Hitting NYC for Fri,Sat,Sun, first weekend in November - need advice/suggestions for small,
low-volume, friendly eateries/bistro/cafe for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - asking on this forum because of past success here, but also appreciate the personal/first person accounts

Clinton Street Bakery for breakfast but go during the week, it is a zoo on the weekends.

Lucien for bistro.

City Bakery for breakfast

Le Gigot or Po, both small bistros on Cornelia Street in the Village, for dinner, French or Italian.

I'll second Lucien for the French bistro. Had a really nice meal there a few weeks ago. Our favorite restaurant of the trip was North Square at the edge of Washington Square. You can read about both restaurants on my "Subway Safari" Trip Report.

I just discovered Il Cantuccio on christopher Street...I bought only some biscotti (prune, chocolate) and almond paste cookies (brutti ma buoni) but their sandwiches and other lunch and breakfast stuff looked really good..


http://ilcantuccionyc.com/en/prodotti/

And just down the street from there:



I Sodi on Christopher St. for Tuscan food..short menu, simple cooking, very good. Go early (open dinner only, I think) to avoid crowds..

I liked Le Gigot, too, but I understand their long-time chef has returned to Africa....hope it has not changed..


We like this place, too...(turn sound down first), but have not been in over a year, so...

http://www.thelittleowlnyc.com/

I second The Little Owl and had lunch there recently. It's tiny so making a reservation a good idea.

That weekend is the NYC Marathon so the city will be packed. Whatever you do, book dinner reservations. North Square mentioned by maitaitom above, inside the Washington Square hotel does a very nice Sunday jazz brunch.

Only the areas on the marathon route/near Central Park will be impacted. Downtown, we would never know there is a marathon going on. Stick to downtown for less crowds. Obviously, you would need a reservation for a place like Po for Saturday night dinner, but theyre not necessary at a lot of casual places.

Bar Breton; Co, Keste or Motorino for pizza; maybe a tapas place like El Cid, Tia Pol or Casa Mono. Dim sum on Sunday at Golden Unicorn in Chinatown. Brooklyn Flea?

suitcaseready.com

This weekend the City will be more than packed, on top of all the tourists it's also the Marathon. Midtown has been PACKED all summer with visitors, so add to that all the participants, friends and more of the Marthon.

So my best suggestion is stay out of midtown.

Head down to The Village and I can suggest 2 great places for lunch/dinner on Greenwich St between 6th and 7th.

La Bota a small spanish tapas restaurant with GREAT food, nice atmosphere and won't be too crowded.

Another suggestion is right across the street and a bit more upscale, Gusto's. GREAT Italian, lovely atmosphere, lots of good choices of wines and award winning dishes from the owner chef. You can't go wrong here.

Hope this helps, enjoy your stay.

Travelbuff

The tapas at La Bota were a little expensive, were the portions tapas or raciones?

thanks to all who responded and helped - have made reservations at Po, I Sodi, Little Owl - but will keep the other suggestions on the back burner if we have time - fyi: we are seeing Other Desert Cities, Chick Corea, Braque, deKooning, oh, one other event - we're getting married on the Brooklyn Bridge! yea for us!

Chick Corea received a great review today.

If you want your marriage to last get married on the pedestrian walk rather than on the vehicle roadway.

And oh, yeah, congrats and good luck.

Congrets!
Just want to let you know that dimsum restaurant in Chinatown on sunday is high-volume and chaotic. Golden Unicorn consists of several floors, weekends are jam packed, there is usually a long wait and the service can be unfriendly. That said, I like the dimsum there and I go there myself.
On another note...
Near the bridge there is a very romantic restaurant called River cafe, the restaurant is on the water with nothing blocking the view, I think it's a great place for dinner (for the atmosphere and the view) or even a drink is nice.
http://www.rivercafe.com/

Try Nom Wah on Doyers Street. It is one block long. It was taken by the nephew of the owner and it is the best dim sum we have had in Manhattan.

http://nomwah.com/index.php

Before this our favorite dim sum place was Jing Fong.