Dinner in NYC before a play
 

Looking for a good, medium priced place close to Broadway to have dinner before an 8pm play. Any suggestions?

Becco. $21.95 chef's special of three fresh pastas and either salad or anti pasta.

Best deal in Midtown.

There are dozens of options. What theater, what kind of food? Becco is on "restaurant row" and there are at least 4 or 5 other good options on that block including Joe Allen (American food), the Hourglass Tavern...
Maria Pia & Basilica are other Italians with prix fixe menus.

www.tourdefrancenyc.com (Maison might work for you)

www.nycrg.com (I like Roberto Passon and Maria Pia)

www.marseillenyc.com (Marseilles)

Sometimes, pre theater, I will have appetizer, salad and dessert :) or just a main course, so you might want to look at the menu/prices online -

Thanks for all the fast suggestions. I will be at the Winter Garden theatre one night and the August Wilson theatre the other. Is Becca associated with Lydia Buste...(can't think of her last name)?

Dervish Turkish also has a reasonable pre-theater prix fixe with lots of choices.

You can check menupages.com for locations, comments and to view menus.

Yes, Becco is somehow affiliated with Lydia but I'm not crazy about it.
http://menupages.com/restaurantdetai...mp;cuisineid=0

Thanks to posts on this board, have a reservation at Le Madeline prior to Jersey Boys.

These are moderately priced:
Ciro's 8th Ave & 49th St cirotrattoria.com

Trattoria Daniella 8 Ave & 46 St

Del Frisco for Steak

Greek - Molyvos 7th Ave & 56th St

LeRivage

I think they all have websites.

mcheryl - enjoy Jeresy Boys - we saw it recently and it was fantastic!

Just to clarify what "mid-priced" means in NYC... you get 3 courses for about $30 to $35. You can do better than that by eating at Becco, but while I like the food, I really don't like the before-theater experience. It's particularly crowded and noisy, and I always seem to get stuck in the bar room, where the tables are truly miniscule. It's definitely gone down since the expansion. It's owned by Lidia Bastianich and her son, but she has absolutely nothing to do with the food coming out of hte kitchen anymore.

We were recently at LeRivage - not impressed by the food. My wife's shrimp were overcooked. My fish was not that good. Service and ambiance were nice and it was close to the theater.

I go to Le Rivage fairly often, and I'd have to agree that the food isn't always consistently good. Yet sometimes it's really good, especially if you get one of the specials, which usually have a supplement.

I posted recently about a meal I had at Film Center Cafe (9th Avenue/46th St). It was surprisingly good, and it's very possible to eat there for $35 per person, including a glass of wine and tip.

You can always eat in the West Village and be just a few subway stops away. It is two stops on 8th Ave Express.

I agree re Le Rivage; a few doors
further west (364 W 46) - same side - is Le Beaujolais which has
been serving an inexpensive prix
fixe pre-theatre dinner for many years...and more authentic if you
wish French cuisine.

We were there in July and loved Chef Bobby Flay's (foodtv) restaurant American Cafe practically across the street. It was fabulous!

Baldoria is a good Italian spot-walk to theatres and the "easier" one to get into with a similar menu to the famous Raos, oned by the same people.

Baldoria is a good Italian spot-walk to theatres and the "easier" one to get into with a similar menu to the famous Raos, owned by the same people.

One of the reasons I recommend Becco is because it is cheap, good, and close to the theaters.

Also, you can get a reservation as early as 4:30PM.

By far the best is 44 1/2 on 10th Avenue between 45th & 46th Streets. Great food, service and gorgeous staff.

And a great view of the big gas station across the street. LOL

(Actually I do like the place, but it's a pretty long trek over from the theatres.)

I agree that Becco is a great deal, but be advised that the service will almost ignore you if your party merits the automatic tip. We had eight people eating after a play two weeks ago, and the wait staff was so slow, it took us more than three hours to eat a salad and entre. We might have ordered dessert and surely would have had another bottle of wine, if anyone had bothered to inquire if we wanted anything else. It also took 20 minutes for the waiter to bring back the receipt for the Visa card.

We used to go to Becco, but haven't in a long time. I guess it's a good deal, but I'm not that much into just eating generally meatless pastas. The last time we were there, all three of the pastas were kind of average and not very good. One was in a fairly bland tomato sauce, one was a cheese tortellini in a light cream sauce, and the other was another form of pasta in another type of pink cream sauce. None had any real "bite" to them or great flavor, and none had any major meat or seafood ingredient to make them special. Sure we got a lot to eat, but somehow it wasn't very "satisfying" overall. I'd rather go to a place and for the same price have one really nice pasta dish.

I am in New York and ate at Becco's last night. I had the 21.95 chef's special and it was great! THe salad, the anti-pasto and the pasta (3 choices, all you can eat) were all very tasty, the service was good, and it was not even a block away from the theatre where I went to see "Curtains". Great show, by the way!!!

Love New York!

Becco can best be described as "all you can eat" - not that it's necessarily what you want to eat.

Have been only once and agree the pasta was uninteresting. (I love pasta - but with something special in the ingredients - shrimp or salmon - or the sauce).

You can do much better - but it will cost more. We often do Trattoria del Arte - which is fun and has great antipasto,