NYC Weekend - Fast cheap and out of control

Hey everyone, going to NYC for the first time, given my advanced years, it is fairly embarrassing. I am there a few days in mid-September (Wed through Sun) and would like to get some tips on where to go.

I would like some decent places, but don't want to spend the big bucks (e.g. Blackbird, not Aliena) and also get a taste of the local neighboorhood haunts (pizza, NY style chinese, whatever etc.) and avoid tourist traps.

Given that I am going in less than a month and have no reservations anywhere, I don't know if I can even get into the celebrity places (babbo etc.)

Thanks in advance!

we just visited last week, after having lived in NY and moved to chicago. a couple of must sees


sriprapai - possibly the best thai place in the states
katz's - great deli, very new york experice
joe's ginger in chinatown - great shanghai food

none of those will set you back much money.

have fun

For a taste of a local neighborhood haunt, check out Big Nick's on the Upper West Side:

Big Nick's Burger and Pizza Joint
2175 Broadway (at 77th)
New York, NY 10024
Open 24 hours
Tel: (212) 362-9238
Cash Only
http://bignicksnyc.com

Tiny place, huge menu, cheap, good place for any meal. Great burgers, pizza and breakfasts. We stop here every time we're in NYC.

While you are in the neighborhood: a few blocks north of Big Nick's you will find:

H&H Bagels
2239 Broadway (at 80th st.)
New York, New York 10024
Telephone: (212) 595-8003
Fax: (212) 799-6765
Open 24 Hours - 7 Days a Week
http://www.hhbagels.net

The H&H bagel is the definitive NYC bagel.

Zabar's
2245 Broadway (at 80th Street)
New York, NY 10024
Phone: (212) 787-2000
Fax: (212) 580-4477
http://www.zabars.com
Store Hours
Monday-Friday: 8am - 7.30pm
Saturday: 8am - 8pm
Sunday: 9am - 6pm

The granddaddy of gourmet food/cooking stores. Has a grocery/gourmet food store and café on the first floor and house wares on the second floor.

globetrotter wrote:we just visited last week, after having lived in NY and moved to chicago. a couple of must sees


sriprapai - possibly the best thai place in the states

No offense, but many, many Thai places in Los Angeles and Chicago are fairly widely recognized to be better. Not that sriprapai is not worthy by any means, but using one of (I assume) a few NYC meals on it, coming from Chicago, could be a mistake. FWIW, I was at Joe's 2 weeks ago and I still enjoy it very much. The soup dumplings were not as good as they used to be, but I got an outrageously tasty and large mess of salt and pepper soft shell crabs for like 14 bucks. Great place. Ditto Katz, which is just down from Russ & Daughters, another tremendous deli, but for fish.

The OP needs to check out some of the great photo-filled NYC trips documented here over the past few years. PIGMON's pizza trips and the eclectic Manhattan trip taken by a group (last year?) are a good intro.

If you don't have to eat at 8 pm, you can probably get into Babbo. We called 2 days in advance and got a reservation.

This thread has some solid suggestions under the fast, cheap and good category.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=20135

For your high end opportunities, consider lunch. Many of the old Vangards of midtown like Le Grenouille, offer a fixe prix lunch as do downtown hotspots like Nobu and Balthazar (though I'm not sure that Balthazar has a fixe prix). They are much more accessible at lunchtime and though the menu is not as extensive as the dinner menu at these places, the price is substantially less expensive. Doing lunch there allows you the great restaurant experience at a fraction of the cost of a nice dinner there.

My advice: Pick your nice restaurant and call to see if they are open at lunch. Then, flip your schedule. The Chinatown places will be more accessible in the evenings.

Balthazar is a really great place that is also the anchor of a neighborhood. Open 24 hours, I call it the Denny's of NoLiTa. Nothing revelatory, but solid French classics. Frites and some oysters make a nice snack. You could do worse than hang out on Spring Street for a night. A very good NY bar, the Spring Lounge, is nearby and as of last week they had a number of rare Rogue beers (from the Eugene City brewery, I think). I might like Spring Lounge because it's like a Chicago bar, though. It's unpretentious and it opens at 8 am -- a rarity in NY but still commonplace here. And Lombardi's is only a short walk from there. Well worth looking up for the history and a clam pie.

JeffB wrote:

globetrotter wrote:we just visited last week, after having lived in NY and moved to chicago. a couple of must sees


sriprapai - possibly the best thai place in the states

No offense, but many, many Thai places in Los Angeles and Chicago are fairly widely recognized to be better. Not that sriprapai is not worthy by any means, but using one of (I assume) a few NYC meals on it, coming from Chicago, could be a mistake.

maybe, we have tried a couple of the thai places in chicago that are well considered on LTH, and we didn't find them as consistantly good as sriprapai. but that was our opinion, and certainly open to dispute.

FWIW, I was at Joe's 2 weeks ago and I still enjoy it very much. The soup dumplings were not as good as they used to be, but I got an outrageously tasty and large mess of salt and pepper soft shell crabs for like 14 bucks. Great place. Ditto Katz, which is just down from Russ & Daughters, another tremendous deli, but for fish.

Russ & Daughters is a good suggestion, as well.

I go to NYC several times a year, often going with fast and cheap restaurants in mind (I'm too lazy and type-B for out of control). Here are a few suggestions:

-- Cascina (Hell's Kitchen): A charming Northern Italian dining spot with excellent food and decent prices.

-- La Caridad 78 Restaurant (Upper West Side): A Chinese/Cuban restaurant with really surly waiters but good food.

-- Trinity Place (Lower Manhattan): A quiet, low-key restaurant located in an old bank vault.

-- Bubby's (Tribeca): A local favorite, with tasty comfort food dishes and some truly amazing pies.

-- Veselka (East Village): Excellent Ukrainian food in a typically bustling New York dining spot.

-- Moran's (Lower Manhattan): A quiet and friendly Irish pub located in an old church on a narrow side street near the WTC site.

-- Arturo's (Greenwich Village): An often overlooked, old-school pizza joint with lots of character.

-- Moustache (West Village): Good Middle Eastern food on charming Bedford Street.

-- Diamond Dairy of New York Restaurant (Diamond District): A truly unusual Kosher place upstairs/in the back of a jewelry store.

-- Topaz (Midtown): An excellent Thai restaurant that isn't very well known because it's on one of the quieter streets in Midtown.

There are others I've been to, but I can't think of them right now! Perhaps I'll post more later...

Jean Georges has a $28 prix fixe lunch that has to be one of the best food values in the country. Here's a link to their web site http://www.jean-georges.com/ .

I took such a trip last fall.
To reiterate, DiFara's is a must for Brooklyn-style coal fired pizza. In Manhattan I have enjoyed the legendary Lombardi's, though I claim not to be a NYC pizza aficionado. A Flushing Queens Chinese binge (if you have time and means to get around the boroughs) is foundational. In Manhattan I have had good results at Momofuku Noodle Bar. I've heard that the other two outposts are rather nice as well for hip upscale Asian. Also check out some stellar falafel at Taim falafel and smoothie bar in the West Village, though this spot is a bit more polished than open nearly-all-night and funky cavernous Mamoun's Falafel. I will delegate deli stuff to the experts. I ate at Katz's and enjoyed it. There are some crazy cabbie Indian and Pakistani joints downtown which are a trip, such as Pakistan Tea House. The food may not be the all- out best of its kind, though it is way cheap.

Di Fara’s Pizza.
1424 Ave. J, Midwood, Brooklyn
718-258-1367

Lombardi's
32 Spring St
New York, NY 10012
(212) 941-7994

Momfuku Noodle Bar
171 First Ave., New York, NY 10003
nr. 11th St.
212-777-7773

Taim Falafel and Smoothie Bar
222 Waverly Pl
(between 11th St & Perry St)
New York, NY 10014
(212) 691-1287

Mamoun's
119 MacDougal St (between Bleecker and W 3rd Sts)
Greenwich Village
212-674-8685

Pakistan Tea House
176 Church St
New York, NY 10013-3819
Phone: (212) 240-9800

Jefe wrote:A Flushing Queens Chinese binge (if you have time and means to get around the boroughs) is foundational

Time needed, for sure, but means? Just take the #7 subway to Main Street, Queens

See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/dining/30flushing.html for a primer

Interactive guide, and link to printable version at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/07/29/dining/20080730_FLUSHING_INTERACTIVE.html