A week of (mostly) good food for under $250! Yes, two fifty, per person, with some extra spent for tea stops…
Day One:
The Lemongrass Grill
2534 Broadway $8.
This busy Vietnamese place is scented, sticky and crowded. Great food - fab intro to eating in New York. Try the duck salad, with tender yet crispy edged chunks of duck on shredded lettuce, lots of cashews and red pepper, tossed with a house dressing. Zesty and delicious. Add $2 for green tea.
Bloomingdale Road
2398 Broadway $9
A generous pour of Pinto Noir, candlelit streetside table, white table cloths and napkins. Large softly lit bar, lots of women, on their own with a book and a glass of wine, or with a girlfriend, gentle music above the murmering.
Day Two:
The Europe Bakery Cafe'
2503 Broadway $4.
A bowl of Porridge and a cup of tea in a typical New York diner where you choose from glass counters of offerings, pay, and go grab a table.
Wall Street Café
14 Wall Street $5.50
Giant lobster and shrimp salad sandwich. Add $2 for a bottle of water,
The River Café
1 Water Street, Brooklyn $11.
Glass of red wine. Generous pour, big bowl of walnuts and cashews and almonds, great views of the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Fabulous bartender, really knows how to work his audience. Sitting at the bar meant free samples of dispensed cocktails and bonhomie.
Bubba Gump
Times Square $12.
In the pulsating heart of New York city, this restaurant has a ringside view of the lights and bustle and the naked cowboy. Huge chicken salad with lots of lettuce and veggies, tons of meat, zesty chipotle dressing,. Good service. Add a big cocktail for $8.
Day three:
Seinfeld's diner/hangout: Tom's Restaurant
2880 Broadway $4.50
One of the breakfast packages; you get coffee, one egg, four rashers of bacon, lots of hash browns, buttered toast with jam, and orange or grapefruit juice. Great Service, great restaurant. Terrific value, yum and fun if you're a Seinfeld fan.
Cafe' Reggio
119 MacDougal St. $15.
Double espresso with Amaretto, carrot cake, and a latte. Sunny outdoor table on a funky street in Greenwich Village, lots of tiny shops and trendy locals.
Keywest Diner
2532 Broadway $12
The waiter padded the bill for our fairly decent hamburgers. He gave us a hand scrawled bill. Our quick scan noted the overcharged entrée. Watching us retrieve and scrutinize a menu, he ran over to resolve the 'oversight'. We paid, tipped, and - walking back to the hotel - we realized he had also charged us a dollar extra on the side of fries! So he won anyway! But we'll never go back.
Day four:
Mangia $5.95
W57 st. between 5 and 6 avenues.
Succulent slices of smoked salmon on fresh Pumpernickel with thin whispers of cucumber and a froth of watercress., $2 for tea.
Grimaldi's $20
DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass)
A madness of din and percussion. Big carafes of wine, fresh pizza, woodburning oven, great service. Old and very popular, shoulder to shoulder dining. $20 for a big pizza with 5 toppings, $20 for a litre of wine. And they brought us our change twice. Refused to take it when we tried to give it back, so we doubled the tip.
Day five:
Pain Quotidian $3.95
2463 Broadway. (How can you tell where we were staying?)
A perfect soft boiled egg with three varieties of bread accompanied by thick glass tubs of hand made organic jams and nut butters. Another $2.50 gets you a pot of coffee that fills two of the cereal bowls that are used here as cups.
Yonah, Schimmel's
137 E. Houston St. $8.
Between 1st and 2nd, the Lower East Side.
Finally, we try the knish! What were we thinking? Not to try the Knish till day five? We had been seeing signs for Knish all over New York. As we lingered near Katz deli we were attacked on the street and dragged down Houston by a sprightly Jewish man. He marched us past and waved dismissively at the encroaching Mexican restaurants. “There's only three of the good ones left,” His arms embraced the area around us as we walked. “Katz, Russ and Daughters, and Yohah Shimmel.” He pushed us across streets to the latter “This one has the best.” He confided, and made sure we entered the place. It was time to try the Knish.
Two Knish later, after puzzled musing, we deduced that, ah-ha, this is the comfort food of a people. Like my own comfort food of dumplings, like the tortillas of some and the pasta of others, from the days of less, when mothers had to keep their families full, Knish is a warm heavy nourishing filler. I'd probably like it better on the side with salad and meat.
Cleopatra's Needle
2485 Broadway $14
Live music, Indifferent service, stale and freezer burnt chicken tenders that were anything but. Heavy greasy spinach pie flopped limp on the plate. Bland, tasteless. Because of the curb appeal, we had been planning on having a last night blow out here the next day. Good thing we tried it for appetizers and found out how bad it was! Because the next day…
Day 6
Citrus $60
320 Amsterdam Avenue
The perfect dinner place to end our stay. (We had tried The View at the top of the Marriot but foolishly didn't make reservations, decided to forgo Times Square, take the subway halfway home and check out that area.) Curb appeal lured us in. The seared duck breast with mashed yam and veggies and the skirt steak with cheddar mashed potatoes and spinach were tender and succulent. A bottle of Shiraz and two shared desserts later, a chocolate suicide and a cheesecake…conversation jumped easily between the tables since everyone sits as close as a thanksgiving family. Great service, interesting neighbors, as the tables start interacting sound decibels rise to that New York din, the restaurant cacophony, and all flow out in a flush of satiation.
Try everything! Read the outdoor menu before you go in so you don't have any suprises once you are seated.
Have fun and eat well without going into debt!