Hi All,

My husband's first time in NYC, my second. 3 days there to celebrate our anniversary. Should we do a food tour ($49 each) of SoHo / Nolita / Greenwhich Village, or just walk around ourselves? Looking for good coffee shops and local favorite food spots. Thanks, everyone : )

I vote yes. We wandered around aimlessly before we did a tour, after we had a much better feel for things. We REALLY enjoyed the tour itself, too.

And when you are ready to branch out to real neighborhoods for food tours (Nothing wrong with Foods of NY - They are just the beginning) see if there is a nosh walks tour when you are visiting
www.noshwalks.com

thestarryeye.typepad.com/explorenyc

Great tips! Thanks elberko and SueNYC. Nosh Walks? I'm in! Food Tour on the plan now as well - don't want to wander aimlessly! While I've got you guys, what about a good coffee shop? We're staying in lower financial district to be near SoHo / Nolita / Greenwhich Village.

When you are in Greenwich village stop in at Cafe Reggio

thestarryeye.typepad.com/explorenyc

DD and I did a food tour (Greenwich Village) during our trip in late May 2012 and really enjoyed it--definitely recommended.

Yes!

Cafe Reggio - thanks SueNYC : ) thanks all...good tips!

Yes! We did one in Greenwich Village with Foods of NYC in 2011. We just returned from a week in NYC on Sunday and did two food tours, one of Chinatown with New York foods and our guide was Candy (this is her American name but she is from Hong Kong) and a new tour, Sugar Tooth Tours and our guide was Sarah (one of the owners.) We loved all 3 of them. The one in Chinatown was probably overall the best because she shared lots of info but in a way that wasn't overwhelming. Last visit to Chinatown without a guide was overwhelming. The scallion pancake and handmade dumplings on this tour were excellent.
For the Sugar Tooth tour, we hit some of the best dessert places, all "mom and pop", in Hell's kitchen. We also learned on this tour that 9th ave was the place to eat and was able to avoid eating in chain restaurants the entire trip. All tours had just the right amount of history/info. We did the tour with our teen children and they all enjoyed the tours.

If you folks are big fans of Pizza, try the NYC Pizza Tour. Also I'd recommend you sign-up for the NYC Serious Eats newsletter. They don't spam and offer a neat list of food events.