Planning a short tip to NYC Staying upper eastside but what to spend a morning downtown.

Will be riding Staten Island Ferry, then checking out Battery park, Brooklyn Bridge and Seaport area.
Thought Seaport area might be a niice place to have a light lunch - Any suggestions?

Also any suggestions for the itinerary - In what particular order should we do the above?
Many thanks
Tom

From one tourist to another:
On our 1st trip to NYC, we went to the Seaport area. It was pretty lack- luster, your basic mall. Maybe we missed something, but I will not be going back. Why don't you wander around SoHo instead, while you are downtown? Some restaurants are: Mercer Kitchen, & Balthazar, or try your luck in Little Italy or Chinatown. Also, I think Patsy's Pizza is close to the Brooklyn Bridge.

I agree that there aren't many places to eat in the Seaport area -- I work near there. There are several sit-down restaurants in the Seaport itself, many with beautiful views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, but most are mediocre. The exception is Cabana, which is Cuban food.

If you are planning to walk up and around the Brooklyn Bridge (and I'd suggest you walk over it to the promenade on the other side for a great view of Manhattan), it's just a few blocks north of there to Chinatown/Little Italy where you can wander around the shops and get a great meal.

South Street Seaport's Pier 17 Building has a food court with many options that are light, fast, and inxpensive...pizza, burgers, sandwiches and salads, smoothies, frozen yogurt, and ice cream are some of the items you will find there...I have taken visiting friends and family there and they liked the museum and boat ride, but Pier 17 itself is a mall...my dining experiences there in the (sit down, get waited on) restaurants have not been good (including the food)...Sgarlato's refused to accept my Amex without adding a surcharge because the tab was just shy of $20.00 (this was several years ago at lunchtime)...I know they have to make it worth their while because Amex has a high fee, but they should have it posted somewhere.

Thanks for the replies

Lisa your suggestion about walking up to Chinatown seems a great one - Any reccomendations?

Tom, admittedly I haven't been to Chinatown in over one year, but I would recommend based on my last visits Golden Unicorn on East Broadway (fantastic dim sum selection), Big Wong, Mandarin Court or Oriental Pearl all on Mott Street...Mandarin Court and Oriental Pearl also had a nice dim sum.

We had GREAT dim sum a couple of weeks ago at Dim Sum Go Go, on East Broadway @ Chatham Square. It's a little different, no carts - you order from a menu, but everything was impeccably fresh and delicious. My son says be sure to mention the "pork pies" which were wonderfully flaky dough filled with rich, delicious warm and sweet roast pork. Terrific!