New York City Uptown Restaurants
 

We're from California, looking for a remarkable Uptown restaurant to celebrate 10 yr anniversary ( American food ) during upcoming anniversary trip to NYC.

What's the budget?

How far uptown?

Erminia

Daniel

+1 for Daniel. Also Marea and Dovetail. Happy anniversary!

No budget, no preferred cuisine, so it's a blind recommendation: Asiate

http://www.mandarinoriental.com/newy...dining/asiate/

Ahh, I see you want American food. Asiate won't do. Amy Ruth's or Jacob might work. Both are soul food restaurants; Jacob is a steam table. Very authentic, delicious.

Or did you want a steakhouse?

Oh, good point: our budget is around $300

OH,forgot to add that I'm a vegetarian and my husband's a steak / fish eater. Anywhere Uptown: we'll be spending day at the Met, so maybe close (ish) to the museum. Thanks, everyone! :)

It's surprisingly difficult to find a restaurant that will do for both a vegetarian and a steak eater. Few NYC steakhouses have much in the way of choices for vegetarians, but almost all upscale restaurants have a decent steak on the menu.

My first recommendation is nowhere near the Upper East Side, It's Blue Hill in the Village. It's one of those rare restaurants that does vegetables as well as meat, though the meat may not be steak. It may be venison or lamb. But everything is delicious, albeit with small portions. It's a market-to-table restaurant, so you only get what's seasonal.

My second recommendation would be Rouge Tomate on east 60th. It's another farm-to-table restaurant and they don't do quite as well for vegetarians, but you could choose among the wonderful appetizers and create a nice vegetarian meal. Your husband would fine with either a steak or seafood.

Finally, if you are willing to push your comfort zone just a tad, I'd recommend Sfoglia, an Italian restaurant on 92nd/Lexington, which is within walking distance of the museum. It's a wonderful upscale restaurant with great service. You'll find vegetarian options among the pastas, and they always have delicious fish, which changes daily. But no steak.

E & E's Grill house in the theatre district does both steak and vegetarian very well. (My friend is the vegetarian E - the food and ambiance are great otherwise I wouldn't recommend the place!)

Thanks, SueNYC and Doug :)

The only thing I'd add is that the Upper East Side is something of a culinary wasteland. There are really relatively few really good restaurants uptown that are, in my opinion, anniversary-worthy. Once you get past the 70s (Cafe Boulud is VERY good but probably out of your price range; JoJo might work, and I've enjoyed eating there but had a horrible experience on Thanksgiving that I'm willing to chalk up to greed and bad planning on their part), I am hard-pressed to recommend a good restaurant that's not simply horribly overpriced.

I now live near the east 90s, where the last of the Upper East Side restaurants can be found. That's why I recommended Sfoglia. There are several pretty good restaurants along Madison in the 90s, but nothing that I felt was worth a special trip. I eat at a lot of these fairly regularly, and while the food is good, the ambience isn't really that romantic (Le Paris, Pascalou, Tre Otto in particular). There's Osso Bucco on 3rd Avenue, and one of my favorites Cafe D'Alsace on 2nd Avenue. These would all offer alternatives for both of you with Pascalou having the nod on vegetarian, though Osso Bucco has an excellent pasta primavera.

So if you really don't want Italian and don't want to go back down to the 60s, a French restaurant is actually likely to give you more of what you want than any other type. Your husband will enjoy a good hanger or skirt steak, and he can get the Bernaise or peppercorn sauce on the side.

Is there a good tapas restaurant Uptown, Doug?

To be honest, I can't think of a place, but I'm sure there's something somewhere. Maybe someone else? There's Beyoglu, which is a Turkish restaurant serving mezze, but that may not be exactly what you have in mind.

Beyoglu's menu could satisfy a wide range of tastes; I'll read some yelp reviews. Thanks!

I certainly would not put Amy Ruths in the "remarkable" category for a special dinner!

Dovetail is a very good recommendation, as they do good vegetarian dishes as well as meats.

You might look at Telepan as well, although I've not been there in a few years.

A new UES steakhouse that has received good report from friends is Arlington Club; good non-meat dishes on their menu:


http://arlingtonclubny.com/#menus


http://arlingtonclubny.com/wp-conten...Menu022813.pdf

UES is a culinary wasteland??? Daniel, Cafe Boulud, David Burke Townhouse, JoJo, Fishtail, Le. Cirque, Park Avenue Spring are just a few of the restaurants that would be fascinated to hear thsi news.

Candle 79 is considered to be the top veggie restaurant and is on the UES.