Sally

We are coming to New York end of September. We only have two nights there and would like to go to a couple of nice restaurants. I've seen great reviews on this board for Chez Josephin's, Carmines, Union Square Cafe, Grammercy Tavern, and the River Cafe. We enjoy all kinds of cuisine, but favor Italian. Which two would you select? Thanks so much, Sally

J

You're going to get tons of responses here, so help us by narrowing things down a bit. What neighborhoods? Price ranges? Southern vs. Northern Italian? How formal of a restaurant? Does it need to be someplace that takes a reservation?

That said, if Italian is your preference, try one of the Mario Batali restaurants. You just might be able to get a reservation at Babbo if you call this second. If not, call Po (used to be his, now different owners, just as good), or wait at Lupa.

Flynn

Sally, your list is very good - I would eliminate Carmines. It's Italian but more for a large group and food is served 'family' style.

Babbo, Lupa, Esca are terrific Italian restaurants. My favorite is Il Mulino on West 3rd Street in the Village. Pricey but fabulous.

Go to Chowhound.com and do a search for Italian restaurants. Also Citysearch.com.

Chez Josephine is lots of fun and is owned by one of Josephine Baker's adopted sons whose name is Jean-Claude.

Have fun

Ellen

If you can't get into Il Mulino, try the sister restaurant, Il Giglio. I also enjoy Il Postino for Italian.

Mike

Of your choices, I would recommend Grammercy Tavern for the food and River Cafe for the view.

Howard

Sally, the only Italian restaurant on your original list is Carmines, and you can certainly do much better than that!
Any of the other four are excellent choices, but not is Italian!
Give us a price range for Italian, and you'll get more meaningful responses!

Andy

Sally--

For Italian--DEFINITELY Babbo's==one of Mario Battali's (Foodnetwork) rest,and fabulous!

French Seafood- Le Bernardin-on W.55th?
The alltime favorite of ours-we go there everytime we hit NY-exp.but worth it...

danna

OH yes, Le B. is sublime!

Owen O'Neill

Whatever you do... reserve NOW!!! I looked for reservations last week for Friday night Sept 28 and found that Babbo was long since fully booked for both Thursday and Friday that week and Gramercy Tavern had only 5:30 or 9:30 slots open. I ended up reserving at Blue Hill for Thursday as it's been very strongly recommended by folks whose opinions I respect. Chez Josephine is very good and nice atmosphere (too cramped at the tables for me as I am a big guy) but from a "destination restaurant" standpoint it's a notch or two below GT and Union Square Cafe (so people say). I also agree that Carmine's is simply ot in the same league as any of them nor does it pretend to be - it's loud fun noisy red sauce Italian place with large portions of traditional food. Good for what it is but not generally regarded as "fine dining".

Robert

I would have to add Felidia's on 58th st, one of Lidia Bastianich's italian restaurants that is fantastic for the food, service and wine list.

Robert

Andy

Sally- forgot to add:

Carmines is in the theater district and most people go strictly for pre-theater dining--

Food-huge quantities of mediocore Italian food- when we ate there,the first thought that came to my mind was Kids would love the food and NOISY atmosphere-

Not my idea of a good NY restaurant-just average in my opinion...