Favorite Restaurants in NYC?
 

Please share some of your favorite restaurants in NYC!

Mel, no offense, but this is just too general a question.
What area of New York?
What type of food?
What price range?
Breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

We could all list 20 or 30, but what would be the point?

There have been hundreds of posts listing NYC restaurants. Use the search feature to ferret them out. Unless you are planning to live in NYC for decades you'd never be able to dine at them all.

Other resources to narrow down the thousands of options include Zagat's, Citysearch, Digital City, Time Out New York, etc.

The "best of" section in Citysearch might be a good place to start since it offers dozens of categories.

Delmonico's
((D))8-)

Horn and Hardart's Automat

O.K. Thanks for the replies. Sorry I wasn't more specific. Although we are staying near Times Square we would like to venture out further for less touristy dining options. I'm most interested in hearing favorites for dinner, moderate-high price range, special occasion w/atmosphere. Have a short list going already but thought it would be interesting to get some favorites. I'll search the board as well.

Thanks.

As always, personal tastes rule, by for a special ocassion, I still love Cafe des Artistes, might be b/c it has sentimental value for me, but I love the decor - I also love it for a prior walk in park before dinner or for brunch and a walk thru park afterwards.
www.cafenyc.com

of course, there are a zillion special occasion restaurants in the city, but this has a special place in my heart. Also, depending on where you are coming from, to save time and phone calls, you might want to check opentable.com and make your rezzies ahead of time

Surprisingly, three of the best new restaurants in New York are uptown:

1. <b>Spigolo</b>, on 2nd Ave @ 81st Street (amazing Italian);
2. <b>Cafe d'Alsace</b>, also on 2nd @ 88th St.; and, the best of all,
3. <b>Telepan</b>, on West 69th Street.

Telepan's tasting menu option, with wine pairings, is also one of the best values in New York.

You'll need reservations well in advance for all three great new restaurants.

WHOLE FOODS, Columbus Circle!

11 madison park!

We still love Picholine, upper west side near Lincoln Center &amp; by Central Park.

Just one of my faves... Ballato's on E. Houston. Fantastic Italian...

Prune - East Village 54 E. 1st St. Small, charming NY restaurant. Great food, good atmosphere - it's very small though and reservations are tough to get. But it's not touristy at all - it has an East Village, hip vibe. LOVE it. 212-677-6221

Babbo

Can you still go to Cafe des Artistes just for a drink? It does ooze atmosphere.
Our personal fav still remains Gramercy Tavern. It was the first restaurant we went to when we spent a summer in Manhattan and we ended up going back over and over. Just hit the right notes for us.

Bar American owned by Bobby Flay....SUPER, SUPER, SUPER

On Wednesday, the Times' Frank Bruni gave 3 stars (which is rare) to <b>Country</b>. I can't speak from personal experience yet, but it's a great review.

http://events.nytimes.com/2006/04/05...ws/05rest.html

There are literally thousands of wonderful restaurants in NYC..but if you're in the mood for southern soulfood cooking, there is no place like the unpretentious and inexpensive Charles Southern Kitchen on 152 street between 153 street and 8th ave on Frederick Douglass Blvd. Whenever we're in NY we make the journey uptown to eat the best fried chicken, smothered pork chops &amp; gravy, BBQ spare ribs, collard greens, ocra, cornbread, yams, potatoe salad, macaroni salad, and sweet banana pudding. Buffet style, all you can eat...and about $12 a person on the weekends. Can't beat that with a stick :)

Was just there a few weeks ago for a friend's birthday and ate at Matsuri, a wonderful Japanese restaurant in the lovely Hotel Maritime in Chelsea. Great food, great atmosphere (I'm an architect, so I'm kind of picky), great evening! Also, make sure to hit the Columbus Bakery on Sunday on the Upper West side (474 Columbus Ave.), and then go to the flea market in the schoolyard at Columbus and 74th (great some great jewelry from Anothai!)....mmmmm.

Il Mulino

The favorite place we had for lunch while in NYC for a week was the international buffet in the delegates dining room at the United Nations. It is $25 a person and proper attire is required. (They allowed my daughter to have jeans but I doubt shorts would be allowed and jeans for an adult may not either) My daughter must have ate $25 in fresh berries and lamb alone. They had some unusual choices too.You have to make reservations but we were able to make them downstairs right before we had lunch.

Spice Market has gotten a lot of buzz in the last year, but when we went in November, we weren't impressed. The desserts were great, but the cuisine, just average.

Spice Market opened over two years ago and, at least among locals, lost its &quot;buzz&quot; a long time ago. Its cuisine certainly doesn't merit any &quot;post-buzz&quot; accolades.

Of course, Mel61 ask for &quot;favorite restaurants,&quot; so that's purely a matter of opinion.

I'll add one favorite ... There are few decent, approachable restaurants in midtown for a casual, inexpensive lunch. One of my favorites is the &quot;Burger Joint,&quot; a little hidden place inside the Parker Meridien Hotel. It's worth finding, before or after your visit to Rizzoli.

good for tourist expriences:
High end - per se in Columbus Circle, or have drinks in the Mandarin HOtel lobby for view of Central Park. Drinks at Jazz at Lincoln Center in their club room late at night while listening to live jazz.
Bateaux New York for dinner cruise
Take water taxi over to New Jersey to Chart House for dinner with view of Manhattan
drinks only in the chinese lantern garden at sunset thru evening light at Tavern on the Green
Brunch at Balthazer on Sunday with walk around West Broadway.
Also brunch at Nichole Farhi restaurant in Chelsea Market.
union square-breakfast at Coffee Shop on Saturday morning by the Farmers Market, live Brazilian music at 11:00 am or so--check first.
Afghani Restaurant on Ninth and 51st (Byob) Hells Kitchen on Ninth and 48th Street.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions! I'll print the list and bring it with us.

Mel, if you go to grand central station, and go to Michael Jordans rest., before 5 you get these wonderful prices(for NYC) and so much food. It was just beautiful there and we would for sure go back. Did you get the fodors guide to NYC? Was worth it,great help! Have fun, NYC is my favorite place to go! :-)