NYC 5-Day To-Do and Where to Eat Advice
 

Dear Fodorites:

I usually post on the Africa forum where I get great advice. I thought I would try you folk re our trip next week to Manhattan.

Arrive next Wednesday depart on Sunday. Staying at the Belleclaire near 77th and Broadway. Any advice on what to do and where to eat?

Thoughts so far: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Met Museum of Art, Central Park, Broadway Show (Mary Poppins in fact), concert at Lincoln Center (Neil Sedaka tribute, not my cup of tea, but oh well, Wife and our friends picked that one).

Any other ideas. Especially places to eat dinner that are a good value.

Thanks,

Kevin from California

Breakfast is the best deal in the city.

I like Pick-A-Bagel, Ess-A-Bagel, or H&H Bagels.

Stay out of Midtown for reasonable food.

Chinatown is great for cheap eats.

Little Italy is not where the good Italian food is but it is nice to stroll through.

NYC has dozens of great and hundreds of good restaurants. The upper west side especially has tons of inexpensive neighborhood places - of almost every ethnicity.

If you give an idea of budget (NYC is more than many places) and what types of food you like or dislike people can make specific recos.

Or - you can check out meupages.com - which is searchable by cuisine and area - and has diner reviews and actual menus.

I love menupages.com and am using it a lot to plan my 3 day weekend to NYC next month.

Asap, pick up a Zagat guide to the city, so you have handy info wherever you are in the city.

There are over 10,000 restaurants in Manhattan alone, so the guide will give you good choices as you wander.

Have a great time.

Here is a list of our favrites downtown which are inexpemsive to medium, none really pricey. We have eaten at all at least twice, most mnay, many more times. There are a number of new spots and we are behind in getting to them.

Indian-Brick Lane-Banjara, Mitali, Brick Lane

Inexpensive Italian- La Marca (3rd Ave. and 22 Street, only opened noon-10 PM, Mon-Fri)

Medium priced Italian- Cacio e Pepe, Gnocco, Supper, Luzzos (this started as a neighborhood place and has grown into a destination restaurant)Perbacco

Expensive Italian- I Coppi (For dinner But great brunch pre-fixe

Inexpensive Eastern European- Veselka

Very Inexpensive Filipino-Elvie's

French Bistro-Cafe Deville, Casimir, Flea market (for atmosphere)

Greek-Pylos

Tapas-Xunta. Bar Carrera, Café Mono (more expensive)

Dessert-Veniero's, DeRobertis for the frozen lemon thing and tortonis.

Bagels- Ess-a-Bagel

Brunches-Five Points, Zoe's, Blue Ribbon Bakery, Turkish Kitchen, City Bakery (18th off 5th), Cafecito (Ave C), Clinton Street Bakery ,9th St. Market, small and impossible to get into.

Pizza-Lombardi's Totonno’s (2nd and 26th.) Pizza Fresca

Hole in the wall-Stage (next to Stomp) great cheap home made soups

French fires-Pomme Frites

Bakery where the people have gotten nicer Moishe-wonderful challah, black and whites, kickel, and sponge cake-

Noodles and dumplings-Momofuku , (we were not impressed with dimpling man on St. Marks.)

Seafood-Mermaid Inn

Thai-Pong Sri (there are few around the city) Friends House 2 (on 14th)

Ice Cream-Cones on Bleecker, Australia, Il Laboratorio de Gelato

Wow! You folks came through like I hoped you would.

What would you recommend for activities? Statue of Liberty? Met Museum?

Thanks

Hard to make recs not knowing what you like. Art? Live music? Architecture?

Try this to find what you want for food.

http://www.chowhound.com/boards/18

supermenu pages is ok, but it's like choosing a restaurant using the yellow pages. Also, try gothamist.com.

For sure, go to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. They have several tours and all are very good. You should probably get tickets in advance on line. Here's the website: http://www.tenement.org/ It's a really interesting thing to do. You'll like it--everyone does.

www.yelp.com is another good restaurant review site. you can sort by top rated, type of food and neighborhood.

The Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island visit is excellent but it will take up a good part of a day. Buy tickets in advance online if you want to go and try for the first boat of the day. If you'd just like a view of the Statue, the free Staten Island ferry (roundtrip) is a popular alternative or you can take some sort of harbor cruise- Circle Line (who also provides the service to the Statue) has several options, nywaterway.com has some tours, sail-nyc.com , shearwatersailing.com and the nywatertaxi.com are other options
In good weather, a view of the city from the water is not to be missed.

NY Magazine has a good budget guide for eating, shopping etc. here
nymag.com/cheap
It includes info on some free walking tours. If you enjoy eating, the foodsofny.com tours are very popular.

The Met Museum is suggested donation, so pay what you can afford. Your hotel is near the Mus. of Natural History and the NY Historical Society. You're also not far from Central Park which is a must for most people. There are free walking tours there also.

Top of the Rock is a relatively new observatory at Rockefeller Center that has great views. http://www.topoftherocknyc.com/welcome.aspx

La Boite en Bois has a good pre theater dinner for $34/person for the night before Lincoln Center.
http://www.laboitenyc.com/Pre-TheaterMenu.htm