daisy17

most places here-abouts are definitely cheaper, but none of them has Bruce's hand with a sauce. You started out at the top ← Funny you should mention - every dish was heavily sauced, which I'm not used to, and they were amazing. I wanted to lick everyone's plate. I resisted though - didn't want to come off as an uncivilized New Yorker.

On the first of what will be many visits to Seattle (my brother and sister in law moved there in July), we had dinner at Le Gourmand on Friday night. The food was fantastic - we started with a salad composee and blintzes and then I had steelhead in a pear sauce. Everything I tasted, including the veal chop (especially the veal chop, in a truffle sauce) and the scallops, was incredibly well prepared. Service was warm and welcoming, and the restaurant's emphasis on sourcing local and seasonal ingredients was evident in every dish. I will say that I was a bit surprised at the prices - there wasn't a single main for under $42, and most were closer to $50. I live in NY and am used to paying a lot for food, but this seemed high to me. How common is this for Seattle? Regardless, the food was delicious, and we had a very enjoyable meal. We started dinner with cocktails from Sambar (next door) and popped in to take a peek before we left. Jay was most welcoming and mixed up something for us to taste while we chatted about bars in NY and Seattle. I know I'll be back there on my next trip.

Did a little food outing in flushing today, mostly in the basement of the Golden Shopping Mall, and then some dishes at Spicy & Tasty which were mostly both (although not really super spicy - did they go light because we weren't asian? I could have handled more heat). Will post photos when I can. The food stalls in the basement of the Golden Shopping Mall were AMAZING. When I'm back in flushing next I'm spending the whole day there.

Also, I've heard good things about Convivio, but haven't been myself. According to their website the prix fixe is $64/4 courses which sounds like an excellent deal.

I second weinoo's suggestion that you do something less expensive one night and put the $ toward a more expensive place. Lupa is a great suggestion - I've had terrific $50 meals there. I would also recommend within your price range the Tavern Room at Gramercy Tavern, Hearth, Dell'anima, Scarpetta, Perilla, Tailor, Boqueria. Market Table? Has anyone been to A Voce lately? Under Andrew Carmellini it was excellent, and could be done for $100/person.

Actually, there are a lot of places with special bar menus. Probably, you (like me) just tend to disregard them and go for the dinner menu, so they don't really register. Aside from Gramercy Tavern (which I count as a bar menu even if you don't), there's Picholine (whose bar menu is fantastic) and Eleven Madison Park (whose bar menu I've never tried because I love the main menu -- which I've been served at the bar -- so much). I'd consider the Bar Room at The Modern's menu a bar menu, and highly recommed it. Also, I prefer the Bread Bar at Tabla to the dining room. Telepan has a bar menu, I think -- but the food there is sort of blah. There are lots of others, but I can't think of them right now. ← Of course you're right, and I've had meals off many of these; I was just responding to what I took as a request for special recession/savings menus. (And apparently I just haven't seen them - see Kathryn's link.) Certainly some places serve a less expensive menu at the bar all the time (I would include Bobo as well). (btw, I like Telepan, you don't?)

I have had several excellent meals at Perilla. The chef just left Allen & Delancey; I haven't heard anything about it since. I've enjoyed the Red Cat over the years, but I think right now I would go Perilla or The Harrison.

There are extensive threads on all three places and I would encourage you to scroll through them to get a better feel for them. I would heartily recommend all of them. I've eaten at Gramercy twice since Michael Anthony took over the kitchen and thought the food was fantastic. I love the whole vibe of the place, especially the bar area. I find it much more comfortable than Eleven Madison, which is a stunning room but a bit austere to me. The one time I tried to eat at the bar at Eleven Madison I was told I couldn't order off the regular dinner menu, which was a disappointment. I don't know if that's changed; perhaps others can chime in on that. I like the Modern, but not nearly as much as the other two - while the food is certainly well-prepared, it hasn't moved me quite like GT or EMP. Others feel very strongly that the front room at the Modern is an incredible value and love it. If you want or need to be in midtown though, it's a good pick. The lunch menu at Jean Georges is the best deal in NY!

I haven't seen any special bar menus here, in fact, although I've been seeing more empty seats in the dining rooms, bar dining remains very popular in NY. If you go early you're more likely to get a seat. Some of my favorite places to dine at the bar are gramercy tavern, lupa, perilla and cru. At Gramercy, the bar serves the tavern menu, which is less expensive than the main dining room, and the food and service are always excellent. Lupa is (as discussed above, I believe) a terrific value, but the bar does fill up quickly there as well. Lately I've had excellent meals at the bar at dell'anima and scarpetta as well (there should be threads on each of these). And of course there are the Momofukus (again, I would refer to their threads) which are perfect for solo dining. Other than at the absolutely top places (i.e., Jean-Georges, Per Se) you can almost always dine at the bar. I would also consider lunch instead of dinner if you want to eat at the best restaurants for less. Check out the Jean-Georges thread too.

Mine came 2 days ago. It is a gorgeous book and I will read it and treasure it, but I assure you that I will never cook anything from it.

Well, everything else in there sounds delicious, so I suppose I would try this. I have a serious problem with arrack - I just can't stand the stuff. I've dubbed it "the cilantro of spirits." Which I am well aware means that I just need to drink enough of it to get over my aversion.

I haven't heard anything about the food at Double Crown yet other than what Sneakeater wrote. I feel like you could easily fill this slot with something amazing. As DutchMuse noted, I'd do Ssam for dinner, although recent reports on that thread (weinoo?) are that the lunch menu has changed. As johnder pointed out, Death & Co (as well as PDT) is unpredictable at 7pm. They both open at 6, and I find I have the best luck if I go close to opening time. D&Co was filled, bar and tables, last night by 7pm. Note that D&C doesn't take resys at all and PDT doesn't take them for the bar, but if you're 2 people that's definitely where you should sit. I would encourage you to go to at least one of these, as they are absolutely spectacular. Just go early. Both will call your cell when seats open up if they don't have seats for you right away. Pegu, Little Branch and Flatiron can fairly easily be visited later on in the evening. M&H doesn't open till later, 9 I think. I went to White Star last night for the first time and really enjoyed it - I may even have gotten over my disgust of bars in NY on Saturday nights. It had a great mellow vibe, and I loved the absinthe. The cocktail selection is limited because the bar doesn't stock simple or citrus - but you can really do a hell of a lot of good things with what they have (manhattans, old fashioneds, negroni, amari, absinthe, etc.)

Thanks, Daisy...had almost forgotten about Cru...not sure why. Is Shea G. still the chef? ← I know what you mean, it's not always on my radar either, but it's so damned good. He is, according to the website. Cru

I'm pretty sure Cru's menu allows for flexibility among diners in terms of # of courses you order. The food is phenomenal.

Isn't street food food that you actually eat on the street? You know, with salsa dripping off your elbow? (like I'll be doing in Oaxaca starting tomorrow)

Every time I read back through this thread I want to scream. If you don't get mired in this bullshit, you'll see that plenty of people, myself included, gave thoughtful recommendations (and resources) that are responsive to the request.

I promise that $250 tasting menus are entirely unnecessary for you to eat well here. Manhattan is expensive, it's true, but there are plenty of good places for you to go to, especially if you can increase your budget for dinner, which sounds like your preference. Kathryn had linked to a bunch of articles that talked about street food in NY and I know that the NY Magazine website (www.nymag.com) has even more. They do an annual "cheap eats" roundup that you can easily find. I think that if you can budget $30-50/person for dinner you can eat very well. The $20 dinners I have tend to be in Chinatown or Queens. I'm totally sticking with my earlier recommendations of Terroir, Otto and Lupa for good, not expensive Italian food - Lupa and Terroir being better in my opinion than Otto. If you don't drink at all I don't see how you'd spend more than $30/p at Otto and Terroir, and maybe $40-45 at Lupa. Don't be thrown off by Terroir being a wine bar - and the food there is excellent. Also I'd throw in Tia Pol for tapas, again, not expensive but really good. I think that without alcohol you can eat at Momofuku Ssam for $40-50 a person, and we all heartily recommend it. I'm going to echo Weinoo's suggestion (I do that a lot, I know) for a slice at Joe's on 6th and Bleecker/Carmine. Best slice. There's good gelato on that block as well, at either Cones or Grom. Stop into Murray's Cheese as well. Great food block. I didn't mention Katz's earlier b/c I know from that thread that you're going there, but the places you have lined up for that walking tour are utterly NY and not expensive either.

Of course there are, but I'm probably not going to recommend that you run around NY for something like that. Where are you planning to be? If you're near Flatiron, I like Eisenbergs for old school coffee shop. If you're near Chinatown, see above (my preference for cheap eats). Wichcraft is a "chain" but nothing like ABP and Chipotle. They're owned by Tom Colicchio and are really good - and they use quality ingredients. http://www.wichcraftnyc.com/ Shake Shack is awesome. Madison Sq Park, 23rd/5th Ave.

Agreed - for lunch, you can do it. I say chinatown (there are threads on it) - I like Thai Son for Vietnamese, Big Wong for roast pork on rice w/ginger scallion sauce. Wichcraft has excellent sandwiches.

The Fat Duck-ish places here are, as Weinoo suggested, WD-50 and Tailor. (Note: they are Fat Duck-ish, not The Fat Duck). Both you and CaliPoutine should hit Momofuku Ssam - it's not inexpensive but I think reasonably priced given the very high quality of the food. The menu at Momofuku Noodle Bar (used to me my preference over Ssam) is oddly limited right now, I'd go to Ssam for dinner for sure. There are extensive threads on here about all the Momos that I would suggest you look at. I was back at Prune a couple of weeks ago and was reminded how much I love it. It strikes me as a very New York kind of spot, for brunch, lunch or dinner. Not expensive, and excellent. For inexpensive Italian I'd do Otto or Lupa (Lupa is more $ but the food is better. If you order pastas and sides rather than mains you can get out without spending too much money.) I also really enjoyed my meal at Scarpetta, which is more expensive. And Dell'anima is also fantastic - smaller and more neighborhoody, and between Lupa and Scarpetta price-wise. Also, Terroir (wine bar on 12th just off 1st Ave) has excellent food and wine and is casual and not very expensive. Order the pork blade and the veal & ricotta meatballs. For Modern French I'd point you toward the Eleven Madison Park and The Modern threads. If you want high end dining but with more of an American slant I'd do Gramercy Tavern or Blue Hill.

Do you mean $30 for 2 people?

Round knishes are better than square. I can't think of many family food rules growing up - but this is definitely one of them. (I personally like potato over kasha. With mustard.) Agree that the turkey sandwich is very good. And hot dogs, with mustard and sauerkraut. I just looked at the menu and it saddens me to see grilled cheese and blintzes on there. I say stick to the meat and potatoes, the traditional jewish deli stuff. Blintzes and pierogen are what Ratner's were for. I'm turning into my father. If you're from out of town and on that block, please do yourself a favor and walk over to Russ & Daughters. That's how the dairy side of Jewish food culture should be.

The whole space accommodates about 120. You can do a smaller section (not the main dining room) that seats about 70. Danielle, the events coordinator, is fantastic.

A stroll past Lupa this evening at 7:30 revealed six empty seats at the bar. Almost in shock, I took one and ordered a refreshing cocktail suggested by one of the two very friendly bartenders (CioCiaro, maraschino, lemon/lime juice squeezed in front of me). Had 2 specials - greenmarket tomato salad with slivers of red onion and basil, ridiculously simple and good. What followed literally turned my day around: thick homemade tagliatelle with fresh corn, chanterelles and basil, with some cheese and a bit (ahem) of butter. Summer goodness. The food here is excellent. Reminded why I love this place.

I'm pretty sure the cap there is about 120. There are 2 options - smaller area (fewer people - maybe the 80 you're thinking about) or total buyout, which I think can accommodate 120. Checking right now . . . .