Please Help! Restaurant Recs

[brettlee714]

Please give me a list of your favorite restaurants in the area. I have never been to New York, but my life is food, so tell me of some good places.

[sgordon]

Is that $150 before tax/tip? Does that include wine? Makes a huge difference. $150 before tax & tip is $116. Subtract wine from that (say, two glasses @ $12 each - which would be a cheap glass in some fine dining restos) and you're looking at $92/pp menu price. It's the difference between an ultra-luxe experience, a la Eleven Madison Park, and an excellent but not quite so luxe one.

lso, will you be bringing suits? I'm no fan of "jacket required" places, but if you're not bringing sportsjackets that'll rule out a few places.

Finally, I'd skip steakhouses. You can get steak where you come from, I'm sure. If you're in NYC for two nights, you ought to do a couple real "only in NY" kinds of places.

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Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10010

[brettlee714]

150 after tip, tax and including wine

We are not bringing jackets

I love your Idea about NY only kind of places and totally agree with you, so if you could give me some recs for those NY only places please?

[RGR]

I disagree with sgordon re: visiting a steakhouse. Yes, you can get steak where you come from. But youb won't be eating it at Keens, which is one of those "only in NY" places you are looking for. (I listed it in my post on your other thread.) It's been in its 36th St. location since 1885. Thus, in addition to delicious steaks and chops (including their signature mutton chop, not available anywhere else), you will be surrounded by unmatchable Old NY ambiance -- walls filled with authentic American memorablia, and row-upon-row of old clay smoking pipes suspended from all the ceilings, as well as pipes belonging to famous people dating back to the 19th century in display cases in the vestibule.

Keens photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11863391@N03/sets/72157623279345424/

http://thewizardofroz.wordpress.com

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Keens
72 West 36th St., New York, NY 10018

[sgordon]

Well, that rules out EMP. But there's a number of great options at that price point. And none of them require jackets.

For High Italian, you could do any of the better places with the exception of Del Posto or Lincoln, perhaps - Babbo, Scarpetta, and Falai (a personal favorite I think is underrated) are all great options where you could do a full four-course meal (antipasti, pasta, secondi, dolci) for within your budget. If you want to shoot for Babbo, though, be sure to call exactly a month to the day before you want to eat there, as soon as they open the lines if possible. Reservations fill up VERY quickly there. Further uptown you've got Marea and Ai Fiori, which could both be doable - they offer four course prix fixes, though from what I hear the portions are scaled down a bit from the a la carte offerings. Can't say for sure, since I've only ordered a la carte.

For New American, Collichio & Sons, Blue Hill, Gramercy Tavern and Tocqueville all come to mind as good options for the classic seasonal / "farm to table" thing. If you're up for more adventurous dining, WD-50 is a true "only in NY" place. A bit controversial - some love him, some hate him, there's very little middle ground. (I'm of the former opinion, obviously)

Marc Forgione is another great New American joint. Rustic with modern touches, very bold in the flavor department, decidedly less fancy atmosphere than some of the above. Both Blue Hill and MF, though, are decently enough priced that you could potentially get an extra round of apps, or splurge on the wine a bit more. WD possibly as well, depending what you order,

I'm not the biggest "Haute French" guy, so I'll leave French suggestions to someone else... But the "big name" French joints - Daniel, Jean Georges, Bouley, Le Bernardin, etc - will all likely be over your price point, and all require jackets anyway. I am awful fond of Cafe Boulud, though, Daniel Boulud's supposedly "second-tier" restaurant that, IMHO, serves better food than his flagship - and that could potentially be in your price range.

For splurge Japanese - if you wanted to push the budget a bit, maybe skimp on the other meal - Kyo Ya's Kaiseki is and extraordinary experience. Also of note are Soto and Morimoto. Those three are the most interesting for composed dishes, I find (as opposed to just high-end sushi / sashimi)

For your $100 meal (which would be $77 before tax & tips) I'd suggest...

Momofuku Ssam Bar - be prepared to wait in line, as there are no rezzies, then just order a bunch of different plates to share. Great food, very eclectic stylistically (not an Asian fusion place as some assume)

Vandaag - local / seasonal with a Northern European (Dutch & Norwegian mostly) twist. One of the better new restaurants to open in the last year or so. Excellent cocktails, well-curated beer list if that's your thing. Hearty stuff, of a cuisine style you don't see terribly often.

Casa Mono - fun small plates / tapas, boisterous scene.

Also, most of the Italian places listed above could be done if you just went for a three-course meal. That said, for me part of the fun of eating Italian is doing the whole shebang. And the portions at all of them tend to be sized with a four-course meal in mind.

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WD-50
50 Clinton Street, New York, NY 10002

Cafe Boulud
20 East 76th St., New York, NY 10021

Soto
357 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10014

Gramercy Tavern
42 E 20th St, New York, NY 10003

Babbo
110 Waverly Pl, New York, NY 10011

Casa Mono
52 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003

Momofuku Ssam Bar
207 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Blue Hill
75 Washington Place, New York, NY 10011

Jean Georges
1 Central Park W, New York, NY 10023

Tocqueville
1 East 15th Street, New York, NY 10003

Del Posto
85 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10011

Le Bernardin
155 W. 51st St., New York, NY 10019

Falai
68 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002

Morimoto
88 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10011

Kyo Ya
94 E 7th St, New York, NY 10009

Scarpetta
355 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10014

Marc Forgione
134 Reade Street, New York, NY 10013

Marea
240 Central Park South, New York, NY 10019

Colicchio & Sons
85 10th Ave, New York, NY 10011

Vandaag
103 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Ai Fiori
400 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018

[kathryn]

Your request is WAY too broad to really answer. NYC is big. I could just start listing off hundreds of dining destinations without knowing what you're really looking for.

What is your budget per person for meal, before tax, tip, and drinks/wine? Tax plus tip can eat up about 30% of your budget. Are you doing a bunch of blow out meals? Or mostly cheap eats?

When are you coming to NYC? How many people in your party? Where are you traveling from?

If your trip is less than a month away, reservations may be an issue, or are you OK with waiting? What about places that don't take reservations at all?

Do you have preferred cuisines or foods you'd like to try? Preferred neighborhoods, are you planning around sightseeing or other activities? Allergies or aversions?

Manhattan has thousands of restaurants. What is a "good place" for someone else may not be a good place for you....

[brettlee714]

I do apologize you are correct, i was way too broad.

My 2 buddies and i are going on a baseball stadium tour and are in NY at the end of July for a Yankees and Mets game. We have room for 2 dinners while we are there prior to going to Boston. One of the meals we want to be fine dining and the other a little less. As far as budget goes for the fine dining maybe $150/person and for the less fancy $100.

We are coming from Orange County and LA California, so we are used to expensive meals (maybe not NY expensive lol)

I believe we are ok with waiting however, i was hoping that we could possibly make a reservation in the next week, since we aren't going for awhile.

Preferred foods would be: Seafood, Steak

We will be in Manhattan. No alergies

I hope this helps...thanks for being patient with my request :)

[brettlee714]

The sad part is, we are huge Thomas Keller fans and love Bouchon, but Per Se @ $295/person might be a little to steep.

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Per Se
10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019

[uwsister]

You could try their Salon, though it may not be much cheaper at the end.

Obvious recs for steak would be Keens and Luger if you are up for a trip to Brooklyn. I think either would be worth your time - very different from CUT, Mastros, etc.

[kathryn]

So maybe a place in the same tier as Per Se like Le Bernardin? Plus Keens?

Though if you've never been to NYC before, I would try to at least squeeze in some bagels, pizza, pastrami... Personally I'd do one upscale meal and the other more casual or a food crawl.

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Per Se
10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019

Le Bernardin
155 W. 51st St., New York, NY 10019

[brettlee714]

Yeah, i need 1 upscale place and then a little less upscale, but i am not getting a ton of help haha. I was hoping people would give me there 2 favorite restaurants

[kathryn]

Well, your subject is also very generic. A better one would be something like "Southern California 'Hound Visiting NYC for First Time, Seeks Best Upscale Dinner for $150pp (pre tax/tip)".... Etc.

You don't have any other criteria? Neighborhood? Atmosphere? How about listing your favorite places in LA/OC? What other cities are you visiting?

I saw your Baltimore thread--if the objective is to visit one seafood restaurant and one steakhouse in each city you visit then I don't think your trip will be very interesting. Why not Italian? Japanese? French? Play to each city's strengths....