Times Square Restaurants
 

Need help finding a restaurant. Family of 4 will only be in NY one night. Budget of $50-75. Will be dressed casual.

Questions:
Is that per person or total?
What type(s) of food?
Your answers are sort of vital to any valid responses.

To those questions, I would add:
How old are the children?
Does $50-$75 include tip and tax?

Girl 13 and boy 15. We like steak and seafood but are open to anything. The total budget $50-75.

Well, $50-75 for four won't go that far in NYC. in fact, I'd consider that borderline unrealistic without heading to a McDonald's (eeewwwww).

However, if you're not too fussy, how about Ollie's Noodle Shop? Fast service (albeit frosty as Christmas in Antarctica), big portions of fair-to-middlin' Chinese-American grub (I've had far better in my lifetime, but given your budget...).

You might want to check out an Irish pub in the neighborhood. As long as you and your spouse aren't drinking, you should be able to stay within your budget.
O'Lunneys (45th and 6th Ave) gets decent reviews. Heartland Brewery is good enough, and your kids will probably like it (5ast b/t 6th and 7th).
I would do a search on menupages.com to see if any of the menus catch your eye.

I think $50-75 will not take you very far in Times Square.

Found this:
http://newyork.citysearch.com/roundup/39749/

Scroll down to the "Cheap" Section.

OK I'll try not to be so cheap. What should we expect to pay?

Well, do you want seafood or steaks? You can literally go as high or as low as you want, but you've got to give some indication of your ceiling.

Forget steak or seafood - those are whole other budget categories for anything edible in NYC.

I suggest that you check out New York Magazine and the Village Voice web sites - they've both had fairly recent articles on the best cheap restaurants (under $25 per person) in NYC. But you'll have to expand your horizons - since most are ethnic.

And don;t even think about chain places - since in NYC they're consierably more expensive than in the local mall - and the food is exactly the same mico-nuked prepackaged dinners.

(If you go outside Times Square to the more residential neighborhoods - upper west side, lower esat side - there are a lot of local places where you can get a quite nice little dinner - salad and pasta with a glass of wine for adults and soda for kids - about $110 including tax and tip.)

And Becco in the theater district has a multi-pasta plate for I think $22 - which translates to about $135 including beverage, tax and tip.

nytraveler brings up a good point - are you seeing a show or doing something special in Times Square? Leaving the neighborhood really opens up your options.

China Gourmet on 8th between 52 and 53.

Enzo's (or Luigi's) Pizza, Pasta and Salad NE corner of 53 and 89th.

You can actually eat at BOTH and still have some change.

Correction: Luigi's (or is it Enzo's) corner 53rd and 8th.

I's suggest Ellen's Stardust CAfe on Broadway and 48th St. (or close to 48th), good food, great shakes, fun atmosphere. All the servers are aspiring performers so you will have some fun entertainment.

Your budget is fine for there with some leftover for icecream down the street at the Creamery on 42nd St between Broadway and 8th, a MUST for the kids.

Have a great time.

There are some good pric fixe deals for about $20pp but even that's above your budget. Maybe John's Pizza (which is very good) would work in that range, but not much else. Forget steak and seafood. Some good prix fixe menus are at Dervish Turkish and Basilica. Also Havana Central has decent latin type food and is very resoable. There are also some Brazialian palces, I think around 45th and 6th av, where you can get a steak at a decent price. Check menupages.com to view menus, search for restaurants and read user comments.

jp -- not trying to pick on you, but think this through. You want to pay $75 TOTAL (including tax and tip) for a family of 4. That means a $65 bill (with tax) and $9.75 for a 15% tip (I'll let you pocket the quarter). So, you are wanting to feed 4 people for $16.25. Seriously, you are not going to find much in your budget at a sit-down restaurant in NY, especially in the TS area.

Try John's Pizza or Ollie's, you might get away with that if you and your wife don't have any alcoholic beverages.

On 6th Street between 1st and 2nd Aves, there are a plethora of cheap Indian restaurants where you can eat for that price. Or try any of the number of Chinese restaurants in NY.

How about Virgil's Barbeque on 44th off of 7th? They have sandwich platters that ought to fit within your budget. They have a website http://www.virgilsbbq.com/ where you can check out the menu.

Wherever you decide to eat, make sure to ask about drink refills. A few years ago we ate at an italian place on Restaurant Ave. It was in the lower level of a brownstone and had a price fixed menu. The food was excellent but we didn't realize that every time your soft drink was refilled, you were charged. Our bar bill was around $20 for soft drinks only!! Live and learn. We now ask about refills if it isn't posted on the menu!!

Angus Macindoes on W. 44th. Prices are not too outrageous (for NYC,that is.) DD, DS and I ate there last summer (pre-theatre). We shared an appetizer, didn't drink, and I think the tab was around $80 incl. tip.

most nyc restaurants charge for refills with the exception of coffee (that's regular hot coffee, no refills on espresso, lattes, or even ice coffee, etc).

Brookside, is that $80 for 2 or 4. I'm guessing 2. It's very hard for a family of 4 to eat for much less than $100 after tax and tip, even without drinks, unless the kids are young and the restaurant has a kid menu. Teens can easily eat as much as, or even more than adults.