Rod,

If you are going with your family and like Italian food try Carmine's. I believe it's on 44th Street at Times Square. Your hotel concierge will definitely know it. They have great food served family style and the price is right. Go early or late because it's always crowded and they don't take reservations. Enjoy!

The East Village is loaded with inexpensive restaurants, many have great prix fix deals for dinner. The time sq area is touristy and restaurants tend not to be such great value. You can get much better quality and variety of food at very reasonable prices in other neighborhoods.

Midtown: the Food Court downstairs in Grand Central Station is super, you could eat every meal there.

East Village:
Veselka 9th St/2nd Avenue Ukrainian plus everything, a center of the neighborhood, 24 hours. Giant dinner with soup about $9. Soup alone a fine meal. Mushroom-barley is traditional.

Chinatown:
Wong Kee 113 Mott St at Hester Street. Very bad-looking, has one of the highest Chinese food ratings in NY. Ask for the "over rice" menu before 4 pm. Many whole meals for under $4. (not a typo)

My favorite place for a good, inexpensive breakfast in mid-town is Giorgio's Country Grille (9th Ave @ 53rd St). They serve fresh squeezed juices, wonderful French toast, oatmeal, eggs, etc. in a really friendly atmosphere. Pancakes or French toast cost about $5 and are served with real maple syrup (no extra charge).

I also second the recommendation for Vinyl on 9th Ave (up around 54th).

~

http://local.msn.com/special/cheapeats.asp

Above survey gathered info on cheap eats for all major cities in US.

There are places to eat that are reasonable every where...we were very surprised....all the chain restaurants plus many more. Breakfasts are particularly inexpensive.

rod

visit the grenwich village area(BLEEKER
STREET@4th street).(take a subway downtown).You will find a lot of inexpensive restuarants.also you might
want to take a food tour(www.foodsofny.com). i think it cost $35
you visit a bunch of restaurants and get
to eat samples.

tom

I agree...Midtown has less good stuff than uptown or down.

Generally cheap and good meals in NY:

pizza by the slice
greek coffee shops for breakfast
spanish or cuban/chinese restaurants
hot dogs from a cart

Aack...forgot bagels.

very important:

Papaya King
Gray's Papaya

more or less the same. You can have a lovely meal of 2 hot dogs plus a fruit drink for about $3.

This is a weird New York "dining" tradition, the hot dog/papaya drink stand. The hot dogs are really first rate. You eat standing up.

There's one pretty near Lincoln Center -- walk up Broadway,it's on the right in a few blocks. It's where I like to eat before shows (really -- I like a small fast cheap meal, and then more food afterward).

But... don't stress out if you don't make it to a hotdog/papaya stand.

I'll never forget as kid being dragged all over the city by my uncle to get to one of these stands (I guess they were not ALL over back in the day). He wouldn't stop talking about the damn hot dogs and drinks. When we finally got there, all I could say was "What? They don't serve Coke?" I was miserable till I had my soda.

Other than that, enjoy NYC!!!! I love the place. Going back for another time this March.

Gray's Papaya is on 72nd and Broadway/Columbus (where Broadway crosses Columbus).

It's right across the street from the 1/2/3 72nd st subway station.