upper east side ny restaurant recommendations
 

Appreciate any recommendations. Open to all types, all price ranges. Thanks.

I love the small Grace's Trattoria, next to Grace's Market at 3rd and 71st. They do a fettucine with lobster that is to die for.

Upscale Erminia on 83rd is considered one of the most romantic restaurants in the city due to the intimate candlelit atmosphere, and the food is excellent if not pricey.

This year we also discovered the very nice Tini's Ristorante at 81st and 2nd.

You might try the excellent Etats Unis on 82nd(?) near 2nd. Re Tini's:it's not Tini's anymore. He (Lentini) has changed the restaurant to another "theme". On a less expensive note you might try Triangolo on 83rd near 1st. And, oh,yes. Beyoglu-excellent middle eastern corner of 3rd and 83rd(?).

Well, you could try to get a table at Sfoglia (Lex/92nd), but I doubt you will succeed.

Payard is at Lex/73rd. They have fantastic chocolate desserts.

Oceana for seafood. 55 East 54th St.

BLT Steak. 106 East 57th St.

Thin

As already mentioned Etats-Unis 81st off 2nd is excellent - very small, great food and service; Sfoglia is great Tuscan - tough to get in. I love Spigolo on 2nd and 81st - again not easy to get a reservation because it's small. And there's Daniel, Aureole, davidburke and donatella, all upscale and wonderful. Oceana is very staid, if that matters to you. Pascalou, Mad and 92nd, is a small bistro with a large menu that never fails to please and is reasonable in price.

Sobster, that explains why when I tried to look up the address on menu pages, I didn't find Tini's. But I googled and still got their website. What do you mean "another" theme? I found it to be a nice general sort of restaurant primarily Italian before. Is that what you mean by a theme? We were just there in June. I had the most wonderful lamb shank with white beans, and Lee had spectacular veal scallopine with gorgonzola. Both were served with super grilled (not steamed) vegetables. We found it to be an exceptionally good place.

Cafe Boulud on 76 Street is quite good in a pleasant setting.

We also enjoy Aquavit.

Dear Neopatrick-I happen to live near "Tini" and pass it all the time. The other day I noticed it looked closed up and said to my wife uh oh it looks as tho Lentini couldnt make a go of it. And then by chance in the latest New York Magazine I noticed a little blurb re the reopening of Tini/Lentini with "changes". Unfortuneately, I am away from my copy of New York and I cant exactly remember what the changes were. Mostly I remember it was confusing,

Thanks, all. Just as background: A friend of ours is coming from Florida to receive treatment at Sloan-Kettering, and we'd like to take her out a few nights to keep her spirits up. I'll print this thread out, but please keep the ideas coming.

Some, not all ,of the early recommendations consist of some of the best that there are in UES.

Both Sfoglia and Spigolo are good Italian restaurants, but as mentioned, you will need patience to try and get a table.

http://www.sfogliarestaurant.com/

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/spigolo/

Oceana, which has been around for a while, has just been written up with glowing reviews in the NY Times.

http://www.oceanarestaurant.com/

Daniel and Café Boloud (both are Daniel Boloud’s restaurants), and together with Aureole, are upscale and have consistently been solid NY restaurant stalwarts.

http://www.danielnyc.com/

Cafe d'Alsace has loyal followers and tries hard to replicate good Alsatian dishes. Their European beer selection is one of the deepest in the city.

http://www.cafedalsace.com/

It’s been a while since we’ve had the Scandinavian-style foods at Aquavit, but I remember them to be pretty good.

http://www.aquavit.org/flash.html

Breakfast at Café Sabarsky in the Neue Gallery would also be a pleasant treat.
http://www.wallse.com/

You can pretty much just disregard the rest as these are destination restaurants by both locals and visitors and, imho, the ones to consider if traveling all the way from somewhere else and into NYC.

Buon appetito.

b_b

Oh and my wife had raved about their business lunch at Etats Unis and we'll definitely look forward to trying it for dinner.

And if you want to BYOB, this place has slowly been garnering some good reports lately -
http://www.squaremealnyc.com/

b_b

Where is your friend staying? He/she might not be up for traveling very far. SKMS is in the 60's very far east, somewhat of a restaurant wasteland. Do you know about menupages.com?

I had a very nice dinner early in the summer at Felice Wine bar, pretty close to the hospital.
http://menupages.com/restaurantdetai...p;cuisineid=35

Dalga Seafood Grill is a small hole in the wall (but attractive) with good, fresh seafood.
http://menupages.com/restaurantdetai...p;cuisineid=42

Neither of these are of the same caliber as many of the other places mentioned above, but much closer to the hospital if they're staying in the Helmsley building.

j_999_9 - all of these wonderful restaurants are easily accessible by taxi if you're friend is a bit tired from treatment and wants to venture out.

NeopatricK: Back to Lentini/Tini. In the 8/11 issue of New York Mag there's a small article re the new restaurant. It is now called Opus. It is pizzeria/ gelateria/restaurant. It will serve its gluten free pastas till 5 AM. It will have a rawbar, a bar-food menu etc etc.Hmm. Sounds interesting. (Also, in that neighborhood is the fun. relaxed Willy's. corner of 80th and 2nd.)

Well, good news. The next time I get a 4 AM craving for gluten free pasta, I'll sure know where to head. :D


This thread confuses me, because I didn't realize that the OP was asking for only destination restaurants that are the epitome of world class dining. I mistakenly thought he/she was looking for a variety of good and interesting places -- not the "be all".

By the way, it's been a couple of years since I've been to Aquavit. When did it move to the UES and where is it now?

OK, I'll take middle-of-the-road places, too. (In fairness, I left the field open in my OP to just about anything.)
Thanks, all.

That's actually what I thought, but some posters here seem to indicate only the very finest in the city will do. That's what was confusing me.

Particularly the comment from the poster who said "You can pretty much just disregard the rest as these are destination restaurants by both locals and visitors and, imho, the ones to consider if traveling all the way from somewhere else and into NYC."

That seemed to indicate the total reason for your trip was for fine destination dining and the only places you should consider, something I didn't read into your post at all. I thought maybe I was the one misreading your intent.

If you want extravagant desserts, try Payard Bistro on Lex (73 & 74)
www.payard.com

Aquavit

65 E 55 Street

Is that upper enough for you Neo?

Oh. That is where the old one was. Sorry, I have to rely on you New Yorkers. I guess I had a mistaken idea of where the Upper East Side is. My apologies.

Don't have anything to add other than I've eaten at Sfoglia and enjoyed it a LOT--can't remember which night of the week but it wasn't tough to get a table. I then recommended it to friends who keep an apartment in the city, and they walked in one evening and were seated without much of a wait. We all may have simply lucked out, but based on my admittedly limited experience it's not impossible to get a reservation. Not saying you should just try to walk in, but I wouldn't discount the possibility of getting a table if you call to reserve. It would be worth it if you like Italian food. Very comfortable, low-key atmosphere as well.

I live downtown so any thing above 23rd Street is the Upper East Side. The same for the defintion of upstate. To most people from NYC it is everything above Yonkers, many say the Bronx.

Most geographical locations are created by real estate people any way:

East Village (It was all the Lower East Side until the 1960's)
Soho (South of Houston)
Noho (North of Houston)
Clinton (Hell's Kitchen)
Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal)
Flatiron District
World Financial Center (landfill that lay dormant for years)


Now they are starting to chop up Brooklyn beyond Dumbo and other stupid names

So in the future I know that the St. Regis or Peninsula would be a good recommendation for a hotel on the Upper East Side. I just never thought of it that way before.

Aduchamp1 - it's all perception, I guess. This is only my view, but since I live on the UES, anything below 57th St is midtown to me. I would not have thought of Aquavit as UES; in fact, fwiw, Zagat calls it midtown. But never forget we're all here by way of Brooklyn!!!

Correction - make that anything south of Bloomingdale's - LOL

This morning Vladimir Putin sent troops to punish the breakaway section of Manhattan that was called for two days the Almost UES.

His intention is to place Aquavit in an DMZ between the ladies who lunch and the suits and skirts who work in midtown.

He has decreed that in the future every establishment recommended must be measured step by step if necessary to determine its exact location.

Putin was quoted as saying, "My intention to eradicate artifical and imaginary boundaries everywhere."

Mr. Putin did try to a put a smiley face at the end of his comments but there is no semi-colon in Russian.

You are too funny! I guess the last remaining Eastern Europeans in Yorkville (UES) are going into hiding!

Centralparkgirl, funny you mention Bloomingdales. I was once told by a friend in lived in the East 80's that Bloomingdale's is the boundary marker. South of it is Midtown and North of it is Upper East Side. That's why I thought Aquavit must have moved.

Which reminds me I must go to my Polish butcher this morning, which is in the East Village but used to be called the Lower East Side.

Neo, since Verrazzano (you can look up the spelling) died they are looking for a new cartographer for Manhattan, you seem to be the Man.

In my opinion, and I grew up on the UES because my grandparents lived in Park Ave/75 St. area most of their lives, the boundry for the UES is 5th Ave and Central Park (59th Street).

Thin

Isn't Bloomingdales on 59th? At least we're consistent.

NP Yes on Lex (and 3rd) betw 59th and 60th - I've spent a little time there.

And then there's Midtown East and Midtown West.

I think if I polled all my local friends on neighborhood boundaries, especially the UES, I would get many different responses. One thing for sure, not everything north of 23rd St is the UES....not even close. And then within the UES, there are designations that include Yorkville, Carnegie Hill, Museum Mile, Hospital Row, Lenox Hill, etc.