New York Restaurants

yeah, good read

Finally did Peter Luger today and was not disappointed. Porterhouse for two was definitely among the best steaks I've had if not the best, and surprisingly the Apple Strudel was the best I'd ever had.

did PL for a bachelor party in august. steak for 8. oof.

"it's a lot of meat"

What is the deal with the steaks for larger numbers of people? Do they give you a different steak or is it just a bunch of steaks for two?

yeah it's just a bunch of porterhouses. the urban legend I heard is that you don't take a menu if it's offered you just say steak for X and if you want any of the sides... well you should know there's only 6 things on the menu. Anyway, if you don't refuse the menu you are given lesser (excellent all the same) cuts of meat

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So what Italian places in Manhattan do you like better than Locanda Verde?

Babbo?

Haven't been to too many, but too be honest only really loved the apps and desert at Locanda Verde and had disappointing mains.

all the batali places are good, i think--babbo, del posto, lupa, esca--all are pretty pricy though. otto is a good deal for the price, so is the restaurant on the eataly roof. scarpetta is terrific, also kinda pricy. torrisi is phenomenal but its not really italian. i havent been to i sodi but i hear its really good. most of my favorite italian places are in brooklyn!!

Gonna be in NYC and going to the theater Friday night(Porgy & Bess) and Carnegie Hall Saturday night (singer Buika who was in recent Almodovar movie with pianist Chucho Valdes) and trying to figure out where and when to eat dinner. Other (and cheaper and other ethnic) ideas accepted:

theres a good mid-price mexican place called toloache and a mid-price nu-korean place called danji both in the west 50s. those are the last two places i went for theater-type dinners

I really like Aurora for Italian -- I've been to the wmsbg original a bunch of times but they now have a Soho location and one on Mott St.

oh yeah aurora is great, though dont do their monday prix fixe deal

Can we talk about Mercado on Kent? Has anyone been?

also, recommendations for places to eat in Bay Ridge?

also, recommendations for places to eat in Bay Ridge?

Tanoreen

have not been to Mercado on Kent. slightly curious but reviews have been mixed-to-negative (but you probably knew that already).

Had some great meals in NYC over the past week. A couple of unexpected standouts: Egg (Williamsburg) for brunch and Brucie (Cobble Hill) for dinner -- both excelled at simple, fresh, and delicious fare.

(At Egg, I had a plate of scrambled eggs, creamy grits, and nicely seasoned kale. Good coffee, too. At Brucie, I had tagliatelle with house-made burrata, brussels sprouts, and tomato butter, and my wife and I split a Caesar salad that incorporated pickled cherries and roasted radishes without seeming gratuitous.)

Some individual dishes I liked (NB: I'm a pescatarian, hence all the seafood):

*Catfish banh mi at Baoguette (West Village).

*Asparagus salad and mixed olives at Roberta's (Bushwick). (The pizza was decent, too, but I was more impressed by the one I had at Franny's in 2010.)

*Happy hour special at John Dory Oyster Bar (Midtown): $15 for a half-dozen oysters and a glass of cava. Can't beat it.

*Shrimp bun at Momofuku Noodle Bar (East Village).

*Grilled prawns at Kin Shop (West Village).

Both of these last two dishes were small bites that outshone the larger courses I tried. Kin Shop, incidentally, was maybe the biggest disappointment for me. I don't necessarily ascribe to the belief that good Thai food has to be cheap and/or "authentic' -- Grant Achatz's take on Thai for Next in was one of the best meals I ate in 2011 -- but it did occur to me that a place like Jitlada in L.A. would've made a more intensely flavorful jungle curry for less than half of what I paid. Ah well.

Oh, I nearly forgot:

*the "Gilly" falafel sandwich at Kulushkat (Park Slope).

pizza, brooklyn - rank the following

di fara
Roberta's
Totonnos's
Franny's
Saraghina
Own Suggestion

di fara is best but kinda far out and a madhouse with lines usually. I haven't been in years.

Lucali is my next favorite, but not on your list. Show up early to avoid lines.

Roberta's is really good but to be honest their kitchen is even better. Also a madhouse. Go right when it opens on saturday or sunday. Split a pizza and get some sticky buns or whatever weird pork and grits thing they're doing or something.

Totonnos is great and oldstyle and you can visit coney island too.

I found Saraghina really dissapointing.

Franny's is loved by all but I think expensive and crowded as well. I've never been.

franny's other dishes are really excellent too. di fara maybe the best pizza. i also really liked giussepina's, lucali's sister restaurant which is much easier to get in to.

di fara is great pizza but HEAVY - that xtra dose of olive oil on top is a killer. tastes great, tho

i prefer totonnos pizza. the place itself is more manageable, what I imagine di fara was like before the foodies discovered. as dan said, you can tie in a coney island visit.

Why the disappointment at saraghina? Im very fond of that place.
I enjoy di fara too, and it's even close, but I hate the crowd there. It's nice to just settle in at saraghina.

i love saraghina, also (imo) the best space of all these restaurants

frannys is much, much less crowded at lunchtime, and they serve the same menu

I don't know, I went once and none of us liked the pizza. It was packed and late, maybe an off night.

went to roberta's and di fara in the end - both midweek. liked both - found the people on the street around the morgan ave stop kind of annoying but inside it was actually really nice and pizzas good. di fara was good too, no line! mad expensive tho

not sure if anyone cares, but Mama's in the EV closed after 15 years, tho the mashed potatoes just weren't the same under the second owner.

http://mamasfoodshop.com/

Pete Wells has been on a tear. Brutal review of Eleven Madison's new "storytelling" format (which sounds awful) and knocked Le Cirque down from three stars to one. I would never go to Le Cirque (have been to 11 Madison, it's great) but just an entertaining week for high-profile food reviews. I'd be shocked if Eleven Madison didn't make some changes based on that writeup. It made eating there sound painful.

IDK, his writing makes me kind of half-laugh, half-wince

But truth be told I don't have that much interest in going to places like that. H and I kind of decided that we never enjoy the experience to the same degree as the pain we feel in our wallets.

fwiw, this is a great uninentionally funny food photograph imo:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/09/19/dining/19NOTEBOOK2/19JPNOTEBOOK-popup.jpg

Eleven Madison thing I just found interesting from a "what would it be like to hold that much power" angle, publish a takedown on Monday and a four-star restaurant implements your requested changes by Thursday

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2012/09/has_eleven_madison_park_nixed_the_narration.php

those narrations sound pretty excrutiating though. I feel embarassed enough when waiters launch into overlong spiels about how the food is prepared.

Ok, so does anyone have any go-to recommendations when they get an extremely broad "HEY WHAT'S A GOOD RESTAURANT IN NYC" requests from people not that familiar with the city?

To be more specific, this is a couple who recently moved from another country and are not that familiar with NYC or the states at all, and the guy's parents are visiting and they want to go somewhere nice with his parents, somewhere "downtown" (I have asked her to be more specific but she hasn't gotten back to me). I also assume it should be a place where it's not ridiculously hard to get a reservation (or a no-reservation place that tends to have two hour lines). TBH I don't even go to Manhattan restaurants very much anyway, so I'm not much help other than looking through Zagat. I just want them to get good food, and maybe ideally an experience that is somehow New York and American without being, like, Patsy's or something obvious like that.

i dunno, my aunt was in town last night & we had a great time at la nacional on 14th street. great paella and tapas. the ladies loved the sangria.

my go to for stuff like that is always otto which is a) run by a Famous Chef but is b) pretty good and is c) crowded/"happening" but is still d) easy to get a table as a walk in and finally is e) decently priced

also its PIZZA which is like how much more new york/american can you get

my OTHER recommendation which goes in the other direction is great ny noodle town which is also cheap and easy to get a table and pretty good but not at all "downtown" more like "'authentic' chinatown chinese flourescent lights no windows super crowded hurried waiters"

lol Otto was actually the first place I thought of, but I haven't been there in a few years and I thought maybe it wasn't the best option

Maybe Otto is the answer

obv getting wasted then going to noodle town in the middle of the night is the way to go

btw it totally 'has window' dont listen to yelp user maxbrooklynfoodie10

I suggested that and Union Square Cafe if they want to spend more.

it has like 1 window

i had a kind of meh meal at usq cafe but its def very NEW YORK

four people need to eat a yummy meal right by the Met around 6 pm/6:15 if we're going to make it to the opera on time

Cafe Luxembourg can't seat us, they are booked

we currently have a reservation at a nearby place (Arpeggio) but I have heard that it is meh and I'm hoping that y'all can recommend something a little better- anybody wanna make a suggestion?

where do we go?

help me ILX you're my only hope

I was also thinking maybe Blue Hill if pricey is ok? Although I felt weirdly uncomfortable in the NYC one, like there was a very subtle snobbery to the place.

i dont really know anything up where that is, drew. salumeria rosi? ive never been but a friend likes it

ive had 1 amazing and 1 okay meal at blue hill. its a solid price range above otto & usc though isnt it?