please print this & bring it with you. thanks to Norman for the above image.


gold = jlt • red = jen • pink = AJ • green = jineui • purple = scotty • blue = g-unit • light blue = Jon


I write this guide only because, in addition to many great places to eat in NYC, there are also MANY MANY horrible, touristy, junky crapholes, and I don't want to waste the few limited meals I have there on anything but good food, whether it's cheap hotdogs, a deli, a fancy meal, a French bistro, sushi or whatever. Since our hotel & the Saturday dinner will be so expensive, maybe we'll go to more averagely-priced places the rest of the time. Or not.


Also! In case anyone is thinking of catching a show on date night ... I've had really good luck just going to the TKTS booth at Times Square - don't let the long line fool you, it moves fast, I never spend more than 30 minutes waiting. You can get $100 tickets for $30 - $50 apiece, it is a great deal, but an even better deal are the off-broadway and off-off-broadway shows. Lots of big names doing smaller, non-"musical spectacular" shows, real theater, and there are probably more off-off-broadway shows at any time than the other two combined. And tickets are often still available for these a day in advance or even the same day from the TKTS booth, or even at the theater for off / off-off. Right now the New York Times recommends:


based on all your interests, Jineui recommends that we try this:


Friday- fly in, check in and get rid of luggage, shower, go get breakfast and then head down to South Street Seaport and take the circle line around Liberty Park and Ellis Island [although a friend notes: Staten Island Ferry is FREE, just as good if not a better view of both of these, and they sell $2 beer!] and then head back to hotel for a rest, and then downtown to Katz's / Russ & Daughters / Yonah Schimmel for late lunch, later dinner as we walk back through the east village - we can hit Snack Dragon Taco [new location: 3rd just slightly west from avenue b] (jen), Crif Dogs (me, AJ, Jon), etc.


Saturday: any midtown/uptown museums you all want to visit, the modern maybe (AJ & JLT vote for MOMA)? I've been to the Met a trillion times, but if some of you want to go there, it really is one of the most impressive museums in the world, especially their Egyptian antiquities and the reconstructed temple, the Greek statuary, and the modern/contemporary art (great photography too imo). Johnathan would like to see the Guggenheim and Scot and Debra want to go to the Natural History Museum (check out the brand new $50 million planetarium / Rose Center there, and the big central hall with the new species exhibit, pretty awesome). Natural History is almost straight west across the park from the Met; Guggenheim is a few blocks north past the Met; the Frick & Whitney are also on the east side near the Met; the most impressive of them is the Whitney, and there's a really interesting. We can walk around through the park and hit various food venues until we get back to hotel and then Craft [menu; also, a friend suggested that some of us might want to ask for the more affordable and interesting tasting menu, which is not listed] for dinner - our reservations are at 6 pm.


Sunday: dim sum in Chinatown at Jing Fong or Ping's in the AM, which will fill everyone up for hours. Spend the day downtown, the girls can fake purse shop throughout Chinatown, we can hit up the dumpling stands there, coffee & cannoli in Little Italy somewhere, then afternoon & supper on our own, maybe meet for drinks after (Brandy Library - AJ or Bemelman Bar (fanciest bar in the world, maybe, and worth visiting once, dress code) / Pegu Club [best cocktails in town i think]).


Monday AM: Florent brunch (gaela); afternoon at ABC Home furnishing (which is actually pretty incredible) & shopping / galleries / eating through Chelsea and that area ...get to the airport by 3:30 pm, so leave Manhattan around 2:30.


my personal favorites / recommendations for a short weekend trip:




>> a map what i made showing some of these places, please print it out <<


Florent on Gansevoort St. in the meatpacking district – open almost 24 hours, this great little Parisian-ish diner is full of club kids & transvestites & more and more families with strollers at almost any hour. Interior designed by Tibor Kalman. Cheap and good food (sandwiches, bowls of mussels, great breakfasts) and a $10 brunch that comes with a fantastic bloody mary. Lots of fun, good design, great neighborhood for taking lots of pictures. My favorite comfort food in NYC, and a must for a designer’s pilgrimage. Lots of great modern design shops springing up in the old butcher’s warehouses around here too, and plenty of fancy clothes shopping and just a neat neighborhood overall (the meatpacking district is the last cobblestone-street area in Manhattan I think). personally i think it's not as much fun on weekdays or at night as it is on weekend mornings


New Green Bo (66 Bayard, halfway between Mott and Elizabeth) – there are lots of enormous dim sum palaces in Chinatown, and I’ve eaten at every one. However the best dim sum I’ve had in the city is at a tiny little hole in the wall called New Green Bo. No carts, and a small menu, but the food is incredible. The fried spareribs are unlike those served anywhere else, the hargow are amazing and all the myriad dumplings are delicious and always freshly made. Long lines if you get there after 12 pm or so on a Saturday or Sunday, but often no (or a very short) wait before then. If you're in Chinatown anyway, definitely stop in here for a bite. Tiny tables, not good for big groups.


All the 3- or 5-dumplings-for-$1 places in and around Chinatown are great. Basically these are dough-heavy potstickers or siu mai but they are great, greasy fun and super cheap. $1 worth will usually fill you up, even if you’re pretty hungry. The fried or seared pork dumplings are usually the best imho. Try Mosco Dumpling between Mulberry and Mott, 5 for $1. The Dumpling House on Eldridge @ Broome is also excellent, and serves a fantastic sesame pancake with beef, cold noodles with mai-la sauce, and a bean curd and scallion salad that’s amazing.


Plus you have to come to Chinatown if you are in NYC & take lots of pictures and eat lots of food – there are great noodle places, weird little holes in the wall with all kinds of fantastic food, and the amazing Pearl River Mart at the bottom of Broadway at Canal, which is like a fancy middle-class Chinatown-in-a-store and from which I guarantee you will buy several bagfuls of unnecessary stuff. This is my favorite neighborhood in all of Manhattan, I think.


On of favorite types of restaurant in NYC is the simple, relatively inexpensive late-night French bistro, where you can get a really good steak/frites or something fancier. Most of these places are somewhat meat-centric but they all have non-meat options as well. My favorites: 24-hour L'Express (near Gramercy Park & Union Square; great desserts!), employee-owned Employees Only (near Washington Square park; good brunch and late night spot where many local waiters/chefs eat when their shifts are over; menu; review); Le Bateau Ivre, open until very late, has great fries, lobster, oysters, clams, etc (review; near 51st and 3rd).


Les Halles – meat-lover’s paradise. Veal cheek, who knows what of pork, great tartare ... everything here is good. Chef is Anthony Bourdain, the guy who does that silly TV show where he travels around the world and eats with tribesmen in Vietnam and the jungles of Africa and Brazil. But he knows meat. There’s a midtown location too but the downtown location is (from what I understand – I’ve only been to the midtown spot) better. 15 John Street, between Broadway and Nassau on the edge of Chinatown. Recommended: the Coucroute Garni (a great bacon, bratwurst, pork and sauerkraut dish) and their perfect steak au poivre, about $20 each. Take the a, c, 2, 3, 4 or 5 to Fulton. Nice bar, good for groups. Trendy, so reservations are a good idea.


Of course, if you just want a steak, there’s not really a lot better than Peter Luger’s. You have to venture out into the outer boroughs, but it’s probably worth it to visit this nyc institution at least once. Obnoxious waiters, informal German beer-hall setting, and really only the porterhouse and the bacon appetizer are amazing – if you want to factor in ambience, wine and service there are better places, but just for the quality of the steak (and if price is no object) I doubt you’ll find anything better than PL. Some say PALM does a better job with strip steaks, and the Strip House on 12th as well. Sparks is probably the best all around steak restaurant in terms of quality of all the food, but the service has been known to really and truly suck. Even they won’t serve porterhouse because they can’t compete in that area with Luger’s.


For cheaper meat, Chumley’s in the West Village is a neat old speakeasy with a perfect burger. Inexpensive, fun, great space, and easy to get to. (chumley's is closed because an old wall in the building next door fell down on them. it will reopen in a few months). The fanciest sit-down restaurant burger is probably at Nice Matin on the uws.
 

Pearl Oyster Bar’s oysters are good but not great, but they have a great oyster roll for about $15. the buttered hot-dog bun, filled with oysters, is submerged in a towering mound of crispy-fried deliciousness. A spritz of lemon makes it better than the rolls I’ve had anywhere in New England or Prince Edward Island. And their lobster roll, at market price (right now about $25) is one of the single tastiest menu items anywhere in the entire city. Definitely worth going just for that if you're a lobster fan.


Shun Lee is the only decent dim sum uptown. Downtown you have Ping's et. al. in Chinatown and 88 Palace under the Manhattan Bridge, but on the Upper West Side (or anywhere else uptown), this is it. Luckily, it's very good. 43 W 65th, just west of Central Park and near Lincoln Center.


And then there are the NY cheap-eats stand-bys: pizza and hot dogs. I won't talk much about the pizza, because the only really good pizza in NYC is not in Manhattan at all but in Brooklyn and even the Bronx (Grimaldi's, near the east side of the Brooklyn Bridge, is decent, but Dom DeMarco's Di Fara Pizza at 1424 Avenue J in Brooklyn is much, much better and by far the best in town). I myself am very partial to Gray’s Papaya for the 75 cent dog. Not the greatest in NYC, but certainly the best 75¢ dog anywhere. The papaya drinks are good too. 2090 Broadway at the corner of 71st, open 24 hours. [also at 6th Ave & 8th St and 7th Ave & 23rd St]


Hallo Berlin, on the NW corner of 54th and 5th, does not sell hot dogs—“just wurst,” according to the German guy who usually maintains the cart. Excellent bratwurst, knockwurst, alpenwurst and hungarian kielbasa and an always-changing menu of others. Always a line, no matter what time, but worth the wait. He’s got cabbage, decent (home made!) sauerkraut, potato pancakes and a good-looking lentil soup.


Katz’s Deli, at 205 E Houston, has a good dog too. This is the definitive NY Deli, of course, and they should charge admission—it’s always entertaining to watch the staff and customers interact. Certainly the best (and biggest) pastrami sandwich ever made anywhere; good grilled all-beef dogs; matzo ball soup, great knishes, and french fries made in pure schmaltz (chicken fat)—yum! Fantastic corned beef and salami, too, but the pastrami - OMG. And of course Russ & Daughters, just a block down, is (I think) the #1 stop for fish eaters in the city, and while we're eating pastrami from Katz's, Jennifer will be enjoying this place ... Amazing sandwiches, incredible chocolate counter.


The St. Mark’s restaurant row area has some good stuff too – especially late at night. Upstairs near 9th and Stuyvesant Pl. you can find Village Yokocho, which serves great Japanese bar food for quite cheap late into the night. On St. Mark’s between 1st and 2nd you can find Café Orlin, open 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays, which has a good mushroom risotto with chicken breast which is somehow even better at 3:45 in the morning.


Other very late-night snacks include Florent, mentioned above, and Corner Bistro at 331 W. 4th between Jane and 8th Ave. Very good burgers, cheap beer, and the Mets are always on the tube during baseball season. Also try Employees Only, which caters to restaurant staff getting off late at night, and has a good French bistro meat-centric menu.


One of the best carts in town is available at the great Trinidadian lunch cart at 43rd and 6th, most days from 11 to 3. Cheap and always good.


Not far from the hotel in the west 50s are Bello and Bricco, two of the better Italian restaurants in town. Bricco is probably the most interesting of the two but they are both absolutely excellent. Also excellent in this neighborhood is Rene Pujol, very good rustic French, on W 51st between 8 & 9. Book a table for 9, so you’ll miss the pre-theater crowd and enjoy a more relaxed, less rushed supper. A noisier, livelier choice would be Trattoria dell’Arte on 7th and 56th. Good for small groups.


Brunch in the area: near Grand Central your choices are slightly limited, but there are some good weekend places. Cibo, at the corner of 2nd Ave. and 41st St has a decent Sunday brunch [website]. Dock’s Oyster Bar, at 3rd and 40th, is not bad either, and has what I hear is a great Sunday brunch too. Comfort Diner, on E 45th just off 3rd, is expensive but has one of the best brunches in the city (I’d rank it just below Barney Greengrass up on the UWS, which is hands-down the best weekend non-dim sum meal experience in the city).


The Grand Central foodcourt, besides being rat-infested (have you seen the segment CBS news did on this? Yuck!) has mediocre, overpriced fake-fancy fast food. If you are strapped for time and must eat in the neighborhood, there are some decent choices. Just a few blocks away, on 41st between Madison and 5th, is Cafe Zaiya which is excellent. Packed and rushed like all midtown cafes/delis, though. And if you're dressed in more than tourist shorts & a t-shirt, stop by the Campbell Apartment for a cocktail if you're anywhere near Grand Central.


Rangole on 46th between 5th & 6th has good dosas and a nice but short chaat menu, and is not expensive; sometimes there is a little bit of a wait, though, for anything but takeout.


Also near Grand Central is one of the most authentic noodle houses in the city. Menchanko Tei, at 131 E45th (between 3rd and Lex) makes an excellent Kyushu-style Hakata (roast pork) ramen, with a very hearty broth. Big bowls, good prices; the perfect “Japanese diner” comfort food.


One of my favorite midtown Japanese meals is to be found at Katsuhama (11 E 47th, between Madison and 5th), which serves just that. Go in through the take-out sushi shop in front, walk through the curtain and you’ll be surrounded by Japanese tourists and locals. Sit at a small table, fill your bowl with roasted sesame seeds and grind them with a bit of soy sauce and the big wooden pestle they give you, and dip your fantastic tonkatsu in this. The salmon and pork are especially good. A good deal, easy to get a seat most of the time, and close to everything. Definitely worth a visit for your fried-food fix.


There’s plenty of other good Japanese here, though, including some of the best sushi on the East Coast. Certainly Nobu is excellent but pricey. I recommend showing up at Nobu Next Door - just as good and for 2/3 the price - right when they open (or 20 mins before to wait in line, as they don’t take reservations) and ordering the $75 omakase dinner. Lobster tail tempura, sashimi, several other excellent courses and never disappointing. There are less expensive choices on the menu as well.


Only a few places on the east coast – most of them also in the city – compare with Sushi Yasuda, at 204 E 43rd (a block from Grand Central). Very traditional, conservative and classical sushi and small-plate appetizers (the dozens of teensy fried crabs were great, and where else can you get 4 types of charbroiled eel?). The prices are what you’d expect (a typical meal for two: black cod in sake – which was almost as good as Nobu’s, red miso with clams, 12 pieces of nigiri, ½ a roll, eel over rice, beer and sake for two, ice cream and tax is about $110). You will need reservations.


Matsuri is pricey and very, very good – the seared duck, beef tataki and sushi are all excellent. 369 W 16th. They have a very pleasant bar as well. Wealthy Japanese living in NYC seem, by general consensus, to consider this the best Japanese food in the city.


Manhattan’s mini-Koreatown is on W34th and W35th, and has a number of excellent places to eat. Cho Dang Gol makes their own silky tofu (dubu) and has a good sized vegetarian menu; their soon dubu is excellent. They also serve a wide variety of very good panchan with every dinner. A meal here will be about $30 or so, and make sure you try their artisanal tofu dishes, which are very different from the usual meat-heavy Korean BBQ that you are probably more familiar with.


If you must have Korean BBQ, though, I suggest Kang Suh, good for parties and small groups too, but the BBQ is really only doable if you have 4 or more. Confirm your reservation because they are, apparently, snafu prone. $30-$35 per person for dinner, and you’ll have trouble walking when you leave... and I mean that in a good way. 1250 Broadway.


There are lots of choices for great Indian, too.


Angon on 6th has the best homestyle Indian I’ve had outside of San Francisco. I’ve heard that Banjara is good too.


Chola on E 58th is not bad at all and good for small groups. Further uptown, Sagwat on Amsterdam between 79 and 80 is quite decent but sometimes has a bit of a wait for a table.


Curry & Curry on 33rd delivers all over midtown and I think it’s excellent and quite affordable – they should deliver to the hotel if you can’t get away. Speaking of affordable, one of the best cheap places in town is Minar on 46th between 6 and 7. Not as nice as Angon but cheap!


And some people call Mavalli, at 36 E 29th near Madison, one of the two best vegetarian restaurants in the city.


Certainly there are great and more authentically Italian places in town, though… Peasant on Elizabeth Street is fantastic and much less expensive than Babbo, which I would compare it favorably to. They start each meal with Sullivan Street Bakery ciabatta. The wood-smoked meats are excellent as are the ragouts and roast suckling pig, and the pizza is more than decent. The menu is in a very pompous 100% Italian with no translation so the waiter may have to translate for you if you don’t speak. the room is very dark, though, so I suggest trying to get one of the few tables in the back by the kitchen which actually have enough light to read the menu and see your food.


Another hidden Italian gem in Manhattan is Via Emilia, at 47 E 21st, next door to its fancier cousin Patria. Very plain, cash-only, no reservations and super cheap, they serve some of the best homemade pasta in the city. The lasagne and tortelloni are stellar.


Up in Harlem is El Flor de Broadway on 138th, which serves fantastic Cuban sandwiches and delicious café con leche for $2.50 and 80¢ respectively. Ask for the pickles and garlic butter when they’re building your sandwich for the authentic experience.


Sevilla, on W 4th and Charles, serves good Spanish food and great sangria at decent prices. Not as fancy as Arzak or Adria, the two best tapas places in the city, but good comfort food at low prices, and it’s been a neighborhood favorite for more than 30 years, not an easy task in Manhattan.


Sahara’s, on 2nd Ave around 27th or 28th has some of the best Turkish food in the city – excellent baba ganouj with an unexpected charred taste to the eggplant that really transports it from good to great, perfect meze, a wonderful marinated vegetable app which is worth going for alone, and the lamuk (a sort of Turkish ground-meat pizza), spinach pie ... they’re all great, and they do takeout as well.


For affordable French in the theater district / Hell’s Kitchen – and a bit of celebrity sighting – try the very small (Zagat’s says cramped) Tout va Bien at 311 W 51st, just above 8th. Not everything on the menu is great, but the frites are always absolutely perfect, and everything is decent. Good pre-theater prix fixe here, but if ordering other stuff of the menu it can be a bit overpriced.


For more upscale French, certainly Balthazar is still, 15 yrs on, the trendiest brasserie in town. Fantastic atmosphere, festive, loud, fun, great food, famous people to ogle. The people who own it (80 Spring Street, between Crosby and Broadway – take the N or R to Prince or the 6 to Spring) also own the overdone Schiller’s Liquor Bar at the corner of Rivington and Norfolk (take the F, J, M or Z to Delancey at Essex), which is open late.


Near Balthazar is Café El Portal, in a small basement room at Elizabeth and Spring, just down from a very overrated Cuban place which you should avoid. They make some wonderful warming soups (the chicken broth, corn and avocado is especially tasty) although perhaps those won’t be needed in mid-July. Good shrimp tacos, solid carnitas, excellent sopes, minimal but good service, great drinks, but try to go during off-hours unless you have time to wait.


There’s some good Vietnamese food in the city as well, with fantastic banh mi (click for photo) at Viet Nam Banh Mi So 1 at 369 Broome making the best, chock-full of roasted pork in red sauce, cilantro, cuke and a special hot sauce. Saigon, now on the corner of Mott and Grand, also has excellent banh mi and rolls. The meat is a crumbled, seasoned/marinated pork; imagine the best BLT you’ve ever had and you’re going in the right direction. If you've never had banh mi before, try one ... there are a dozen great banh mi places in Sacramento as well, and they make a healthy and filling dinner for about $2 - $4 per person.


A lot of people swear by Snack Dragon Taco, now on 3rd just slightly west from avenue b, as having the best fish tacos anywhere (evenings only). Their coconut cornbread snacks are also highly recommended. Good if you are barhopping in the neighborhood and need a quick bite.


In the bowery, Malaysia in the Bowery Arcade serves some really amazing dishes. Their curry beef brisket is simply one of the best curries I’ve ever had, and their Ayam Goreng and Hainanese Chicken Rice are mouthwatering. The satay is good as well.


For cheap big-group eats, I suggest the following:


Wo Hop in Chinatown – very non fancy, but you can feed 6 or 7 really, really well for $150 and the food is very good.


Kitchenette on Broadway and Duane. Great bakery items, fantastic brunch items. Good comfort food for cheap.


Pakistani Tea House on Church Street has decent Pakistani cuisine. An enormous menu – literally hundreds of dishes, more than 2/3 vegetarian – and everything is super fresh. No decor at all, but who cares? You can eat yourself immobile for $10.


Another funky local favorite is Mama’s Food Shop on E 3rd just off Avenue B. Funky decor, and super cheap cafeteria-style food. About $10 per person, all told. Some of the best fried chicken I’ve had, incredible grilled brussels sprouts, green beans and other goodies. [yelp]


As far as bars go – I like dives, and there are plenty of those. The least threatening are neighborhood bars like McHale’s, which has really good burgers in the back room, which might look familiar to movie buffs as it's been in several films (most notably Sleepers). Dark wood paneling, hockey or basketball on the tube, great burgers, cute but world-weary waitresses.. unfortunately closed. a shitty development called "the platinum apartments" tore it down and opened up in its place. wtf!


In place of McHale's, here are the replacements that the stagehands drink & eat at now:


Joe Allen: excellent burgers & meatloaf, classic American diner food, one of the best affordable pre-theater meals in the theater district / Hell's Kitchen



The sublime and always neat King Cole Bar at the St. Regis in Murray Hill (2 E 55th, between 5th and Madison) is expensive and fun – like stepping into the thirties – and some of the crowd may have been having their evening cocktail there since that decade. They make one of the best bloody marys of all time, here called the Red Snapper, and claim to have invented it. Maxfield Parrish’s Old King Cole mural, originally made for another hotel, stares down from the wall behind the bar. And the very fancy bar snacks are free, which they should be when the drinks are $20+ a pop. Dress code.


And for those of you who can appreciate the dives:


Micky’s Blue Room on C around 11th; Manitoba’s, on Avenue B, has a sort of punk-tribute thing going on; Mars Bar on 2nd Ave at 1st street is full of a truly punk, no poser, daytime alcoholic crowd who usually fight at night. Cheap drinks, but no matter what you do DO NOT GO INTO THE BATHROOMS; Milano’s on E Houston between Mott and Mulberry has a bit more ambience but is divey still (and much less violent); stay away from Lucky Cheng’s, as you will probably get beat up by a drag queen, or maybe that’s just me, & the food sucks; Winnie’s at 104 Bayard in Chinatown for your karaoke fix (full of club kids, Asian mic freaks & completely awful renderings of Soft Cell hits, or that 1 hit they had once); International Bar at 120 1st (at St. Mark’s Place) is crummy, grungy and even crusty, with a backyard for smokers; the Subway Inn at 143 E 60th is an old-school dive with a crowd of weirdos and drunks and good cheap drinks and is especially good to stop at if you’re shopping at the Fancy Stores; Jimmy’s Corner at 140 W 44th at Broadway is crusty and has somehow survived Times Square’s McDonaldization / Disneyfication; Rudy’s at 627 Ninth at 45th, in Hell’s Kitchen (aka “Clinton,” wtf?) has free hot dogs and $3 buckets of Rudy’s Red in their concrete back yard “garden.” Siberia is near the Port Authority & interesting too, but remember: no swearing (seriously) - it was more fun when it was actually located inside the subway, although it's still entertaining..


And there are a dozen great clubs, too, although my favorites are not in Manhattan – there are a bunch of neat spots in DUMBO and throughout Brooklyn. In Manhattan, many of the more interesting / entertaining / fun clubs are in clusters – in the meatpacking district and the village.


SRO (Single Room Occupancy) at 360 W 53rd between 8th and 9th is fun with a mixed crowd. No sign, just a glowing green light and the sound of throbbing d&b. Just ring the buzzer and enjoy yourself. Take the A, C or E to 50th. Open to 4am Weds – Sat.


from my friend Christian Schwartz

Village Yokocho / Angel’s Share: 8 Stuyvesant St, between 9th St & 3rd Ave [East Village]

These are actually 2 places, but they share an entrance. Go through Yokocho to get into Angel’s Share, where you can have a drink while you wait for your table. Only parties of 4 or less are allowed in the bar, but you can bring as many people as you want to Yokocho. They specialize in yakitori, grilled meat, vegetables, and seafood on skewers. The Japanese food here is much better than the Korean. $$


Jing Fong: 20 Elizabeth St, at Canal St [Chinatown]

Best before 3pm, when they have the dim sum carts going. The space is totally overwhelming, and you may be stuck at a table with random people if you don’t go in a big group, but the quality and variety of the dishes is staggering. Very cheap. $


Kati Roll: 99 Macdougal St [Greenwich Village]

Kati Rolls are Indian-style Roti bread with meat, paneer, or potato rolled up inside. This is one of my favorite places to get lunch. It’s upstairs from Babu and is owned by the same people. Very cheap—2 rolls makes a good meal, and it will be under $10 with a drink. Open late. $


Sáu Voi Sandwiches & Records: 101-105 Lafayette St, below Canal [Chinatown]

I think these are the best Vietnamese sandwiches in Manhattan. Like the other place, you’ll need to take your sandwiches elsewhere, but there are several parks nearby. $


Petit Abeille: 107 West 18th St at 6th Ave [Union Sq/Chelsea]

134 W Broadway, between Duane & Thomas St [Tribeca]

466 Hudson St, between Grove & Barrow St [West Village]

I love this little French-style Belgian place, and have been eating here once or twice a week for almost a year. I think they have the best fries in the city (maybe Les Halles’ are better), and the burgers, omelets, waffles, and beer selection are all great. $$


The Spotted Pig: 314 West 11th Street, at Greenwich St [West Village]

This English-style “gastropub” is deep in the West Village, and gets crowded early, but I love the food and the atmosphere is very relaxed. The salads are exceptionally good, and you’d be missing out if you came here without ordering the gnudi appetizer. $$


Oyster Bar Grand Central Terminal [Midtown]: This is a real “old New York” place. The food is really good, but a lot of it is very rich, and overall it’s pretty expensive. I prefer getting a few appetizers instead of ordering a main course here. The oysters, of course, are the best thing on the menu, and they have a different selection every day. $$$


Veselka: 2nd Ave & E 9th St [East Village]

Decent Ukranian Diner. Open late, and I think they serve beer. $


Teresa’s: 103 1st Ave, between 6th & 7th St [East Village]

Very good Polish diner. I really like the pork chop sandwich, which is exactly what it sounds like. $


These aren’t places to eat, but don’t miss St Mark’s Books at 3rd ave & E 9th Street, Untitled at 159 Prince St, the famous Strand Bookstore at the corner of Broadway and 12th St, and Kid Robot at 126 Prince St.