Best Food in Rome and NYC
 

My husband and I are staying 8 days in Rome. We are looking forward to seeing the sights and eating in great restaurants. Anyone have suggestions for great places to eat, well-known or not, in any price range? We're staying in an apartment near the Trastavere. Also we're stopping on the way in and back in NYC. We'd love suggestions for new places there, we've been to most of the "standards".

last year we ate at Pietros and La Tartuga ("the turtle") Both were great meals with la tartuga (and its tangerine sorbet a big hit). If you do a search on this site you will find a lot of good reccomendations and the address for la tartuga (it is small and off an alley). hope this helps, itsv

Trastevere is full of nice restaurants. I like very much "La Fraschetta", but I would say most of them are really nice.

For NYC - what flavors? What budget? What neighborhoods?

Good morning, Vivien
Two suggestions, both of which we have used many times.
1. Rome-ristorante NINO, via Borgognona, 11, about a 1/4 block south of the bottom of the Spanish Steps, street to right, $$$ excellant Roman dishes especially the artichokes..
2. NYC-ristorante LA RIVISTA, 313 West
46th St., block west of Times Square, $$$ excellant Italian food, especialy the roman artichokes.
Reservations are a must for both...
Richard of Lagrange Park, IL..

Has anyone been to La Pergola in Rome. Heinz Beck is the chef and I believe that it is located in a Hilton Hotel.

My wife and sister in law will be in Rome next week and are interested in this place. They know it is expensive.

dickv2 - they will be staying near the Spanish steps - I will pass on your recomendation of NINO.

JoeG

JoeG, I second the recommendation for NINO. I always make it a point to dine there whenever I'm in Rome. Their "signature dish", cannoloni Nino is outstanding, as is their tortellini in brodo and their grilled eggplant.

BC

Hi
I'm a fan of the place that itsv referred to, but it's called
La Tartaruga (via del Monte della Farina 53)

New York--which standards?
Rachou LCB bistro got a great review in today's Times, it's a scaled down version (in formality, and price) of the classics from La Cote Basque.

Italian: Col Legno, charming, very simple trattoria in the East Villag(East 9th between 2nd and 3rd)

I Trulli, southern Italian cooking, and there's garden seating (fireplace in winter)
122 E 27, www.itrulli.com

Two favorites of mine near I Trulli are Craft (very pricey) and CraftBar (less so, but they don't take reservations)
Really great food.

And also near there (it's my neighborhood, so I'm partial) is of course Gramercy Tavern, one of the best.

About La Tartaruga at Via del Monte della Farina 53:

I ate there in May of this year. It is no longer the inexpensive and informal enoteca described in earlier posts; it is a fairly formal, relatively expensive and quite good restaurant.

<<<NYC restaurants>>>

It's good to see Col Legno mentioned here. I like it as well, and it's not bad. I've eaten once at Craftbar, but not at Craft, and that's also pretty good. Another decent, basic Italian restaurant is Celeste in the Upper West Side. (Craft is not Italian, but American.)

Moustache (two branches, one in the East and one in the West Village) offers good, reasonably priced middle Eastern fare (I think that the restaurant is owned by Iraqis).

Florent. 24h (I believe) French bistro in the meatpacking district. That whole area is now extremely hip.

Honmura An. Japanese soba noodles in SoHo. I ate there many years ago and just returned a couple of months back. I was surprised by how much better it seemed to me compared to Soba-Ya (neighbor of Col Legno, which is another one of my favorite spots for a basic meal). You do get what you pay for, and Honmura An is expensive, but not super-expensive.

Cafe Sabarksy. This is the restaurant in Neue Galerie (exhibiting Austrian art) and near the Met Museum. The food is also decent, and the desserts are quite decadent. Slightly expensive though. The decor resembles that of a Viennese cafe and you also get to see various posters in the Secession style.

Once in a while I eat at a relatively expensive restaurant or a rather hyped restaurant. Found Daniel, Tasting Room, and Suba all slightly disappointing (the food was decent, but not worth what I paid).

There're many, many options in NYC. Let us know what you're interested in and I'm sure we can tell you more.

Oh, and if you need basic brunch fare, a good option is Le Pain Quotidien. I still can't figure out if this is a French or a Belgian chain. They've a website. And I think that I've sort of unconsciously been to nearly all their restaurants in NYC (they've one in SoHo, one in the Village, at least two in the Upper East Side (one near the Met), one near Central Park West, one in midtown West, one by the ABC carpet store, etc.).

111op-
Funny you mentioned Soba-ya. I go there with my NY friends every time I visit them (like once every 2 months).

I haven't been to Pergola; believe it's a bit out of the way.
Near the Spanish Steps, the restaurant of Hotel de Russie is excellent. Even better when you go in summer and can eat outside.
On the Piazza del Poppolo, Dal Bolognese is good; full of Italian businessmen; do make a reservation.
I also liked Gusto, a modern Italian restaurant opposite the mausoleum of Emperor Augustus.

Le Pain Quotidien is Belgian, by the way.

I go to Soba-ya nearly every week for lunch during the weekend, actually. I'm a fairly loyal customer. They're not truly excellent but very good value for what you pay (that's what I find, anyway). Usually the restaurant is packed after 1pm.

When I first went to LPQ, I liked it but thought that this was another one of these faux French things (like Balthazar, Pastis, etc.), so I secretly detested this whole concept. I guess there's something comforting about knowing that it's actually a European/Belgian chain. :-) I remember looking it up once when I found one in Paris and wondered which came first.

Pain Quotidien is one of my favorite places for breakfast or lunch, in Antwerp and Brussels. I think it's a great concept.
And thank you for the NY info; going around Easter with my kids, so I'll keep this!

I hope that you enjoy your trip, Tulips. I eat out all the time and so keep a close eye on restaurants in the city. I've to admit, though, I've been less vigilant than before. For me the difficulty is always finding good value -- last night, I had three decent tapas dishes for $30 with tip and no drinks. Good food, but not really good value, in my view, so it's a place I won't be going back any time soon.

Let us know what you're interested in and I'm sure that we'll be able to tell you more.

Anything not French! We have enough of that at home in Belgium. I haven't been for a few years, but used to like places like Union Square Cafe. We're going with children age 11 and 12 who like Japanese food (Nobu is a favorite), steaks and burgers. Serendipity is on their list; is that just for desserts, or for dinner too?

That's funny. I've not been to Union Square Cafe or Nobu or Serendipity. (Actually the full name is Serendipity II or III or something like that, I think, for reasons I can't fathom.) I nearly made it in to Serendipity, but there was a long line. My friends decided to wait, and I just left. It's where the Cusack/Beckinsale (sp?) movie is set. I believe it's more of a dessert place, but I could be wrong.

I can't say that I'm an expert on steak houses. I've been to Peter Luger once and did find it good. Apparently Jean Georges has a new take on the steakhouse in the new Time Warner building. I believe that there was a review of this in the Times or in New York Magazine -- I seem to remember looking at the headline. It didn't sound too positive. You might want to look into it. Daniel Boulud has an expensive take on the burger in db bistro moderne (he's the chef of Daniel). The burger comes with foie gras, I think, and I forget how much it costs -- $40? I've not been but it was quite the rage when it opened, and it's probably still popular.

At one point there was a very good Philly cheese steak dive in the Village (sorry, I forget the street, but I believe it's across from the Japanese restaurant Cotan/Kotan). Try to search for it and see if you can find it. I remember reading testimonials there that claimed that people would come in from far away and buy loads. I did like it, and this was not expensive (maybe $5 or something)? I've not checked it out since I stopped taking German on Saturdays in NYU, so it's been a year or two.

Ok, here's an article from New York magazine about the Time Warner restaurants:

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/...646/index.html

I've not read it yet. There's a companion article about the steakhouse, which I also haven't read.

But a quote: "Jean-Georges Vongerichten?s V Steakhouse aims to reinvent the genre, but leaves you hungry for the real thing."

So in terms of steak houses, you may be wise to stick with the usual suspects. Peter Luger is always highly praised -- that's in Williamsburg though, but these days, that area is hipster central as well. (Or depending on your point of view, the whole scene is over -- the Times has had several articles on Williamsburg, and we all know what that means.)

Cheesesteak: BB Sandwich Bar -- voted Best of NY in 2002 in New York Magazine.

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/urban/gu...heesesteak.htm