margie

Can anyone recommend good restaurants close to the Empire State Building?

New york

what kind?

You'll be 2 blocks away from Little Korea (32nd between 5th and 6th) if you wnat to try something new

travelbuff

There are a couple of restaurants right in the Empire State building, sit down and fastish food. I would probably not recommend Little Korea, if you don't know the area. We had litterally the worst meal of our lives there, it started with corn tea and ended with a huge cockroach, dying in the middle of the floor and the wait staff walked over it. We figured the cockroach committed suicide because the food was so bad, lol. We now laugh about having dinner there, "hey let's go to Little Korea for bad food. lol. We are pretty into asian food as my honey is Thai, so we know we just picked the WRONG place to eat that night.

If you are looking for quick places for food, you will find a few, if you are looking for a little better, head over to 3rd Ave, tons of restaurants in that area. Uptown there's Docks at 40th, Rio Grande at 37th, The Back Porch at 33rd. All casual dining, and good food.

Enjoy your trip.

Flynn

30th Street & Fifth Avenue has a newish seafood restaurant called something like Swenninghens - it got written up today in the New York Times Weekend section. I heard they make a great lobster roll.

a

If you will be in the area for lunch, I recommend the Morgan Library or another option for dinner is Cinque Terre.

Sophia

The area around the Empire State Building doesn't have (IMHO) any good restaurants that I would recommend. Venture out of the area to the eastside or walk up to 9th Avenue in the 40's or 50's for a good selection of inexpensive ethnic restaurants.

Geoff

While a little further east of the Empire State, I discovered a really terrific mediteranean buffet that I would definitely recommend. I'm afraid I don't have the full info though - perhaps 35th or 36th streets and Fith Ave. It's on a north east corner of an intersection, it's about what I remember. Sorry, but last time I was in that area we had to search on foot to get there so that's about as much as I can help.

Little Korea is actually a good idea, sorry about the bad experience travelbuff, but it's generally an area of some good places. Hangawi is a place that's have traditional Korean on one side, all tofu bar on the other. Both recommended, 32St I believe.