want unusual lunch experience in NYC
 

My husband and I are going to be in NYC for a day- my birthday!- at the end of August. We'll only be there for lunchtime, and I want to make it memorable. Please don't give me a list of fancy restaurants- I want "unusual."

Are there any restaurants in Manhattan that offer an offbeat experience and/or location?

The back-up, I suppose, would be to get tasty ethnic food-to-go and take it to Roosevelt Island and watch the city, or walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and eat somewhere in DUMBO.

Any ideas, group?

The Bridge Café, practically under the Brooklyn Bridge ramp (south side) is very nice, although not unusual.

Or try Al di La in Park Slope:

http://www.nycnosh.com/?p=399

How about the Boat House in Central Park?

if this is the Bridge Cafe, it does not seem to be open on Saturdays for lunch, sadly:
http://www.eatgoodinny.com/New.York/

I am feeling some positive vibes toward DUMBO- any special places over there? what is that nice restaurant everyone goes to, with the view of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge?

Or is there anyplace else worth the trip to DUMBO and then we could walk around afterward?

I think the "nice restaurant" with the views might be River Cafe. I'm pretty sure you can make a reservation with Open Table. The views at night are spectacular but I'm sure they are equally as lovely in daylight.

The Tea Box Cafe in the Takashimaya store is serene and a whole other world from the chaos outside on Fifth Avenue. It's fun to look at all the unique items in the store as well.
http://www.takashimaya-ny.com/home_and_garden.php

Well..how about WD-50; it's a fancy restaurant but it serves extremely unusual food...might be of interest. They recently started offering a lunch menu.

http://www.wd-50.com/

The River Cafe is one of the relatively few more upscale restaurants that serves lunch on Saturdays. You can see the menu at rivercafe.com.

And the views are still nice during the day - although not nearly as dramatic as at night.

Asiate in the Mandarin Oriental hotel on the 35th floor of the Time Warner building. Nice view, somewhat different food.

For something funkier, what about dim sum in Chinatown?

If you want something in Brooklyn, go to menupages.com and look under the Brooklyn Dumbo listings. There's a Bubby's there, but I don't know that I'd call it unusual.

Lots of ways to determine "unusual" but my favorite lunch place would be Mario Batali's Lupa in the Village. Very casual brick and rustic wood table interiors. Pick and share from the menu -- spectacular proscuitto and other dried meats sliced to order and served on a long board, great choices of little dishes of appetizers -- I could get addicted to their chunks of tuna with white beans and red onion in oil, the sliced nearly raw asparagus with high quality pecorino, and lots more. You can just do a variety of those, or get or split a pasta or two -- great and unusual ones. Fantastic wines by the glass. This is one place we never have a simple "traditional" meal -- just too many wonderful little things to try. And surprisingly we always seem to spend less than expected for the quality of the food and ingredients.

The only place I can recommend is the Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem
dinosaurbarbque.com

I'm a Lupa fan too...

I had an pretty inventive dinner recently at the owners' newest venture Bar Milano on the east side in Murray Hill. Might be worth checking out for lunch...

I'm not sure what is unusual to you so here's a range of things:
http://www.thelittleowlnyc.com/
charming west village place with great food

http://gothamist.com/2008/07/09/all_...frying_pan.php
The Frying Pan - at pier 66 on the west side - burgers and dogs and foosball, all outside along the Hudson river - laid back and lovely.

http://www.fivefrontrestaurant.com/about.html
Not sure if you mean a weekend, - they are open for lunch and the garden is lovely but we had an early dinner here under the Brooklyn Bridge, (which we walked across and back) this past weekend. Good foord, reasonable prices, a real escape from manhattan. No view tho . .

http://tiapol.com/
tiny tapas bar, very good food, in West Chelsea, although I haven't been since the original chef left

http://gothamist.com/2008/07/17/for_...ts_make_yo.php
Here's a link to a Gothamist post about places that will do a great picnic basket

One of the most memorable NY lunches I ever had (and very romantic) was taking a gourmet picnic and a bottle of wine, sitting on the deck of a sailboat and sailing around the Statue of Libery. It was beautiful. Now you could also see the Liberty Waterfalls on the same sail.

Happy Birthday!

http://www.sail-nyc.com/