Hello,
Making a return trip to NYC 2nd week in April. 4 women meeting up with my daughter (14) who is traveleing with her high school to sing with her choir at Carnegie Hall. Staying at the Wellington.
Plan to do a few touristy things but looking for unique experiences like a good food tour, a fun day in Chinatown (where to eat suggestions...dim sum??) heard about taxining over Brooklyn bridge to Grimaldi's for pizza than walking back over bridge back into city?
Dinning experiences not to miss?
Most of our time will be "adult time" as my daughter will be with her friends/high school group.

Thanks for any tips you are willing to share.

I suggest you put New York in the box above titled "View by State."

You have asked many questions that have been answered recently.

You must also include budget, what you do and so not want to see and basic interests together and apart.

Budget is moderate but open. We have our flights & hotel already covered.
We have a first timer joining in our group, the rest of us have been to the city a few times.
I will keep looking at the various threads, they have been helpful. Just thought I would toss out a request.
thanks.

Here is a link to my trip report from 9/09:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...-big-apple.cfm

Do a search here for food tours. There was a topic on this several months ago.

For a food tour check out www.foodsofny.com we have done the Greenwich Village tour twice and friends of our have done the Chelsea Market/Meatpacking District tour - we highly recommend both! Well worth the $$.

If you like wine, NY Vintners http://www.newyorkvintners.com offers some fantastic wine/food classes and tastings. Great venue, relaxed atmosphere, you'll have fun, learn a lot and it's NOT a room full of wine snobs! Located in Tribecca at 21 Warren St, easily reached by subway, and if you arrive a little early for class (as we did!) go down the street and around the corner to Kaffee 1668 at 275 Greenwich St for a cup of coffee.

"Budget is moderate but open" doesn't help much. What's moderate to you may be expensive or inexpensive to me! It's all relative. Give us some specific dollar guidelines.

If it were my first trip to NYC and someone took me in a taxi to Brooklyn to eat a slice of pizza I'd be seriously p*ssed off.

Walkng the Brooklym Bridge can be fun - but April cna still be quite cold - and will be windy on the bridge.
Everyone says to eat the pizza - but IMH - I don't travel to eat pizza anywhere. OK for a casuale lunch but hardly a real food experience.

Agree that more info woud help. Do you want a lot of museums? Theater (go to braodwaybox.com for discounts). More touristy stuff (tickets for Statue of Liberty are needed far in advance)? Or do you want to galleryhop downtownand have dinner at someplace trendy and save on lunch?

Thank you all. The food tour recomended by Margo is great. I had received other recomendations for both tours you mentioned. Now we are trying to decide on which one: Chelsea or the Village. Oh the choices! Also thank you for the wine rec., we are from CA & actually spend some time wine tasting locally but this may be something fun to do in NYC.
Budget can range from $100 to $300 per day (not every day)
We plan to do a little shopping but more interested in walking, enjoying some great bars/pubs. Love good food but doesn't necesarily need to be $$$$, but open to 1-2 very nice meals.
Pizza is a must, 2 Italians in our group are asking to get GOOD pizza. E_M: any recomendation since Brooklyn for pizza would piss you off? Thanks.
A play is on the itenerary, considering Next to Normal but open to other ideas. Mostly want to see a musical.
We may want to hop into 1-2 museums. A little gallery hopping is more our thing, my mom is an artish & would enjoy that. Trendy is not a requirement, but GOOD food is. We have are open to everything. Seriously.
Again, thank you. Hope this helps clarify a bit more.

any dining recomendations near the Wellington Hotel on 7th Ave. & W 56th St?
Margo, we decided...got reservations for the Chelsea/Meat Pking dist. So excited. Thanks again.

I gaze into the Wellington from the dentist's chair - Anyhow, on the corner of 56th and 7th is the Redeye Grill.... a very large but pretty good restaurant. Have eaten there several times with various friends and we've always enjoyed the food. If you're in the area for lunch... Mangia on 57th near 6th Avenue is informal with a wide selection. Have never been there, but Topaz, a Thai rest. behind Carnegie Hall gets good reports.(Small place I gather.) There's also a highly regarded Greek Rest. right there on 7th... same side of the street as the hotel...somewhere between 56th and 54th (my mind is going)..Molyvos. A Zagat guide will lay out the best places by neighborhood... and can be helpful in avoiding many of the "tourist" places in that area. You can order it from Amazon if you can't find it in a local bookstore.

NYC is having a pizza explosion with LOTS of (trendy) new places. Have a read http://nymag.com/restaurants/cheapeats/2009/57893/

John's (Bleecker st. & Times Square), Lombardi's (Little Italy), Patsy's in Harlem and Grimaldi's are the old classics. Grimaldi's and walking the Brooklyn Bridge has become really popular so lines to get into Grimaldi's are often endless. Many feel it's not worth the wait. If you want to do Brooklyn pizza, maybe the asliceofbrooklyn.com pizza tour is an idea. Lombardi's is quite good.

Read up on Next to Normal and look at a scene on their website and see if you think you'd like it. You may be able to buy discounted tickets from the left column on broadwaybox.com

There are quite a few high end restaurants that do affordable (or more affordable) lunches if that's something that interests the group. Jean Georges, Asiate in the Mandarin Oriental with great views, Matsugen (Japanese) are some of the better options. Le Bernardin, La Grenouille and Bouley aren't cheap, but also have very good value lunches. Most of these are near your hotel. On menupages.com look in the west 50's. Some other ideas near the hotel:
>Trattoria Dell 'Arte is a good Italian with very good thin crust pizza (but can get very pricey depending on what you order).
>ViceVersa is another Italian nearby that's got a $35 prix fixe dinner.
>21club.com is iconic and has some prix fixe menus to make it more affordable.
>The Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien hotel (near you) is considered very good and somewhat hidden behind a curtain.
There are a number of restaurants in the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle (Asiate that I mentioned above is in that building but through a different entrance to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel).
>Dizzy's Coca Cola is also in the building and has a great view and excellent jazz at night.

Here's a link to the restaurant section of NY Magazine. http://nymag.com/restaurants/whereto...rest-sub-where
menupages.com is a good place to do some of your own looking by area and by cuisine.

There's a newish museum of art & design also at Columbus Circle, so not far from your hotel. They have studio hours where you can watch artists at work which Mom might like. There's also a restaurant at the top with view. http://www.madmuseum.org/

Frick.org is one of the small gem museums that's in the former home of Henry Clay Frick and what's inside it was his personal collection. It's a good place for non museum lovers. Your hotel is near MOMA which is another idea. If you plan on going to Top of the Rock, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center (and the views are wonderful) they have a combo ticket with MOMA and you don't have to go on the same day to both. Moma.org

Two very good restaurants right in the area of the your hotel--the aforementioned Redeye Grill and Brasserie 8 1/2 on West 57th, between 5th & 6th Aves. In addition to fine dinner dining, Brasserie 8 1/2 has an excellent Sunday brunch.

click on my username and you will find my very recent trip report to NYC. I ate at 2 places right at Columbus Circle and enjoyed both a lot. One is Nougatine @ Jean-Georges; the other is A Voce inside the Time Warner Building.

Have not eaten in Redeye and Mylovos in years and one reason was that they were just OK. Maybe they have improved in the interim.

The best pizza I have eaten in the United States is at Motorino. They have an imported oven and have their olive oil made for them. I have been a fan of Lombardi's for years and there is simply no comparison.

Two weeks, the NY Times, said it was the pizza in the city and we agree.

The have a wonderful lunch special where you get a huge individual pie and a choice of dessert or a salad. East 12th Street between First and Second.

Glad you got your food tour tickets -that's great! For breakfast near your hotel there is a coffeeshop in the hotel used to be typical coffeeshop food (nothing wrong with that - just want you to know it isn't fine dining!) at fairly resonable prices. I haven't eaten there in years so it might have changed. But you are very close to one of my favorite restaurants for breakfast in NYC - le Pain Quotidien at 7th Ave & 58th St www.lepainquotidien.com

Thank you Thank you!! It just goes to show that Fodor's forum has acess to a great group of contributing people.
Again, thank you.

Some more newer options for really good pizza in NYC. I second the Motorino rec.

Interactive map

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...pizza-map.html

thank you K_brklyn.