Dining with a student group in New York City
 

I am taking a junior high Student Council group, all 13 and 14 year olds, to New York City in June. I want to take the kids to fun places to eat. We are definitely going to Ellen's Stardust Diner one night for dinner, and will be eating concessions at Yankee Stadium another night for dinner as we have baseball tickets. We will do lunch one day at Grand Central Terminal. That leaves one lunch and one dinner to plan. As of right now, I am torn between pizza at Grimaldi's, pizza at John's in Times Square, Hard Rock Cafe, Jekyll and Hyde, and Dave and Buster's. I would welcome any opinions/suggestions you have concerning any of these places or any other possibilities that I haven't mentioned. Thank you.

Jeckyll and Hyde has awful food, is unclean and a total waste of money. Hard Rock Cafe and D&B are a littel better but not much.

Why not walk over to 9th Ave and expose them to some actual fresh food? There are a plethora of good inexpensive ethnic places.

Oh - and how many of you are there? For more than 4 you should have reservations if you don;t want to wait -unless yuo eat very early (lunch at 11:30 in the am and diner at 5 in the afternoon).

A group of us (ladies) ate at Carmine's and it was wonderful. And, what kid does not like spaghetti! The portions were huge and even though we shared, we still left a lot of food on the table. This would be rather a nice place to take the kids.

Sandy (in Denton)

I'll second Carmines, but you will have to make special arrangements for your group...

Carmine's. Somewhere in Chinatown?

For these kids, I'd say Carmine's or perhaps Tony's Di Napoli (a similar concept).

Jekyll & Hyde is closing/will close soon; Grimaldi's is way too far to go for dinner; John's is great but doesn't do reservations, so depending on the size of the group you might wait for 2 hours; and Hard Rock is awful and really expensive; Dave & Buster's ... seriously?

Or if you want to stay near Times Square but don't want Italian, then I suggest burgers. The best choice is Five Napkin Burger (you should be able to reserve several tables if you do it a few weeks in advance). Or I might also suggest Virgil's or (better) Hill Country for barbecue, but Hill Country is a trek down to the Flatiron District. Or you could brave Shake Shack (though for dinner, the Upper West Side location by the Museum of Natural History can actually be easier than Times Square). But again, Shake Shack doesn't do reservations. That ought to be on your list, perhaps for that extra lunch if you don't go to Five Napkin Burger for dinner, though teens may not care.

I do think pizza ought to be on the agenda at least once, and John's might be ok for lunch. Or even Grimaldi's if you are anywhere close. Or Chinese (dim sum might be very fun).

You don't say how many kids you have, but if it's 10 or fewer I think you'd be ok at any of these places, though you might have to have more than one table at some places. Do make reservations for dinner a few weeks in advance (I'd recommend 4).

You will have an interminable wait to get a table for a group that size at Grimaldi's--don't do it.

There are a total of 38 of us, 28 students and 10 teachers. I know that we will have to get group reservations no matter where we go. The reason I mentioned Grimaldi's or John's was to expose them to New York style pizza. Thought it might be an option to take the subway to Brooklyn for a late dinner at Grimaldi's if they would take a group our size, then walk the Brooklyn Bridge back to get views of the city. I know nothing about the other places I mentioned except that they are all around Times Square and would probably be used to taking student groups. I will have to look into Carmine's, Five Napkin Burger, and Shake Shack. I truly appreciate your continued suggestions.

Shake Shack in a slightly fancier fast food place with better than average burgers etc. The UWS location has a separate room downstairs that can be booked for groups, It's right across the street from the Museum Of Natural History so that might be good for your group http://www.shakeshack.com/location/upper-west-side.

5 Napkin Burger is good but the 9th avenue location is crazy crowded 6-8 pm since it's so close to theaters, and it may be more expensive than you'd like , about $15+ for a burger/fries
(plus tax and tip)

When I was at Grimaldi's with a group of 5, we waited 1.5 hours for a table. Smaller groups got a table much more quickly. I can imagine what would happen to a group that size.

FYI I never would have waited that long by my own choice, but I was humoring some friends who were visiting--their brother ad made the choice. I even volunteered to leave so they could have a nice family dinner (and I could skip the long wait) but they insisted.

Where is your group staying?

One possibility is to split the group into five: two teachers and 5 or 6 kids in each. You could make reservations in several of the same places over two or three nights and rotate the groups through so each has the "same" experience without straining the resources of the places you are going to eat.

I congratulate you on trying to give these kids a good NYC experience, but honestly, I don't know of many places in any city that can handle a group of 38 and have decent food. And by decent, I am not talking about gourmet: just food served to you the way it would be served to a local. And you will certainly need reservations in most places outside Chinatown even for parties of seven.

Boy, are you brave!

Grimaldi's simply isn't big enough to accommodate a group of this size at any time of the day. I really would take that off your list. Nor is the original John's on Bleecker. John's near Times Square is huge, but it's not set up to do groups like this, though you could call them and ask.

My suggestion: You need to split up into smaller groups of around 10 and each go your separate ways. That way everyone can have great burgers or pizza or Italian food or Chinese food, and you'll be able to make reservations. There are very few places I can think of that can accommodate a group of 38. Even the Carmine's on the Upper West Side, which has a party room, doesn't have room for that many people.

Heed Doug's advice. Your choices for a place to accommodate 38 people are very, very, very limited at best! I would even split into smaller groups that 10.

The splitting into groups and rotating the places for meals is a great idea. When my daughter was in high school, her choir went on a trip to NYC. The highlight meal was taking them to Bubba Gumps! Really? I was so disappointed that the teachers hadn't tried harder to give them a more local experience.

That IS a great idea. Seems like it would give each smaller group a more authentic NYC experience, and they'd have fun comparing notes afterward.

I've taken large school groups to Virgils on W 44th Street and it worked out well. Kids loved the barbecued foods and big portions.

I called John's in Times Square and they said they could accomodate our group for lunch or dinner as long as we booked far enough in advance. Grimaldi's said they could probably get us in upstairs if we come later in the evening. Has anyone ever been upstairs at Grimaldi's? I am still waiting on Shake Shack and Five Napkin to get back with me. Thanks again to everyone for all of your continued suggestions. By the way, in response to ellenem, we are staying at Hotel Pennsylvania.

Shake Shack on the UWS has a room downstairs that you might be able to book. I don't think Five Napkin is large enough, and it's far too busy, to accommodate such a large group during normal hours.

I think it's pointless to put Grimaldi's in the mix. It's far far away and you'd probably have to eat at 9:30 (that's what "later in the evening" means). Do you really want to do that with a large group of junior high-schoolers?

John's is definitely your best choice for pizza if they will accommodate you. It's well-priced, and the pizza is very good. That's what I'd go with if you want to go that route.

This might be another option; within a walk of your hotel.

The food is very good and they may well be able to accommodate your group:


http://www.daisymaysbbq.com/about.html


Also not too far from your hotel, on 8th Avenue and 29th Street; a locally famous maker of sausages and meats, with an adjacent sit-down eatery:

http://www.biricchino.com/about.html

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/biricchino/


http://www.biricchino.com/dinner.html

The Pennsylvania hotel is pretty grim. Can you change it?

As for the eating, I think Virgil's for BBQ in Times Square is a great idea as is John's pizzeria and Carmine's. What about Katz's deli for a Jewish deli experience? i was recently a DBGB for lunch and there was a large group being fed in the front. Cool, lower east side vibe and across from Patricia Fields (clothing designer for Sex & the City) store. For something in Brooklyn, near the bridge, look at Bubby'sBK location.