NYC food budget/day
 

Could you give me a rough estimate of how much we should plan for our food budget when in the city. We prefer simple food, nothing fancy, more along the line of American food. We are from NE and I am shocked at the prices I'm seeing when I check out different places' menus. $15 for a hamburger? Is this normal?

You can budget as much or as little as you want, but if you are spending a lot of time in certain neighborhoods, your choices are more limited. If you are in a residential neighborhood where there are more locals than tourists or business people on expense accounts, the prices tend to be lower.

Some cuisine choices , especially Chinese and Thai, are more budget friendly than others. Lunches usually cheaper than dinners (often half or less), so if you want to go to a splurgey place, you can do it that way.
Hamburger prices? In my neighborhood, for example (upper west side) I pay anywhere from $7 to $13 for a good burger with fries, in a sit down restaurant

$15 seems a little steep for a hamburger, at least to me. You can get breakfast for less than $5 at any deli in Manhattan if you stick to a bacon-and-egg sandwich and a coffee; if you sit down in a coffee shop, then expect to pay $10.

For lunch, I think it's easy to find something for $10, though if you were at the Metropolitan Museum, you might have to pay $12 to $15. Stick to sandwiches, salads, and drinks, and you'll have no trouble there. There are a lot of Thai restaurants on 9th Ave. in Midtown that offer $7 lunch specials ($10 with tax, tip, and drink). Most NYC office workers can't afford more than that anyway.

For dinner, I think you have to budget $20 per person for a simple meal at a decent restaurant; go up to $50 per person for a splurge at a nice prix-fixe with one glass of wine and coffee (a place like Vice Versa or Roberto Passon).

So that leaves you with a budget of $35 per person per day for food if you are really careful.

If you want a great burger, then you're going to pay $12 with a drink, tax, and tip. Even at Shake Shack.

Unless you're going some place upscale, just figure 2 NY$ = 1 US$.

I find a $35-a-day-budget for 3 meals absurdly low! $20 for dinner including tax and tip???

You can't go wrong if you stick to pizza! My husband and I found some great lunch deals in NYC, including a little Spanish restaurant that offered a lunch with: paella, soup or salad, dessert and wine for $15 each. Granted that the paella was made with tumeric and the wine was not the finest but it was drinkable. The seafood on the paella was incredibly good, I've never enjoyed a clam so much.

Eat your largest meal for lunch and take advantage of the delis

I think a realistic budget is $50 per person per day. Some days will be lower, if you watch what you are doing... but when you add in snacks, a bottle of water or 2 - you are going to hit $50.00. I work in NY and between coffee (not Starbucks), and lunch and water I spend approximately $13.00 a day. I bring my own breakfast and I do not eat dinner in the city. NYC is expensive. Pizza is no longer cheap... approaching $3-$4 a slice!

Cindyk612, as you can see there's no agreement here other than the fact that $15 for a burger is NOT typical.

I agree with Doug that $35 per person per day is doable--IF you want to keep to that budget.
If you like 3 sit down meals a day, and more than one course at a meal (I generally order a main dish or a couple appetizers, not both) you'll go way over!

By the way, where in New England are you from? I always have food sticker shock in NE!
In NYC there's always a cheap option if you want, 24/7.
In many smaller cities and towns, the choices are so limited that I often feel I'm over spending!

I guess I live in an expensive city -- Naples, Florida, but I tend to find better bargains on food in NYC than I can at home, so I sure don't get that $2 NYC to $1 US.

Lots of brunch places along 9th Ave. offer things like eggs benedict with choice of Canadian bacon or smoked salmon variety with choice of Bloody Mary or glass of wine for $10.95 (Rachel's on 9th for just one).

I love the hamburgers at Island Burgers and Shakes which are mainly $7.75. About the same at similar places at home. (Yes, you can get a fast food hamburger for $2, but I'm not talking about those either place).

A real favorite of mine, Roberto Passon does a daily three course lunch for a TOTAL of $13. Lots of choices -- can you imagine getting a carpaccio of beef for an appetizer, grilled salmon with sauteed spinach for a main course, and ricotta cheescake or a creme brulee for dessert -- ALL for $13? Nothing even close to that at home!

In fact, you can eat three meals a day along 9th Ave. from about 42nd to 52nd for two weeks and never repeat a place and never spend over $25 a person per meal. It's a gold mine for good and inexpensive restaurants of all types.

Last summer I discovered the Chipotle chain for lunch. Great food for CHEAP.

There are TONS of places where you get great food in NYC for minimal prices. There are also restaurant.com coupons you can get on line to save $15 or more dollars when you spend $25 or $35 for dinner -- at many really good restaurants.

Laura has a point about snacks, bottled water, and Starbuck's coffee drinks adding up. But you don't have to do ANY of those things. I never buy bottled water -- well, maybe when out in the heat all day just walking I will, but certainly never in a restaurant in NYC.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm feeling a little better. I just would rather spend our $$ on cool stuff to do, not food. We'll definitely do some deli's, pizza, and we've gotta try some NY hotdogs. What's good around Central Park South--that's where we're thinking about staying as of now. And btw, we're not from New England, we're from Nebraska. Thanks again, Cindy

You can eat cheap (and good) in Chinatown. A full lunch for $5 and dinner for under $10.

You can definitely get breakfast and lunch for little - esp if you're willing to eat in a park rather than a sit down coffee shop.

But $20 is really low for dinner unless you stick to certain ethnic restaurants and don't have any wine.

In my (residential) area a pretty basic Italian dinner in a neighborhood place (shared appetizer, pasta each with chicken or something, one glass of wine and coffee each - with tax and tip will run you at least $70. If you go for plain pastas - no protein - perhaps $8 or so less.

You can eat for less if you're really careful - but you definitely limit yourself.

As for special - that's $100 per person and up. Splurge is up from there.

Sorry -

In our local coffee shops - again residential not midtown - (and not like Starbucks but what would be a diner most places) a lunch of a cheeseburger deluxe with soda, tax and tip will be about $13/$14.

A tuna sandwich will be a little less and a turkey (real turkey) sandwich will be a little more.

Are you having continental breakfast at the hotel? That always helps us with the breakfast cost. Then I love a cheap, quick hotdog on the street occasionally. I do tend to spend a little more than 20. per person on the evening meal when I add tax..tip, etc. Of course, one way is to go cheaper some nights and splurge a little on others...It can help offset the overall budget. Just curious...are you dining with young children, teenagers or just adults? That also makes a difference.

This is an interesting discussion to me. I haven't been a tourist in NYC for a long time, but the cost of water, etc. does add up. Of course, I never buy bottled water. I might buy one bottle if traveling and then refill it with NYC tap water, which is the best tasting and cleanest tap water in the world. And you can't deny the high cost of sodas and snacks. Duane Reade (or better Walgreen) may become your best friend for finding relatively reasonably priced snacks, soda, and water.

And I admit that I might have misstated the costs for dinner. I was assuming that cindyk612 wasn't going to be drinking wine. If you drink wine or want more than 1 course, then definitely $45 to $50 per day. Wine is horrendously overpriced in NYC restaurants.

But I actually have to say that fine dining is one of the great experiences of NYC, and if I had a choice between 2 Broadway plays or 1 play and 1 great dinner, I'd probably choose the latter. You will certainly find food here that isn't easily available in Nebraska. But food is always an important part of my travel experiences. That's not always the case with all travelers, which is why I didn't count that for this poster.

Cindyk612 -

If you want great hot dogs at a good price, then get to Gray's Papaya on Broadway & 72nd Street. Two dogs and a small drink (the papaya is classic) for $3.50.

Doug, my point exactly in reference to dinner. Sure, I guess you can have dinner for $20....but as a tourist in New York, I sure as hell wouldn't want to make that my daily regimen!

hi Cindy, I am from Iowa...Council Bluffs actually so I know where you are coming from. We visited NYC a few years back and truly it was not that much different than eating in Omaha's Old Market. If you try to eat at one of the trendier or touristy places of course it will cost more but plan accordingly.

You can eat fairly cheaply at a variety of places that are not touristy. We are not foodies as such so eating from the street vendors, bagels for breakfast etc. met our needs just fine. Pizza was slightly more than at home, but a sit down pizza place didn't break the bank.

Most restaurants have the menu posted so you can get a feel of the price range before you go inside. There is still fast food available, especially in the Times Square area that can be had for typical prices if you choose to eat and run as we did on occasion.

NYC was ALOT of fun, would go back in a second. PS, I knew what NE stood for, drives me nuts when people use NE as a abbrevation for New England when it is the PROPER abbreviation for Nebraska!

Have a GREAT time.....

Just my 2 cents.

We're "basic food" people at home too and rarely go out to dinner/bars but put us in NYC or DC or Boston or wherever for vacation and, voila, we can't resist that $10 foofy-martini and the foie gras appetizer...

Yes, you can eat inexpensively in NYC but I would budget in a few splurges. I usually count on averaging about $100 a day for two, plus one splurge meal ($150+).

DH is always very fond of saying that eating in NYC will either cost you twice as much as you think it should, or half as much! You can eat cheaply and well, but you can also pay a great deal of money for very ordinary food.
"Simple American Food" is not, unfortunately what the city does well. And avoid chains like the plague (big ones-not local minis, which are often bargains), as they are at their worst and most expensive in Manhattan.
I love Empire Szechuan (some locations have half price sushi!), and I love those unsanitary cart hot dogs too. Browse menu boards, two similar looking places can vary a lot in their prices, and many places offer very good value for lunch and brunch. Little India has a fabulous selection of cheap restaurants, and if you don't want to venture that far there are good, cheap Indian restaurants all over the city. Invest in a restaurant guide, too. It will more than repay you, and I would try to avoid having to eat in museums, etc., as you might as well just open your wallet and pour, and for no great quality.