Some of you will already know that my husband and I are currently in New York having a wonderful holiday. We have been doing a lot of exploring, walking miles every day, seeing the sites, shopping, attended 3 shows and a hockey game, (still 2 more to go this week - Driving Miss Daisy tomorrow and Merchant of Venice on Thursday) and sampling some delicious food. Mostly we have kept a list of recommendations from here (thanks everyone) and elsewhere and have also just stumbled on to some good places when we were hungry.

We still have the rest of the week left, we fly home to Mauritius on Sunday night and I would like to plan a couple of special dinners for Friday and Saturday night and would love some recommendations.

We do not have dressy clothes with us so good casual dress code is needed.
We are open to the type of cuisine and price range.
We are staying on 40th Street between 8th and 9th Ave but are happy to go anywhere in Manhattan near a subway or bus stop.
Columbus Circle looks appealing and we also liked the look of the restaurants around 46th Street.
We have eaten in the Village and the Upper West Side - but would go back to these areas.
A view of some sort would be nice but not essential.
Blues or jazz music would be a bonus.
Table service is a must (i.e. - not a buffet)
A good cocktail and wine list would be great.
A place that is happy to allow us to linger, not be waiting for our table would be preferred.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

The most difficult thing will be finding a place that will let you linger on Friday or Saturday night. restaurants in NYC must turn tables to make money - serving 2 or possibly 3 dinners per night (pre-theater, middle and late). Very upscale places will often assume only 2 servings per night - perhaps at 6 of 6:30 and then at 9 p,

If you want to sit at the table longer then I would go for the late dinner - so they don;t expect you to be out in 1.5 hours.

If you tell us which cuisines you favor then people can make better suggestions. and I wouldn;t worry about buffets - they are almost unknown in NYC _ we prefer freshly cooked food (except for some very low budget places at lunch).

When you combine food and music one suffers.

For lunch see if you can get into Naugatine. A great food value.

Or try Jing Fong in Chinatown for inexpensive genuine dim sum lunch.

For dinner try I Coppi in the East Village.

for jazz go to the Metropolitan Room, around 20th & 6th. Who cares about the food?. it's a great music atmosphere. the Carlyle Hotel on Madison & 76th has great piano music 6-8pm, I love it. perfect to wind down the day. Have a romantic drink there and then hit a restaurant. For easy, not expensive but very vibey, lively Thai, "Room Service" on 9th and about 50th (I never remember my cross streets). Landmarc at the Time-Warner building at Columbia Circle has good city views, you could eat and or drink there or have a drink then head for Cafe Luxembourg on west 70th for easy French bistro thing.

Dizzy's Coca Cola is one of the best jazz venues in the city at Columbus Circle (in the Time Warner building). The food is not the best in NYC but certainly good. There's something of a view so it's a charming "NY-y" spot. You'll get a better table if you eat there but you could also eat elsewhere like Landmarc, A Voce or Bar Boulud, all in the same area and then go to a later show at Dizzy's.

Knickerbockerbarandgrill.com has jazz on weekends and good steak in Greenwich Village. Blue Water Grill is a good seafood restaurant near Union Square and has a jazz club downstairs. You can eat in the jazz club downstairs or eat in the main dining room and then go downstairs for jazz.

Thanks NYTraveler - we really are very open to cuisine, we like all kinds of food. So a 7.30 - 8.00 pm dinner reservation may not be possible? By linger I guess I just mean I don't want to be rushed, may like to have an after dinner drink or coffee.

Thanks Adu - will look at your suggestions, my husband loves dim sum.

Bwino, I remember when you were planning your trip, but somehow I didn't realize you were here. I'm glad you're having fun!

Aduchamp1 makes a good point: good food and music do not often exist in the same place at the same time. Acknowledging that, let me make a suggestion that I offered to someone else in another thread: try making a reservation at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, which is in the Jazz at Lincoln Center complex, right on Columbus Circle. You could walk there. The focus there will be more on the music than on the food, but the music will be fantastic, and the food's not bad either (I particularly like the gumbo). Here's this weekend's band: http://jalc.org/dccc/details09.asp?EventID=2477 You'll also get a great view of New York, through huge windows that are right behind the stage, and restaurants with a view are rather rare in New York.

There will be three sets, at 7:30 PM, 9:30 PM, and 11:30 PM. The downside is that you'll be kicked out after the set for which you've made a reservation. So you might want to see the show first and eat somewhere else later, or eat first and go to the show later, or eat dinner at Dizzy's and then go somewhere else to linger over drinks or dessert. You might choose one of the restaurants or bars right there in the Time Warner Center, some of which also offer excellent views from certain tables.

Dizzy's may already be booked. If you're interested, call them for a reservation (i.e. don't reserve online), and then come back here to ask for more specific tips on how to plan your evening.

Suite7 and mclaurie - thaks for the suggestions, will have a close look at them tomorrow, we appreciate the details.

My suggestions are maybe not for your Friday/Saturday, but nearby Hell's Kitchen has some great Thai. My favorite is the hole-in-the-wall Pam's Real Thai Food on 49th Street just west of 9th Ave - delicious "home" cooking. The multiple Yum Yum restaurants in the neighborhood are good, too.

A little closer to your hotel, the Film Center Cafe is a dark, intimate but casual type of place - try to get a booth in the back. Like many places in the area, they serve until pretty late at night.

Oh, and our secretly favorite cheesy-tourist thing to do is to have a drink at The View at the top of the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. (In fact, we do it every year on my bf's birthday, coming up again next week!) Fun to do post-theater. The drinks are a little pricey, but if you sip you can time it so one drink lasts an entire rotation of the restaurant - try to hold out for a table as close to the windows as possible.

P.S. The Thai places are fairly perfunctory in seating, but Film Center is a lingering type of place in the way you describe.

For dim sum, we like Golden Unicorn. But regardless of restaurant, it's best to go on Saturday (or Sunday) and the earlier in the morning the better. Mmm, I haven't had dim sum in months - I think I need to have some too!!

I like Godlen Unicorn as well but I have been to weddings and baby banquets at Jing Fong and have sponsored business diners there and according to my Chinese friends it is a bit nore authentic than Golden Unicorn.

Thanks again for your recommendations, will take a look as soon as I get a chance.

Today we are off to Katz Deli, Driving Miss Daisy Matinee, and some shopping around Columbus Cirlce and dinner somewhere.

Looks like I cross-posted about Dizzy's. I guess that's what I get for taking too long to type my comments!

By "Naugatine," Aduchamp1 means the Nougatine Room at Jean Georges, which is very close to Columbus Circle. I agree, excellent value for lunch. http://www.jean-georges.com/

These suggestions are great even for us non-tourists, and I add my thanks to Bwino's.

If you're up around Columbus Circle, you might also enjoy A Voce in the Time Warner center (join the "Insider's Club at the TWB and you'll get a 10% discount). A drink at the Mandarin Oriental is also a nice experience. Also, Blue Ribbon for sushi/fried chicken is off B'dway on 58th I believe. Bundle up, it's cold outside, enjoy the vendors in the circle too. Sounds like you're having a great time.

Elaine's?

DH and I went to a great Cuban place some years ago. It was across the alley from a Batali resto in the Village area, but I'm sorry to say I didn't keep my notes.

TDudette, perhaps you are thinking of Little Havana, on Cornelia Street? It's across from Po, which was Batali's first restaurant, although I don't think he has been involved in the place for at least ten years.

This was my favorite new (to me) restaurant from my last visit -
http://www.kefirestaurant.com/

And a review - http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/kefi/

I had a really nice dinner here:

http://www.rosamexicano.com/

We went to the Lincoln Center location.

Great food, nice vibe, not too fancy.

Thanks hawksbill-that's the one. It's still there?

We have a Rosa Mexicano in Atlanta. I took my boss there because he was staying nearby. It was fine.

Bwino, if you like Peruvian, Pio Pio is very good and has several locations.
http://www.piopio.com/#/pio-pio-peru...-new-york-city