ekscrunchy

Many posters ask where to eat in or around the theatre district, which is not considered among the city's best restaurant areas. For anyone looking for an interesting, and relatively low-priced, meal, snack, or drink, there is a new option in the Gotham West food market at 600 11th Avenue. This is an upscale food court, but do not expect to find Dunkin Donuts or Taco Bell. Think more of the casual restaurants at Eataly, or even Madrid's Mercado de San Miguel, albeit on a smaller scale.

Gotham West is on 11th Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets. It took us about 10 minutes to walk there from the Lyceum Theatre, where we enjoyed a matinee of "The Realistic Joneses" yesterday. I'd guess that the Market can be reached in 10-15 minutes from most Broadway-area theatres. The 42nd Street crosstown bus stops 2.5 blocks south. The building also has a parking garage.

We sampled two of the ramen bowls (one Roasted Garlic Mazemen, and one Shoyu Ramen) from the "slurp shop" of Ivan "Ramen" Orkin, whose long-awaited ramen restaurant has just opened on Clinton Street . At $13 each, plus $1 for spicy chili sauce, they provided a very tasty, although decidedly un-traditional, ramen dinner. The long steel-topped counter probably seats about 30 diners; in addition, long polished wood tables with benches offer overflow seating for all of the restaurants. There were plenty of free seats yesterday, a Wednesday, at 4:30pm.

http://static.squarespace.com/static...%20Menu_V8.pdf


Other options include Spanish tapas bar El Colmado where $1 oysters from varying locations (yesterday's were from the Montauk area) can be sampled at their 3pm to 7pm Oyster Happy Hour. The restaurant appears to be strong on shellfish and Iberian ham, including the prized bellota-fed jamon, among an enticing range of other traditional Spanish offerings, and an array of Spanish and Portugese wines, and sherries. I will head here next time, as I am a fan of its older sibling, Tertulia, in the West Village which is also under the helm of Chef Seamus Mullen, who has lived in Asturias.

http://elcolmadonyc.com/food/


There is a branch of Blue Bottle Coffee, a sandwich shop, and a few other restaurant options, including an outpost of the meat-centric Cannibal from East 29th Street. The pricey Brooklyn Kitchen, for a wide array of fresh and preserved foods (including a few varieties of Rancho Gordo dried beans which can be difficult to find at retail here) along with cooking utensils.


The website lists the various tenants, with menus (and prices) and opening hours for the Market's eating places. Most places open at 11am and close at 11pm. (Ivan Ramen closes at 10pm)

http://gothamwestmarket.com/

IMDonehere

We are going to try and get over there

Fra_Diavolo

Saw this mentioned in the Times yesterday, and thought I'd like to check it out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/di...ef=dining&_r=0

Thanks for the review!

HappyTrvlr

Thanks Eks for sharing this info. Arriving in the city tomorrow and look forward to checking it out.

ekscrunchy

I hope you have a good visit!

starrs

sounds great!

schlegal1

OOh, now I am torn. This looks like a really fun option when we go for a weekend in June to see "Rock of Ages" but a NYC friend also recommended South African place called Braai, that looks really tempting. It's the quickest trip ever (up Saturday, back Sunday) so we won't be able to eat at both. Decisions, decisions.

doug_stallings

I've never eaten at Braai, but it's considerably closer to your theater. I'm all for this food market, but 11th Avenue is a very long walk (no less than 15 minutes) from the heart of Times Square. The far western edge of Midtown in the 40s is really opening up, but it's (for me at least) very isolated over there.

NeoPatrick

I had heard of this place on 11th, and was particularly intrigued by the ramen place. A couple weeks ago when in the city for a matinee, I started off toward there for lunch, but when I crossed 9th Avenue and thought of all the wonderful places there -- I decided to opt for Room Service Thai and save myself the rather long walk all the way to 11th. It was raining, which added to the decision. But maybe one of these days. . . I guess my thought it is that there are so many really good inexpensive casual choices along 9th, I'm not sure of the reasoning for going so much further, but I still would like to check out the place.

By the way, I have had lunch at Braal which I thought was excellent. Their briyanis are really delicious.

schlegal1

Thanks for the input. Yes, my friend had our theater venue in mind with his rec so we will probably stick with Braai and put this other one on the "next time" list.

LCBoniti

Lovely recommendations and I appreciate the comments, pro and con. Thanks, eks, for the review!

helpmovingtocal

Happy to hear this

NeoPatrick

OK, last Wednesday before seeing an Annapurna matinee on West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th, I decided this was a perfect chance to check out Gotham West. I has a really great bowl of ramen at Ivan's. And I had perhaps the best Americano ever at Blue Bottle! Nice place, and surprisingly (or not) it seems much more locals on lunch hour than tourists. That area really is booming in development. I didn't realize Gotham West is actually the ground floor of one of the many new luxury apartment buildings in the immediate area. I loved the signs for the apartments saying "this could be your dining room".

ekscrunchy

I am glad that you enjoyed the ramen! I saw no one that was immediately identifiable as a tourist on my visit in late afternoon, after a matinee. I think many visitors (and locals, too) either do not know about this market, or view it as too far to walk from the theater district.


Glossy new condos are sprouting up all over midtown's far west side, with lots of new development to the south as well. The extension of the subway line #7 train to 11th Avenue and 34th Street will result in a new station that is projected to be the busiest in the entire system.

About a mile south of the market, near the train stop, and High Line:

http://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/li...e/neighborhood

ekscrunchy

I'll just mention this hotel, KImpton's Ink48, across from Gotham West; might be good bet for visitors bound for theatres or convention center. They have a rooftop bar, and are pet friendly.

http://www.ink48.com/

ekscrunchy

I went to a show recently and had dinner in the theatre district beforehand. This is something I rarely do since I live within walking distance and I do not think the restaurants options are great in that area, with some exceptions.

One exception is where we ate last week: DANJI. This is a modern Korean place, under the helm of a chef who worked at several very famous restaurants including Daniel and Masa.

The food has Korean influence but is not standard Korean fare, as can be found in KoreaTown, a few blocks further southeast.

There are pork and beef sliders on the menu, as well as fish, meat, and noodle and rice dishes.

The three dishes that I sampled were excellent: The Tofu with Ginger Scallion Dressing is one of the house signature dishes and it was among the best tofu dishes I've ever eaten. The soup, a puree of squash with savory mochi dumplings floating within, was superb. The Bo Ssam, squares of pork belly to wrap with scallions and radish in a thin cucumber pancake, was also excellent.

I recommend this restaurant before or after theatre. Note that many dishes carry some heat from spices; there are a few non-spicy options but if you hate spices, you might want to choose a different locale. Certainly make a reservation if dining before a show since the restaurant has only 36 seats.

DANJI is on WEst 52nd Street, betweenn 8th and 9th Avenues.

http://www.danjinyc.com/menu.html

starrs

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it next time (in Feb)

abram

Although 11th Ave is farther than we usually walk to dinner when we're going to the theater, we've had good meals at Basera, Pongsri Thai, China Green, El Centro, and Kashkaval Garden.