There are more than 18,000 restaurants in the New York City area. If you ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at a different restaurant every day for 365 days a year it would take more than 16 years to complete the job. And that doesn’t include the ones that open during those 16 years. We had a week to narrow down that number to something manageable and settled for showing up at 0.0008% of them.
Something obvious that we noticed about Manhattan is that people go out
to dinner a lot. It adds up to a
competitive food scene and a seemingly normal place to eat in NYC can hold its
own with top tier restaurants in Seattle.
That’s our opinion anyway and we’re sticking to it. Here then, in no particular order are some
places we can recommend. And none of these are fancy, high-end, expensive,
pretentious places by the way. That just
isn’t our style.
Our Very Own Grimaldi's Pizza |
Zabar's. This is a very famous deli that has tons of
items to buy and take back to your residence to eat if you don’t feel like
going to a sit-down place. We bought
some bagels and cream cheese here to take care of a few leisurely eat-in
breakfasts after we got up, as well as scoring things like Shepherd’s Pie to
heat up in the oven or microwave for dinner.
Their cheese selection is stellar as well.
Indian Tanpura. A
non-descript restaurant on the Upper West Side which was recommended to us by a
friend of a friend. BowlingWidow enjoyed
the chicken tikka dinner while I was knocked out by my lamb in a spicy
sauce. Inexpensive, unassuming…..and
incredible.
Shake Shack. This is
their In-N-Out Burger if you’re from the southwest, or their Dick’s Drive In if
you’re from Seattle. The one we ate at
was at Madison Square Park (not to be confused with Madison Square Garden) and
featured outdoor seating at their little plaza.
A great location, good burgers and as a bonus you could also get a beer.
Trattoria Trecolori |
Gray’s Papaya. There
are a few of these hot dog stands in New York.
They’re known for cheap hot dogs with a casing that “snaps” when you
bite into the dog. Serviceable but not
great…for the price though you definitely get what you pay for.
The “papaya” part of the name refers to a longtime accompanying
drink. And it rolls of the tongue better
than Gray’s Mango would.
A Busy Night of Eating in Little Italy |
Somewhere in Little Italy.
For the life of me, I can’t recall where we ate in Little Italy and I
failed to write it down. But trust
me. Eat anywhere in Little Italy. You’ll love it.
OK….this post was so lengthy that I’m going into overtime with
a Part Six in a week or so! I’ll conclude
next time with the local beer scene and some final thoughts.