Favorite Restaurant in NYC?
 

Lots of new places, still my fave is Gotham Grill. Any other new places for me to try on the same level?

What do you mean "on the same level?" Level of price, style of food, or other? Do you want that type of fairly sedate atmosphere, or can you tolerate a more casual, and perhaps noisy, place?

There are so many good new places; it would help if you offer more details on what you are looking for.

See this thread for some new ideas; I mention three of my new favorites here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...eyer-marta.cfm

Do they have to be "new" or perhaps new to you (or others)?

I do not like casual for the most part. loud and fun is good. New to me is great! Casual is in the eye of the beholder. I would consider Babbo casual. If that is what you mean, then yes...casual fun places.

St. Anselm in Brooklyn - sharing oriented, some great flavors (more casual than GBG, but hey, it's Brooklyn).

Just ate at Vic's (which used to be Five Points) - like the makeover, loved a lot of the food (roast pork for the win). Also pretty casual.

I hadn't been to Bouley since it moved, and went for a birthday lunch there: easily the best meal and best service I have had this year.

Still haven't made it to Batard, Cosme or Claudette, on the list for 2015!

has anyone been to Bobby Flay's restaurants? Ive heard mixed reviews? Any fellow foodies been there?

We enjoyed the four course dinner here -
http://www.craftrestaurantsinc.com/colicchio-and-sons/

I was there with a Fodorite. On a previous visit she took here -
http://www.veselka.com/
Too old and casual probably for you, but I can't wait to return.

I mentioned Bobby Flay's new restaurant, GATO, in my first link, above.

It is one of my favorite restaurants right now. It IS casual (more so than Babbo, which I agree is also casual) and can get a bit noisy during peak hours.

We've been eating at GATO several times a month since it opened, and I find the food to be very creative and fairly priced. Service is excellent.

Hey great! Going to try that in a few weeks when I visit my sis. Try to get her out to a new place. We used to love going to a French Restaurant in her neighborhood just of Lexington but it sadly did not make it thought the recession...too bad...it was amazing!

Less casual than the ones mentioned above are two restaurants that I like very much.

Prices are high at both but food is excellent; they may be more along the lines of what you are looking for:

MAREA (Chef Michael White makes the best pasta in the city right now; his octopus fusilli with marrow is pure fabulousness)

http://www.marea-nyc.com/index.php?action=page&id=1880



THE MODERN DINING ROOM

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ud8wauzb86...0Menu.pdf?dl=0




Two more current favorites include ESTELA, also mentioned in my first post, above:

http://estelanyc.com/






ABC KITCHEN
http://www.abchome.com/eat/abc-kitchen/



LINCOLN. Sedate, within Lincoln Center. Chef Benno was at Per Se before opening this large, fairly new restaurant. If you like Gotham, you will probably like this. Food is Italian and menu changes every couple of months to feature a different region of Italy. they are focusing on Piemonte now; Friuli is next up. The crowd skews older than some of the others mentioned here. Tables are well spaced and dining areas are pretty quiet by today's standards.


http://www.lincolnristorante.com/res...inner-Menu.pdf

Most recent restaurant that I've eaten at that I would happily return to is Taboon on 10th Avenue

I do love Lincoln, but I've been wanting to try Gato. Perhaps Dirty French?

Yeah there are several restaurants in New York City and it’s really easy to book those places in affordable budget, and we can enjoy and celebrate great NYC events there. Thanks for giving us the list and details of these restaurants.

https://eventup.com/venues/new-york-ny/

Doug have you been to Dirty French?

I liked Carbone, from the same group. Fun place with excellent renditions of Italian-American classics, including the best pork chop of the year for me.

Contrary to reports, we did not spend an arm and a leg for our lunch there, as many dishes can be shared...I think it might be better for lunch than dinner...

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-fo...-york-15440919

Dirty French now charges for a reservation cancellation.

That veers on obnoxious, don't you think?

But obnoxious, too, are people who reserve and do not show up..

Per Se, is charging the full $310 for a cancellation.

It is an eternal problem problem regarding reservations, but other restaurants overbook for the same reason.

We pay for flights before taking them and if you get a cheaper ticket it is non-refundable.

Every business has costs that must be built in for expenses that are not directly related to the service or product but for which the consumer pays.

There will be a new restaurant opening in Q2 of this year and I'm hoping it will become one of my NY favorites. It's the first North American branch of a very good Parisian restaurant and a friend and former co-worker will be the manager :-)

Are you planning to tell us the name of this place?

I will, definitely, but as the place is still in progress, I've promised not to give its name until late March. My friend is really excited about the opportunity to run the place and to live in the U.S., esp. New York.

I start from the negative side of the ledger regarding celebrity chef establishments and new and hot places. Actually, when I see them, I run in the opposite direction. That is why I appreciate Alfred Portale at Gotham Bar and Grill, because he is more interested in producing excellent results in one location than creating an empire. There are a few exceptions, and those exceptions unfortunately fuel the fury.

I also appreciate Eks who is an excellent source of advice and not afraid of spending her money to test the new places. Thanks. Anyone who has eaten many good meals, has also eaten many mediocre meals in search of the good ones.

Just FYI to clarify the issue of cancellation fees. Several high-end restaurants have no-show fees, and others have cancellation policies that require you to cancel between 24 and 72 hours in advance. But if you cancel within the policy (i.e., before the cut-off), there is never a cancellation fee even though you have to provide a credit card to hold the reservations. The fees are explained very clearly when you make the reservations. I got all the info on the EMP cancellation policy when I made my reservation there in the fall.

It's misleading to say any of these restaurants "charge" when you cancel.

I just re-read what I wrote above and want to clarify: While I had a good dinner last month at Lincoln, I was recommending it more for the OP, to suit his requirements. I've only had one dinner there, last month, and based only on that tiny sample, I thought that, for the price, I might have had better food elsewhere. I'd like to give it another try, though. Just did not want to have it seem that it was on my list of current "favorites," above.

EKS, I saw that there has been some news announcements about the NYC restaurant, so I guess there's no reason not to be more forthcoming. It's called Le Coq Rico.

Here's the link to their Paris original:
http://en.lecoqrico.com/

That's very interesting. I had an excellent meal at one of his restaurants in Paris and will look forward to news of this new spot.