We are coming up to NY from Philly this Saturday for one night to see a show. We're looking for a nice restaurant for before the show.

I have found many good recommendations on here, but they all seem so expensive (30/40 entrees).

We often try to eat at BYOBs around here to save some money on our bill, and there are so many great ones to choose from in Philly with great food and cozy romantic atmospheres.

We're not cheap, but recently married & bought house so we have to be more careful with our money! & we like to have a few drinks with dinner so this is how we save!

So Im wondering if NYC has any? I know dining well in New York is expensive & we're prepared, but dont really want to spend too much over $100 for a hopefully great dinner THIS saturday with a few drinks. And we dont want to eat at a diner or a deli. Looking for a nice atmosphere.

Is this possible? I realize most restaurants book up early & we're coming in 3 days! Any recommendations?
Were staying near MSG & like all kinds of food, especially seafood, italian, cajun, steaks...

Thanks in advance!

pjmay, Sharing your economic situation (married, newly purchased home under renovations etc.) I can relate. I've never seen a BYO restaurant in the city, but there definitely are less expensive restaurants to help bring down the cost of dinner. We've enjoyed a nice Italian restaurant called Cara Mia in Hell's Kitchen. 654 9th Ave. Bet. 45/46th streets. Maybe some of our NYC native fodorites can offer some other mid-priced suggestions.

I don't know any BYOB's in NYC. However, if you like wine, you can call up and see what their corkage fee is per bottle. So, maybe you have a nice bottle at home that you got as a gift and can get away with a $15 corkage fee. Still cheaper than a round of drinks in most NYC restaurants. If you give us an idea of where the theater is (distric ranges from 42nd to 53rd, we could make some suggestions. You will want to eat close to the theater if the weather is going to be bad.

Thank you both for your responses.

The theater is Saint James on 44th st between Broadway & 8th.

Apparently BYOs are not as common in NY as in Philly, or they dont even exist!

So, any mid priced good restaurant recs with a nice atmosphere & great food would be great.

bugswife, thanks for the corkage fee suggestion, but we admittedly are not wine connoisseurs & would probably be embarrassed to pay a corkage fee more expensive than the wine we would bring in!!

I wouldn't worry about the cost of the wine you bring in. Keep in mind that even if it cost you $12 in the liquor store, it would cost you about $35 minimum in the restaurant.

Four great restaurants on 44th St. come to mind:

Cafe Un Deux Trois - pre-theater set menu is $24.75

Trattoria Dopo Teatro - pre-theater set menu is $22.50

Torre di Pisa - pre-theater set menu is $26.95

Osteria al Doge - no pre-theater menu that i know of, but you can ask.

My favorite out of those is Trattoria Dopo Teatro.

You can go to menupages.com and click on west 40's. it will bring up all the restaurants in the area (that they list) and let you look at their menu in advance. Just make sure you are looking at dinner and not lunch because the prices are way different.

Also, just a personal thing, but we never drink before theater. We like to stay awake! We are probably older than you are though.

There are few BYOB's here in NY that come to mind. The only one's I've encountered are places that are waiting on their liquor licenses. There are plenty of places where you can have a decent meal for a resonable price. As suggested, there are several fixed price options around Times Square that could keep it economical.

BTW, the reason BYOB's are more common in New Jersey and Philly than in NY implies that politicians here had other ways to supplement their income. Back in the day, limiting liquor licenses was a tried and true way for local politicians to generate under the table revenue.

There was an Italian restaurant on the UES that had good food and was BYOB -- Bella Nonna, maybe?

I know it's out of the way, but we used to enjoy going to La Tour, a French bistro on 3rd Ave in the 70's. They have a great all-you-can-eat mussels and frites for $15, a nice steak au poivre and a decent wine list broken down into $15 bottles, $20 bottles and $25 bottles. We always got the Spanish Rioja for $15.

I agree with BW1,Cafe Un Deux Trois has excellent food.The place isn't fancy.