the moules frites place, I think we will skip it...we are not very keen on moules frites..and one of my boys is allergic to fishy food. We also love good, authentic burgers and I believe NYC may be one of the best spots for this! I have heard the best place in NYC is 'Keen's' on the 36th street. Is this right?

[StrongIsland]

Keens is a steakhouse, and very good to great depending on who you ask. And they do have a burger that is supposed to be pretty good. Two places I would recommend. First is Shake Shack. You can find lots of opinion on this on this board. The other place I would check out which is kind of near where you are staying I think is the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien. Burgers have become a contentious issue and there are lots of different viewpoints on this.

[Jane A.]

I think both Shake Shack and the Burger Joint would be more NY-ish fun for the kids as well as offering really good burgers. The steak houses tend to have burgers which are huge and not really part of the burger-as-finger/hand-food experience.

[StrongIsland]

Good point. some of the steakhouses are more focused on a gourmet type burger rather than a nice messy burger. Nothing better.

[buttertart]

There are lots of places along 9th Avenue (take the 1 train to 50th St, walk west to 9th, and walk either way on 9th. There's a thread on 9th Avenue favorites here as well. The city is the safest large city in America - there were only 62 or something murders in 2009, an all-time low. If you use normal discretion (don't display money, stand on streetcorners looking at a map,get drunk and wander around, etc) you really have nothing to fear. Bienvenue a New York!

[Jane A.]

If they stand on a street corner looking at a map during the day in the neighborhood where they're staying, at least 5 or 6 friendly souls will stop to help them to find what they're looking for and get where they're going. The map thing really only applies after dark.

[buttertart]

Point taken. It does help not to look clueless wherever you are, whenever it is, in any part of a big city.

[stuv]

We live in Paris so we know what it is like to live a big city. Thanks for the restaurants advice.

[buttertart]

I am sure you do, I in no way meant to imply that you would do any of those things, just that they were behaviors that mark out tourists from locals. My other point was that NYC is a remarkably safe city in general, streets and subways both. I hope you enjoy NY as much as I enjoy Paris.

[stuv]

We are really looking forward to visit NYC! Many thanks for all the tips!