raji

"And what's better than leaving the subway to go to a 4-star restaurant." I was being completely sarcastic here... Nobody is above taking a taxi, not even heads of state! See Taxi Driver. NYC's yellow cabs are regulated unlike other cities...

I agree with this - additionally, if you're a fan of architecture, it's a really great art deco room (I thought it was a longtime bank) - but I like it a lot better during the day, overlooking and getting a lot of pleasing light in from Madison Park, rather than at night when it could be anywhere - same as tabla. I thought they have a prix fixe lunch all-year round, and if so, it's totally worth it *EDIT* N.B. NYers are not accustomed to seeing much of the sky. We leave the city and remark about how big it is. So the pleasant, anti-S.A.D. affect might not be as pronounced on you. If I were you I'd do first night at the Bar @ the Modern - it's not much of a commitment, really great food, modern/loungey room, they have great drinks and many wines by the glass, good for drinking your way through the jetlag.... I just tried out Shimizu, and would say he's got to be in the top 10 or even 5 in NYC for authenticity and quality of fish, they also have a bit more reasonable prix fixe and combinations if you are somewhat new to sushi, it's not quite as imposing as Yasuda.... NY Noodletown feels like stepping into a HK dive - if you haven't been to HK, go there - that place has been consistently good for a decade or 2 now... The reason I'm mentioning prix fixe lunches because some of yours are throwaways and honestly, how often do you come to NY. There are also a lot of deals going at lunchtime. When I've got 5 days in Tokyo, that's merely 10 opportunities to try the many faces of Japanese food.... NY you have a much wider field of the best all sorts of cuisines to try out.... I'm gonna disagree with Robyn - everything is close in Manhattan! And what's better than leaving the subway to go to a 4-star restaurant. I see a lot of tourists who don't venture too far from their Times Square hotels and what a shame that is - they don't even make it to 9th avenue!

I haven't been there in several months, but based on bi-annual visit for 6 or so years, it's certainly consistently at the top... However, over those years, their menu has never, ever changed, and your pictures looked like they had some new dishes going on there.

Admin: Split from the thread on Awash Ethiopian Restaurant Is Awash better/worse than Queen of Sheba?

I know and you'd think they would with all that spare time on line...

How would the Masons feel about that? There's a lodge in Chelsea...

Dessert should = Concrete at adjacent Shake Shack. All the money is going to the same place anyways... they should make a separate line for shakes!

Should have made this clearer - this applies to most sushi bars, not just Yasuda. Most have a sushi set lunch. But similar sets are available at dinner too.

In terms of an experience you shouldn't miss out on Katz's.. and a bursting deli sandwich (rye of course) might as well be on the City seal... if you're 2, get a corned beef and swap halves too... You asked which Grand Sichuan, 23rd & 9th and 51st & 9th are the originals and have served me solidly for years.... While knowing a lot about Japanese food might make you a snob, not knowing enough about it doesn't mean you can't enjoy the great Japanese food available in NYC, it's really the best outside of Japan. Question is, do you not love sushi because you haven't been to the right places, or you simply don't love it. If it's the latter, and your gf already vetoed it, best not to waste a trip to Yasuda. As for a sushi lunch, $20 can get you a more standard sushi set lunch (tekkamaki, salmon, tuna, tamago, etc.) but an omakase is gonna cost you the same lunch or dinner. Additionally, sushi is just one very small subset of Japanese food. It caught on like wildfire here and for whatever reason, perhaps 1 out of 2 Japanese restaurants in the US are sushi restaurants, while 1 out of 20 might be sushi restaurants in Japan... you might want to try kaiseki @ Sugiyama where there are only a couple of sushi/sashimi courses, or try another of NYC's top-flight Japanese...

Regarding her comfort food comment - actually I was getting kind of sick of the trend of paying more and more for mac and cheese and grilled cheese and tuna melts...

Hardly a coincidence, but most of my humor is sophomoric, isn't it? Anyway, it would be good to meet the OTHER guy on the board willing to ingest anything and everything...

You might want to call these guys and see if they do a blackforest - http://www.cupcakecafe.com/ their buttercream frosting is INSANE similar to magnolias

My bad - I'm with Daniel, dibs no bitch-seat

Are you looking for somewhat Americanized interpretations of what you might get at home or is authenticity paramount? Bali Nusa Indah on 9th and Jaya on Baxter have both been around a long time and are popular with local foodies, but I haven't been...

It would not be fair to Sneakeater if I didn't correct your: Katz's! it's Katz's!

The excellence in Flushing is often overstated because of the prices... you're not going to get gourmet ingredients out there for the most part... but.. so good, so cheap! THANKS for the Saravanaas recommendation! Paper masala dosai was DELICIOUS - very light. Menu is true-to-form South Indian. I still think Devi is the best in NY... The tandoori blew me away but the curries and breads were damn good -

Well the 40% of the city that are Mets fans aren't gonna order that...

And, IMHO, their breads have a slight edge over Devi's, quite possibly simply due to quickness of turnover and volume. Saravanaas blows MM out of the water, IMO, although the cuisine is more specialized (the only non-Southern dish on the menu, IIRC, is the excellent channa batura). Their food's also properly light and not chock-full of ghee. Well, I've been dying to go say hi to Hemant and Suvir soon, and I have an old friend (and eGullet poster) who's wanted to go for a while. I'll PM you when we've got a plan going. Perhaps you'll trade your Japanese food expertise? ← Deal! if I'm getting Japanese food with you, you're my long lost cousins just blown in from chennai.

Mayur - Thanks for confirming my suspicion about Jackson Heights...There's probably better Indian too be had in New Jersey. I guess I could side with you about Tabla, which is really a tribute to Indian seasonings and preparations. You CAN have a perfectly traditional Indian meal there, including all the great breads. Saravanaas is the new place, isn't it? And to think all these years I have pretty much usually stuck to Madras Mahal, even though I've suspected a decent amount of Ghee is part of the success of their cooking... That's funny I would have ranked my father's kitchen as well, and I too NYC born and bred - As for Devi, hook me up! I have one of those long powerful Brahmin surnames which usually gets me good service from South Indians Didn't seem to do me any good at Devi tho...

Actually for my first 6 months on eG I read your name as "Snakeater", until I finally slowed down to read it, so maybe a part of me thought you were Indian too! Albeit as a result of bad stereotype of Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. Actually, I'm Jewish too. I'm gonna let you noodle that one for a while, while I noodle in some regional recommendations, which others probably honestly can speak better about outside of South Indian.... I'm still going to support Devi as best Indian in NY. That's precisely what I exclaimed after my first visit there only a few weeks ago. I haven't ventured through Jackson Heights too much beyond Jackson Diner, so maybe someone can enlighten me, as this is probably where real deal regional cooking is to be had...

Maybe my Indian name tipped you guys off, but for those who read this board, you probably think I'm Japanese... But there is Indian heritage here, although I still haven't been there OR the UK yet for that matter. So I hope I'm somewhat qualified to speak on this issue - Except the _homemade_ Indian food I grew up with was South Indian, while to "go out to eat" was to get North Indian like tandoori, and things like biryani and pilaf... when we used to venture into NYC we'd go to Nirvana or one of the white cloth jobs on 58th Street. And the Bengal Tiger in White Plains was a frequent stop. It's a tough one because "Indian" food covers such a varied landscape, from the strict vegetarian, to the seafood of the south, up through the clay ovens of the north and those places near Pakistan.. so a lot of Indian places have to cover the whole Indian world and don't do anything particularly that well or only do North Indian well or South Indian well etc. etc. So now that I've thought about it out loud and stream of consciousness on here, I'm going to have to say that it has to be Devi. I can't recall any restaurant that had me so excited over Indian food and what it was capable of recently. When things went truly contemporary, they were done using other elements of Indian cuisine, which as you can tell, is extremely varied. I can't wait to take my family there. I love Tabla too but it's not an Indian restaurant. That's pretty much like calling Nobu a Peruvian restaurant.

In terms of covering the whole subcontinent, it's probably Dawat, but I haven't been recently... Based on a recent visit I'd happily proffer Devi, it uses traditional ingredients and preparations to present Indian cooking and flavors in new and exciting ways...

I bet you can get them here, they have all manner of nuts http://nymag.com/listings/stores/internati...cery/index.html And pretty much everything else in the known universe stuffed into that store. It's quite amazing. Cheap prices too.

The way to eat the best wagyu, and I always found Matsuzaka not necessarily "kobe" to be the best, is to cook it yourself as Yakiniku, or a stone or hot flame... searing it quickly. The fat melts at lower temperature so you want to sear it and enjoy the marbled characteristics - BTW while American wagyu cattle might not get the same level of service the Japanese do, many Japanese and myself consider the American wagyu to be up there with the Japanese at this point, they're doing something right..

And what a terrible waste that is to ground that up and serve it as a burger!