Corner Bistro is phenomenal at 3 AM.

nyc lebar bat must go to nightclub

We're almost 1400 posts deep so I'm sure it's been mentioned already, but Stout (33rd and 7th) is a great place to go whether you're a tourist or local. Had a good time there Friday night. Good drinks, crowd, and food.

sorry if it has already been posted but its a long thread. consensus as to best hotel midtown or downtown for 200-300 per weekend night?

Island burger is fantastic, reasonably priced, and has decent/cheap beer. Give it a go.

I just moved into Hell's Kitchen about a year ago - Bare Burger is quite good. I don't know enough to say if it's the best, but they have elk, boar, bison and ostrich burgers and all of them are pretty tasty. 4 different kinds of bacon as well.

One of the best things I've eaten in New York (or ever) came from Poseidon Bakery. It's a greek bakery that's been owned by the same family for 90+ years and they hand-make their phyllo from scratch. They claim to be the only place in NYC that does it. Whatever they're doing, it's incredible. The spanakopita is amazing. The galaktobouriko is amazing. The baklava is divine. It's all amazing. If you like Greek food, or if you happen to live in the area, it's absolutely mandatory. I'm half greek and like to imagine I know greek food reasonably well, and this place is the nuts.

I'm biased by living here, but Hell's Kitchen is a ton of fun. Good for tourists as well. You're within walking distance of Times Square, 30 Rock, the entire theater district, Restaurant Row, Bryant Park. Reasonably close to the Empire State Building and the famous Macy's/Saks Fifth. For theater, dining, shopping, tourist stuff, it's hard to beat midtown.

HK is great because around 9th avenue there's a great vibe of being pretty close to the action but far enough from Times Square that it's no longer touristy. Fairly short walk to the subway depending on where exactly you are.

queens or gtfo

Anyone know if I can get book of mormon tickets at a discount anywhere?

+1

I thought the meat blend was the best I've ever had. The flavor was so dank. Still a wagyu blend is very different and in its own way just as good. The patty texture was definitely supreme. Every other element of the burger I'd change up. I've had several better burgers in restaurants across the country, and I'd take one of my homemade ciabatta burgers over it any day.

The pretension of the servers re: the addition of ketchup was pretty funny

Yeah... went to Minetta a couple weeks ago and didn't get what was so great about the burger. Had a rabbit special that was amazing, though.

Eh, I thought the meat was very good, and I love the onion jam. But at the end of the day, it is still a burger.

i liked the black label burger, but it is really about the meat

i ate the toppings separately

btw: don't get the ham in hay for brunch

You won't find any. BoM sells over capacity (exactly 102.6% of capacity, each and every week, to be nitty), and the average ticket prices (retail, not from secondary sources) are 30% higher than any other show on Broadway.

It's still worth it.

BoM is so good my friend made me download a boot. It was worth it

Since we're on the topic of burgers, for me it doesn't get much better than Pat Lafrieda meat blend formed 8-12oz patty pepper and sea salt rubbed and griddled to rare, topped with Keen's or Old Quebec 7 year cheddar, caremalized onions, a leaf of lettuce, and country ketchup, then finished with pepper and fleur de sel, all on an oven-crisped, olive oil-brished Ciabatta bread bun. My college friends and I went on a burger tour in Boston and NYC and without me even prompting everyone vastly preferred this homemade burger to the best offerings of both cities. Honestly no comparison.

second this. i just saw it last week. paid 420 or so for two tickets, including handling, etc, from a secondary source. funniest show i've ever seen.

I used to live beside the Bare Burger by NYU and it was also really good. Fantastic milkshakes.

Restaurant reviews in here kosher? I hit up a few spots my last trip

Always! I think the majority of the people who post/follow this thread live here/lived here, and appreciate the opinion of visitors (especially someone like you who's been all over), but it's obviously useful as well for people vacationing and planning a dining itinerary. Hope you had a great trip.

Was in NY with the wife last week. I added some cell phone pics, not all of them are great quality.

Highlights:

Morgan Museum and Library (no people and very impressive - audioguide is good and definitely helps to add meaning to what you see)



Blue Ribbon Sushi



MoMA



Rockefeller Center (love that building) and Top of the Rock



Evening walk over The High Line (picture of the street below, don't have one of the park)



Staten Island Ferry (free, short wait and awesome view of the city)

Fun trip yeah thanks.

Minetta Tavern

The burger was cooked to a perfect medium-rare for all three of us. The texture of the patty was crunchy and tender, the juices flowing, and the flavor straight up awesome. The caramelized onions on top were very tasty. The bun was basic and very soft. This burger needed texture and competing flavors in a bad way to actualize. My French geared dining sensibilities were offended when the bartenders balked at the idea of adding sauce. That's just ignorant. Un-American even. I was offered Heinz when I insisted. The overall package of this burger was a real letdown. I eventually added some of the average fries on the side for additional variety of flavor and texture and this was a huge improvement over what they served me, sad to say. That meat though...

6/10

Adrienne's Pizza Bar

Late lunch in Battery Park. We ordered a large pizza shaped as a rectangle and sliced in squares, with chicken, jalepenos, peppers, onions, cheese. The name of the style of this pizza escapes me. The two of us took the whole thing down.

Absolutely delicious and among the better pizzas I've had in my life. Great start.

Skipping dinner after this was no problem.

7/10

Nougatine at Jean-Georges

3pm lunch. My friend ordered the 3-course prix fixe for something like $29, the best value for a fine dining meal I've ever seen. His dishes were all pretty tasty, especially the salmon, and probably better than the 2 I ordered, a peekytoe crab cake (5/10) and a lobster preparation (5/10), both of which had similar flavor and texture components and would have been fairly boring after the first few bites were it not for my Reisling pairing. A bit disappointing.

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5/10

Blue Ribbon Bistro: Midnight meal. This was very disappointing. The pu pu platter was average, the smoked salmon dry, the escargot bizarre, the rest not memorable, except the price. There were a couple tasty bites to be found in everything we ordered. Don't go here. 2/10

Eleven Madison Park, the lounge:


Walked by and decided to change plans from Marea to eating at the bar. The bar was already completely full come 5:30, the start of dinner time, and this was like a Tuesday. There were several open tables in the lounge so no problems.

EMP's dining room offers a 15-course chef's tasting. The lounge and bar offer a limited menu with some of the signature dishes and changing daily plates. We ended up ordering two appetizers and three entrees to split between the two of us, as well as two desserts. Ultimately we could have used another couple dishes.

bread came in the form of fresh, warm rolls of amazingly crisp and floaty texture (9/10) complimented by creamy butter (8/10) and duck fat butter (10/10). My college pal from Boston told me before this meal he had never eaten duck and wasn't sure he wanted to. The butter was enough to change his mind permanently.The duck served later in the meal was, in his words, "the best thing I've ever tasted in my life".

foei gras creme brulee



8/10

warm lobster salad with tomato



9.5/10

Sea Bass. The only let down. No intensity. We did let it get cold, our attention focused on the meat preparations.



6/10

Ribeye



9/10

Honey-lavender glazed Duck, dry aged 6 weeks



10/10 perfection



8.5/10 this was extremely good, but completely overshadowed by:

Chateau D'Yquem

http://i1169.photobucket.com/albums/...7/IMG_2077.jpg

10/10

yup.

9/10

This was in the top 2 meals of my life.

Gramercy Tavern:

Crudites of good quality were served on a large platter, prepared barely touched and served with a trio of sauces, Olive Pine Nut, Lemon Ricotta and Sungold Tomato, all of which were interesting and none particularly delectable. The tomato was the star and the Pine Nut was downright nasty. The dish was a nice effort but raw vegetables of superior selection would have been vastly preferred. For example, a radish (9/10) and green bean (10/10) I sampled at Louis XV in 2008, hand selected from a private garden in the French Mediterranean, set the standard for me for vegetables as a teenager.



4/10

The cheeseburger recipe was very good and I preferred the bun and incidentals to that of the Minetta burger. Plenty of tasty cheddar and bacon with delicious pickled red onions that paired very well with Russian? dressing and country ketchup. The flavor of the meat itself was not memorable but the texture was good and the overall eating experience was superior. 6/10

My friends sea bass, which I sampled a couple bites of, offered a decently tasty and tender piece of fish, slightly overcooked and lacking intensity as a dish. 4/10

5/10

Dining wasn't the main focus of this trip, which took place around a month ago. I came into town with no reservations spur of the moment to see some old friends and kick it with my Boston buddies. Definitely a good trip. I don't think I'll make it back into town this year, and frankly the people make me miserable. I've never seen so many unsmiling beautiful girls walking down the street. Having just moved to FL and started exploring, gotta say I'll take Miami over this any day of the week. That being said the nightlife was great and you can't deny the quality of food. Definitely a town to come into with plans preset, but yeah, I think there's enough variety and options to please any diner or party animal.

On my way back, my friends and I split up a ribeye and a porterhouse from Lobel's to grill when we got back home.







We grilled these bad boys to medium-rare up at my house with a crust of sea salt, pepper, and clarified butter, served with asparagus and caramelized onions, and for the liquids Peter Lugar sauce and a Petite Sirah. Nice end to the vacation.

8/10

Eventually, I'd like to have lunch at Le Bernardin and Jean-Georges, and dinner at Marea. Momofuku and WD-50 seem cool too, and a return trip to the bar at EMP is inevitable. Per Se, I'm saving for a special date night. I'm also interested in the pizza and the best of the ethnic cuisine in the city, assuming its world class like the fine dining. Till then, back to the poker grind.

Oh, man. I didn't know it was still possible to go to EMP. Had no idea about this lounge thing. That's ****ing awesome.

FWIW, both Jean-George and WD-50 really really let me down. I think people are wowed by WD-50 because it's really creative, but the food doesn't actually taste good. Jean-George I ordered a seasonal tasting, so it's possible that I got some experimental stuff that wasn't as good as their standards. Still, I was pretty amazed by how terrible it was, and I find it hard to imagine that they produce world-class food when they also produce crap.

You'll love any of the Momofuku restaurants. If you can't get a rez at Ko cause it's really hard, Ma Peche is really really awesome.

Marea blew me away, but I've only been once.

Good to know. Nougatine was unimpressive. I hear the fusilli at Marea is godly.

I've had the tasting at EMP and though it is a much better value than the bar, I actually prefer the ala carte menu. I wasn't with the happiest company for the tasting though, and might have been a little sick. Certainly we were served 3-4 dishes of 9/10 quality+ throughout the tasting

Gotta be honest the Duck was a 9.5 compared to the only 10/10 dish I've eaten at this point in my life. It can't have been perfect because it was just barely comprehensible that it could somehow be better. But it was obscenely good and the best food of its kind I have ever had. As was almost everything. Our 5 savories were like $200 and imo an awesome bargain considering this is among the very best food in the entire world. You could walk in here at 5pm, start with a drink, order an appetizer and a main course with another drink to pair both, and walk out feeling like a king by 6:30 for maybe $110 + tt. As far as elitist dining values it doesn't get much better than that

Can you find the a la carte menu at EMP online anywhere? It's kind of annoying that great restaurants often hide this option on their websites. A really good tasting can be amazing, but often I prefer a more simple meal where I get to experience a dish like the above mentioned duck as a standard entree rather than bouncing around so much from bite to bite. I love going for a tasting menu once in awhile and for special occasions but not as a frequent thing.

There are restaurants that, while good, simply aren't worth the wait/hassle. I was in NYC again this past weekend and wanted to hit up Clinton Street Baking because they make really damn good pancakes. They open the restaurant at 9AM on Sundays; we got there just past 8:30 and were the first people to not get seated which meant a 45 minute wait. Screw that . . . they're friggin' pancakes, not a life-changing experience. This wasn't the first time, so Clinton Street goes on my "not worth the hassle" list, right next to Shake Shack.

On the positive side, really enjoyed the food at Del Posto - every dish was solid or better, and the lasagna was the best I've ever had by a long, long margin. That said, at their prices they are starting to compete with the Les Bernardin/Daniel type restaurants, and the food (while excellent) isn't quite in that league.

Also very good was a return visit to 15 East. Marvelous sushi, and I again left myself in the hands of the staff as far as sakes, and again they just hit it completely out of the park. They pour some great, great sakes there, just delicious stuff.

I also got to hit both Il Laboratorio del Gelato (right next to Katz's deli, where I had my other dinner; satisfying as always) and Amorino. ILDG was excellent (the chocolate moreso than the lime sorbet), but if I had to choose might give a very slight edge to Amorino. Maybe not; they're both quite good.