Two girls late twenties will be traveling to NYC in the beginning of March for a girls weekend. We will be staying at the Helmsley Park lane at 36 central park and Hotel Roger Williams 131 Madison Ave. while we are there.
Can you recommend fun/hip/trendy reastuants, lounge/martini bars and a great place for brunch?
I am interested in hearing if anyone recommends:
Pravada (for drinks)
Monkey Bar (drinks or dinner which would be better?)
Nobu (is this overrated?)
Trattoria Dell'Arte (how is this one? Seems like a unique spot)
Apizz(recommend or not?)
Pastis (good place for brunch?).....
Also looking for any other suggestions of reastuants/bars we must go to while we visit. Also, where is the best non chain shopping? We want unique stores.

Pravda is perfect for a girls' night out...I go there often. Fabulous martinis, great setting. Sometimes after that we go to Grace's, which is one block down and around the corner. It's a "nicer" version of an Irish pub.

Monkey Bar is great for drinks. Havenot had dinner there in years - don;t know how it is now.

Trattoria del Arte is great for moderate Italian - not great cuisine - but fine - and it noisy, friendly and fun.

Non-chain shopping: designer boutiques - there are lots of big$$ ones on the upper east side(many more traditional european designers, Ralph Lauren etc) - Mad avenue from Barney's up. Trendier $ places can be found downtown.

Is there a reason you are staying at 2 hotels? They are not that far apart, within a mile or so if each other. Changing hotels here in the city is really more of a waste of time, since everything is fairly close and why spend time packing and unpacking when you can be out enjoying the city instead.

Have a great time while you are here.

BTW, of the 2 I would choose the Roger Williams, closer to lots of shopping and lots of restaurants within walking distance.

All the places you mention are good. Pastis would be fun for brunch although I prefer Balthazar. The Monkey Bar is now a steak house. Good place for drinks if you want to meet some guys who work in the area. TAO is some place you might consider for Asian fusion and fun atmosphere. The bars at the Hudson hotel are nice. Here's some more info

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nightlife/index.htm

I think you might like the shops downtown. Here are some shopping maps from NY Magazine

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/shopping...ghborhoods.htm

Go to Town for drinks if you can stand the pricing (apprx $15).

Nobu will be very difficult to get in. The food is great, get the specials and cooked food...the traditional sushi is merely good, not sublime, and would be a waste of your reservation, IMO.

I was in NY w/ girlfriends in December. We went to Sumile, a new restaurant w/ japanese ingredients, prepared in a French manner. They have a website. We enjoyed speaking to the young, handsome chef named Josh.

Then we went uptown and had late-night dessert and champagne in the uber-swanky lounge of Daniel, the temple of haute cuisine. They were very nice to us.

We also went to Babbo for our Italian fix. That is a fantastic restaurant, also difficult to get in, but I find the crush at the front door rather exciting. You can walk in and wait for a table in the bar area if you can't get a reservation.

The recommendation you got for the nymetro website is a great one for getting up-to-the-minute "buzz" info. I understand what is a hot scene changes
minute by minute in NY. (me, I'm just there for the food!) For instance, I think Monkey Bar was a hot celebrity hang out several years ago, but no longer. I wouldn't eat there, for sure.

You could also try Chowhound.com for recommendations, but try to ask very specific questions like the ones you posted here. If you just write "where should I eat/drink in Manhattan?", you don't get as good info.

Another place I enjoyed in NY was Prune for brunch. A very intimate space, and kinda girlie to me. The chef is a female.

Also, Bar Tonno is someplace you might want to check into. I didn't make it there because one of my friends doesn't eat raw seafood, but it looked pretty cool and I understand it's a scene late at night.

I have stayed at the Helmsley Park Lane twice. I think the rooms are very nicely appointed and reasonable-sized for the money. The lobby is not terribly glamorous would be the only downside.

Have a great time!

A great place for drinks is the FlatIron Lounge on West 19th (between 5th & 6th.) I like Pastis and have always had good meals. However, they usually utilize a no reservations policy so you might have a bit of a wait. A french bistro I really like for brunch and dinner is Orsay on Lexington and E 73rd.

If you want unique shopping, I suggest you just spend an afternoon walking around Soho. The area around Pastis has also started to attract some specialty shops.

Brunch - Jane in Soho or Five Points.

Pravda - lots of fun.

Monkey Bar - skip.

Nobu - agreed, go for the cooked food, not the sushi

Italian - Lupa or Pace (though my last meal there was only good)

Pastis - great, Schiller's is also McNally and cheaper, if that matters. The wait for brunch can be over an hou though. Balthazar is more civilized.

Other suggestions - Kittichai, Employees Only (haven't been yet, thinking it may be better just for drinks), Mercadito.

Aubette is a great martini bar on 27th between Park Ave. South and Lex. It is right across the street from Blue Smoke which is a realy great barbecue restaurant.