Chinatown
 

This is my husband's first visit to New York City. Can anyone recommend a good restaurant in Chinatown and a good seafood restaurant?

What budget for the seafood restaurant? Le Bernardin is probably the best in New York - but the prices match the food. For something a little more moderate - and very New Yorkish - you might try the Sea Grill at Rock Center.

Presuming you get can Chinese at home, you might want to consider Vietnamese or Thai for something different.

On Baxter St., on the block just south of Canal, there are 3 Vietnamese restaurants next to each other - New Pasteur, Na Trang, and I can't remember the name of the third. I like them all. My favorite dish there is the Beef Sate Pho. It's a huge bowl of rice noodles with beef in a spicy peanut sauce, all for about $5.

For Thai, keep walking past the Viet. places another 1/2 block until you get to Bayard St, and right on the corner is Pongsri Thai. It's more nicely decorated and a little pricer, but still a bargain by NYC standards.

For Chinatown there are all sorts of restaurants, cantonese, dim sum etc. What kind of food do you want? Oriental Garden gets top marks for very fresh seafood Hong Kong style. Canton is good Cantonese.

I would ask the same about seafood and budget. Agree with nytraveler. Plenty of other options being debated on the current "help me find a restaurant in Manhattan" thread.

Fuleen is good Hong Kong style seafood in Chinatown. It's at 11 Division St, which is just behind Confucius Plaza (the big apartment buildings on Bowery). It's a couple blocks south of Canal Street.

I second the VietNamese places on Baxter. Hsin Wong on on the corner of Mott and Bayard is also good. It has a big yellow sign. Bho Ky, east of Mott on Bayard is also good.

Bit of a disclaimer - I'm a friend of the owners of both Fuleen and Hsin Wong, but they really are good places.

I highly suggest you stay off Canal Street in Chinatown. The restaurants on neighboring streets are better.

Le Bernadine has good seafood, but I didn't think it was all that. I got very sick the day after I ate there, so I'm a bit biased. Masa probably has better seafood (as in sushi), but impossible to get a reservation and if you're willing to spend $1000 for 2 people. But if you go to Bar Masa, it's normal in terms of price and still get good sushi.

I like to take my parents to Cabana in Southstreet Seaport for the view and cocktails. Their neo-Cuban food is really tasty and easy on the wallet, too. You can see the financial district (a part of it) and the Hudson river, too.

I heard good things about Ocean Grill. Sea Grill at Rockefeller Plaza is good, too. I was impressed with their food, and it didn't cost us $300 for two. More like $180 or so.

If you like sushi, you should try Nobu or Nobu Nextdoor (no reservation necessary and less expensive) in Tribeca.

I'm convinced that all the good restaurants are in downtown.

Wo Hop on Mott Street is a favorite of many NYers I know. Good & cheap with no atmosphere, LOL. Great lo mein and garlic beef. It's located on Mott Street several blocks south of Canal, just south of the big church.

I second Wo Hop. It's the only place we'll go to when in Chinatown.

NYC Chinatown -- best restaurants for inexpensive/moderate dim sum from rolling carts?

I've heard Mandarin Garden and HSF. Any others?

Thank you!

Rick in MD

For Chinatown seafood the current faves among many of us are Fuleen and Oriental Garden. I think the other poster meant to stay away from places on Mott Street, cause there are very few directly on Canal. I would stay away from Canton; I found it overpriced and not so great. I agree about the Viet places; I especially like Nha Trang. But Nha Trang, and two of my other faves are very basic, no ambience joints: NY Noodletown and New Green Bo. The former is Cantonese; the latter is Shanghai if that means anything to you.

For sushi, I disagree about Nobu; it is not known for that. The best sushi in town is at, among many others, Sushi Yasuda and Sushi of Gari but these are for serious sushi eaters; if you go to any top sushi spot, order "omakase" which means chef's choice. If you are asking about non-Asian seafood, I can tell you that I had one of the best meals of my life at Le Bernadin, where the chef (from Andorra) incidentally uses some Asian touches. But you really need to be more specific about what kind of seafood, how much money, what kind of place, etc. A fixed meal at Le Bernadin costs about $95 per person, before drinks, tax and tip. For me it was a meal well, well worth it.