We'll be in New York staying at the Hyatt for our 10th anniversray and the following have been recommended for dinnera Grenouille,La Cote Basque,One If By Land,which all sound good. I would appreciate opinions on these. We're looking for a memorable evening,great food and romantic atmosphere, and price doesn't matter. But we're not crazy about trendy food. Thanks in advance!

Waters Edge is great- romantic yacht to rest which is in LIC opp NY so you see skyline; go at sunset & watch from the terrace. See what zagat suggests or timeout.com, NYC.Both reliable. Tavern on green is lovely too as is the waterside.

IL Mulino (check it out w/ Zagats if you won't believe me). It does not have much a romatic flavor to the place. However, it definitely has great Italian food!

Think about alison on Dominick St. It's not super-expensive, not show-stopping or big, but has very good food and a very romantic atmospherer. It's a favorite for romantic dinners. Preview menu and room at www.alisonondominick.com

A second for Alison on Dominick. It is out of the way, but worth the trip. My favorite restaurant in NYC.

Angie,

I was at La Grenouille quite a few years ago and remember thinking that it is one of the prettiest restaurants I had been to - flowers everywhere. It was extremely expensive, even then, but I liked it. Both Waters Edge and River Cafe have the advantage of looking at the NYC skyline - you have to think about getting there. I have not heard good things about La Cote Basque lately and One if By Land is romantic - just not sure it's special enough for what it sounds like you're looking for.

I have been hearing very good things about March on 58th Street near Sutton Place - great food, recently renovated, with a garden like room. It's certainly on my list to try. Le Cirque 2000 is not exactly quiet but it is so good and the atmosphere (with baroque room and "circus like" furniture) is very special.

There are probably as many opinions as there are restaurants in NYC - if I had to choose I'd probably go with La Grenouille.

In terms of food quality, probably doing much better with La Grenouille or La Cote Basque. Might want to check out www.nytoday.com. This is sponsored by The New York Times and has very detailed reviews of the top NY restaurants. These reviews are generally extremely thorough and well respected. You can search for restaurants by numerous criteria including the number of stars (up to 4) that they got. To give you some idea, I think there are only about 5 4* restauarants and 20 some odd 3* restaurants. I believe La Grenouille and La Cote Basque are among the small group of 4* restaurants. The reviews are great reading.

One if by land is probably the most romantic without being incredibly pretentious restaurants on your short list. And the food is certainly not trendy; it runs to beef wellington [the house specialty], steaks, prime rib as well as fish and chicken. The piano during dinner sets the mood. We have celebrated many of our anniversaries there including our 10th and 20th.

Angie, there are SO MANY good to great restaurants here that it will be a task to choose one, so to gum up the works for you even more, here are a couple of our favorites:

Pomedoro - Columbus just south of 72nd, good Italian and romantic, we go there for dinner for our anniversaries and it is very reasonable.

Union Square Cafe - just off Union Sq. on 17th St. (I think) great food and good atmosphere. We took the president of a major corp and his wife there for dinner and they raved about the place, course' I was paying for dinner (lol).

Blue Water Grill - Union Square too and one of the best meals I have ever had.

(Tavern is cute, but not great food and very pricey, go there for a drink and the view of the lights)

Hopefully you will have some good weather while you are in town and if so, go to Central Park and rent a boat and go rowing in the lake, very romantic.

If you need any other ideas, please let me know.

tweedy

Angie: My husband and I have eaten at all three restaurants and they are all excellent. Good food, service and ambience. La Grenouille however did not have menus in English, which I found very surprising. The waiter was more than happy to translate everything on the menu for me, but I just had one of the specials. This restaurant is my favorite though because they sang me happy birthday--- rather they whispered it to me. Very funny, three waiters singing happy birthday to me in a low voice so the other patrons wouldn't be bothered! One if by land is also very good -- get the chateaubriand (sp?) I believe it is their specialty and soooo good. I picked these three restaurants for my birthdays and I wasn't disappointed. Very nice.
Patty

Firebird is unique and romantic (and expensive). Check Zagats for info.

You could also try Aureole--Charlie Palmer's restaurant. Although this might be too trendy?