Discover New York | Eating

[Other categories: Favorite places | Lunch, dinner and fine dining | Ice Cream [1] [2] | Places to avoid ]

New York is the kingdom of good restaurants, but there are also a good amount of shit holes bad places. If you decide to plan your trip and decide ahead of time where you want to eat, Internet is the place to go. TripAdvisor, online food guide, Google and of course, this blog.

But if you decide to pick randomly, be aware that in New York, health services are regularly visiting all the places selling food and giving them grades they must display on their front door. (No grade = run fast!)

By clicking on this link, you can access each restaurant review and see all their violation to the health code (get ready for something yummy!) And also, be careful of “grade pending”, that means the restaurant has either a B or a C.

Generally speaking

• Try to avoid eating in touristy places, like Time Square. Most of the time it will be crowded, and the food will be pricey and not so good.
• Don’t judge the book by its cover, but use common sense when choosing.
• Don’t forget to tip your waiter – 15% to 25%. Always. Except if the guy spat in your food.
• Be careful not to pay the tip twice though (they sometimes include it and try to make you pay it twice)
• Use your common sense and instinct
• And most importantly: don’t be afraid to try new things. Enjoy all the possibilities New York has to offer.
• And please, please, try something else than Shake Schack!!

Restaurants:

Newness of the day, all fresh and beautiful: all my good addresses are now to be found in the right column of the blog, sorted by neighborhood and by category. (Or click here)

Fast Food

• Eating fast but well
  • Hale and Hearty, Dig Inn, Chop’t… for healthy food without breaking the bank. Salads, soups, wrap or sandwiches, this is a good solution for lunch, even though these places are always crowded!
  • For breakfast of lunch, head to a Prêt-à-Manger, Au Pain Quotidien or to Kayser, or more local, to a Deli or Bagel shop.
• Eating fast, but sooo good
  • Chipotle (Tex mex), Five Guys (burgers), Bare Burger (burgers and salads), Rôti (Mediterranean, GRK (Greek). These are chains, with a lot of location around New York, and an equivalent quality everywhere.
  • NY bagels, at Murray Bagel, Black Seeds Bagel or Ess-a-Bagel. But there are tons of it.
  • A “slice” of pizza, sold for something like $3 with a soft drink. They are plenty of these places around the City and it can be SO GOOD. Now you can fold it and eat it while walking, like a New Yorker.
• Eating fast and not so well
  • Mcdo, Wendy’s, White Castle: I personally don’t see the point about coming to New York to eat in such places. Oh and by the way, sizes are not bigger than they are in Europe, burgers are not fatter and drinks don’t contain more sugar. This is all bullshit!

For the sweet tooth: (MUST try)

• The best cookie on the planet, the chocolate and peanut butter from Levain Bakery.
• The best cheesecake in the galaxy at Eileen’s special cheesecake (here).
• A frozen yoghurt, at 16 Handles or Off the Wall (among others)
• A cupcake at Crumbs or Sprinkles.
• A banana bread to die for or a blueberry jamboree (second best dessert ever) at Magnolia Bakery. (Don’t like their cupcakes that much though!)
• Candy, a lot of candy, at It’s Sugar or` Dylan’s Candy Bar
• Dessert for dinner at Spot Dessert bar (here).
• Ice Cream. A lot of ice cream. (here)

Spot Dessert Bar

Purchasing (and bringing back) food:

•  Supermarkets: Fairway Market, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s,
• Duane Reade, CVS and Walgreens (supermarkets / pharmacies / souvenirs / cosmetics.) Most of them have extended hours, some are opened 24/7 and you can find there basically everything. In case of emergency or in case of 3am Ice Cream craving.
• Delis have the same opening hours, but you can also get warm dishes and buffets.
• Attention, cheapskate trick / my favorite: Jack 99 cents is an “everything at $1 store that sells a lot of US chocolate for super cheap (as well as a ton of extremely useless yet indispensable stuff.)

Home delivery
This is my favorite American style activity, a must to try at least once, preferably on a Sunday night while watching John Oliver in the comfy bed of your hotel room, with ambulances as background noise.

• Seamless (with a US credit card)
•  Grubhub (with a European credit card)
• Or you can call the restaurant (#90’s style)

And don’t forget to tip your waiter!

Anyway, this over long post is to introduce a new blog feature, in the right column of the blog. “All the good addresses” gathers all the places I visited and loved (or hated!), sorted by type of food and Neighborhood.

Bon appétit!