Darren72 wrote:
Though it's now been some 13 years ago, my porterhouse at Peter Lugar's was one of the best things I've ever eaten. Plus, cool old school experience too.

Me: "What kind of steaks do you have?"

Peter Lugar Waiter: "We've got steak for two, steak for three, steak for six, steak for ten...how much do you want?"

One of my favorite waiter responses of all time.

Where are you staying? Any particular neighborhood for dinner? Lots of tavernish places with good food that will have burgers and fries. Minetta Tavern and PJ Clarke's eg. Your standard classic tourist pizza places, like Lombardi's, John's etc. are worth looking into.

We're staying at the Sheraton in Times Square (not my choice ). Tentatively have John's, Katz Deli and PJ Clarke's for lunches and Quality Italian for our one real dinner. We'll be at the ballpark for a big chunk of the time we're in town so I don't have to do much for this trip!!

The Minetta burger was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. Though not especially cheap at $19, it was the highlight of the meal with more expensive items.

It sounds fantastic--but the only thing worse than watching the boys take a bite out of something that any normal person would love then push it aside because it's not close enough to their McD, Subway, Taco Bell world, is watching that THEN paying a check for a $19 hamburger. They have other good qualities thankfully

You may want to try Veselka. It's a Ukranian diner in the East Village that has a Ukranian side menu as well as all the totally staples of a diner. Not too expensive and in an area it sounds like you're not hitting in the current plan.

When I lived in NY, I used to like to take visitors to Grimaldi's and then walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (or reverse). It's great thin crust pizza. There's a ice cream stand nearby that's great too. They used to have a bit of a wait though.

Have fun!

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone--as always, you make planning my sometimes challenging trips a lot more entertaining

For an excellent pizza slice that makes me think that maybe, just maybe New York Pizza has some redeeming values, go to Sacco's to get slices for a few bucks each. Its close to Times Square - 9th Avenue and 54th st.

And those $15 Corned Beef Sandwiches? They are a full pound of meat - easily enough for two meals. But the scam is you are never allowed to order half a sandwich. You can often get just as good corned beef sandwich in the real deli's - like Smilers - for half the price and a reasonable take out sandwich.

And I second some of those Halal food carts - look for the ones with the long lines and you'll usually get a good cheap meal.

We actually aren't that focused on cheap--it's just that this thread seemed to be more "kid" focused than the others because of that. We're only there for 3 1/2 days and don't have that many meals to plan since we're going to 3 baseball games. Mostly the challenge is in finding places that have something for them that won't make me lose my appetite

threegoofs wrote:And those $15 Corned Beef Sandwiches? They are a full pound of meat - easily enough for two meals. But the scam is you are never allowed to order half a sandwich.

Katz's has a special of 1/2 sandwich with a soup (either matzo ball or split pea). Still too much food, but it seemed like a reasonable choice for me when I was there a couple weeks ago.

Also a high point of my meal was the Katz's Ale, brewed special by Brooklyn Brewery and only served at Katz's. It was our favorite Brooklyn brew of the trip (and we tried many at the brewery itself).

I'm actually excited to finally go to Katz's--I've never been. And it is a good compromise place since the boys can order French Toast just like they would anywhere else, and Mike and I can get something good. Bonus that it's in the perfect location for a few other things we're doing (trip to Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty, also something that in probably close to 50 trips to NYC, I've never done ) Sometimes, it's fun to accept tourist status and enjoy!

For eaters with limited palates... I would also add to the list BBQ and fried chicken spots, in addition to the pizza, burgers, etc:

Hill Country BBQ
Hill Country Chicken
Blue Smoke
Clinton St Baking Company - especially for breakfast!
Westville - American comfort food
Otto - pizzas, pastas, gelato
Meatball Shop
City Bakery - high quality breakfast buffet bar, some of the best French toast ever

Dependent upon what they like / don't like... and/or how much you feel like pushing the envelope:

You could hit up some classics like Russ & Daughters, Katz's Deli, Papaya King, William Greenberg's for black and whites, Junior's for cheesecake, egg creams from Gem Spa or Ray's, Pickle Guys.

Am guessing Halal Guys is a bit too adventurous? If you want to go to Halal Guys, check out their Facebook Page and make sure it's not one of the imposters.

Would they try Korean fried chicken from Bonchon?

What about Korean BBQ at Madangsui?

For fun, deep fried (non-breaded) hot dogs with creative toppings, Crif Dogs now also has a West Village location in addition to the East Village one (and a Brooklyn one).

If the menu at Shopsin's too intimidating? You can get something really unique and adventurous and they could stick to the "normal" stuff?

Some of my other favorite spots who serve weekday breakfast are Joseph Leonard, Balthazar, Lafayette, and The Breslin. Take a look at the menus - there are some creative dishes on them, but some are "safer" than others.

If hanging around Midtown / 5th Ave anyway, Rockefeller Center has Jacques Torres, Bouchon Bakery, and Magnolia Bakery. Momofuku Milk Bar isn't too far either. And you could stop by Burger Joint in the Parker Meridian for the "hidden" burger joint behind the curtain in a fancy hotel.

John's Pizza in Times Square is not that great and pales in comparison to the one on Bleecker St. If you're OK with Naples style, try Don Antonio By Starita. Or PizzArte. If downtown, near the Bleecker St John's, and it's nice out, do takeout so you can skip the line. Call ahead, get a pie, max 1-2 toppings (I like their green bell peppers), and eat it outside at Father Demo Square or Washington Sq Park.

Grimaldi's has gone way down hill in the last several years. However, Patsy Grimaldi (who sold Grimaldi's back in the day), has actually come back out of retirement and started up Juliana's, practically next door to Grimaldi's.

Fantastic list Kathryn--and answered a few questions for me--thank you!!!

Not in Manhattan but I just had a great meal at the Ganesh Temple Canteen in Queens. Their speciality is Dosas. The sambar and chutney they serve with the dosas were also quite special. The dosas and a mango lassi set me back around seven dollars.

http://nyganeshtemple.org/canteen

I'm also quite fond of Mamoun's for their falafel sandwich. I typically go to their location in Hoboken but they do have one (the original I believe) in Greenwich Village. If you go don't forget to grab a bottle of their hot sauce. Good stuff.

Thanks for the recs--just wanted to close the loop on what we did/recommend.

John's Pizza on Bleeker was definitely a crowd pleaser--the boys weren't sure about this whole New York thing but admitted that they LOVED that pizza. Smug stepmom (me) did too Dad had Spaghetti. No one else tasted it or cared. I do love their salad there too--nothing fancy but fresh and great vinegary Italian dressing. It's pretty much my only can't miss stop when I'm in NYC.

Not that day but a couple of days later we were back in the Village for dinner (more on that in a sec) and checked out Cones, a very decent gelato/sorbetto spot next door to John's. A very respectable 1-2 punch.

Food at Yankee Stadium--where we ate what seemed like most of our meals--was fine for ballpark eats. Good Nathan's hot dogs, I had a Philly Chicken sandwich that was decent. Highlight for me was a chocolate shake from Johnny Rockets--used to love those when they were in Chicago (guessing there are probably still a few of them around here and there but nowhere that I frequent these days).

Managed a solo take out bialy with lox spread from Essa Bagel--yum--except that they put lettuce on it--WHAT??? Still, after quickly removing the offensive green intruder, it was quite delicious. Especially when scarfed down at the coffee shop we found serving only La Columbe products--and perfectly brewed ones at that. Ground Central on 52nd and 3rd.

Didn't make it to Katz'--just wasn't doable with the limited time we had--but did enjoy breakfast/lunch at Carnegie Deli--Mike ate his sandwich ALL day. I got a corned beef and egg sandwich--didn't count on it being mostly egg--it was meh. Boys French Toast and pancakes were actually quite good.

Finally, for our only real dinner, we picked Otto, a casual Batali place in the Village near Washington Square Park that was exactly what we needed. No one had to get dressed (read this as put on pants), boys' pizza was fine, adults' Burrata and tomato salad and cold octopus salad were delicious, pasta entrees were fine.

No one argued over food or destinations. We never got lost. The Yankees swept the Rangers so we saw some good baseball. I did not get to sit on Jeter's lap (close, but not close enough) but I think everyone else's expectations were met

Just recently realized that the John's in Times Square is not affiliated with the Bleecker St one; you chose well.

The TS John's has this at the very, very bottom of their web site:

**Disclaimer: John's of Times Square is not affiliated with or associated with John's of Bleecker Street**

Cones is good; I like Grom down the street or Victory Garden (salted caramel goat milk soft serve!) around the corner better, but it's hard to go wrong for frozen confections on Bleecker St these days (well, except for the brand new Starbucks literally opening up any day now).