There’s Little India in the thirties/twenties on Lexington Avenue. You might want to walk around to find some good eats there.
someplace to get lox and bagels perhchance? I am a lox and bagel connseiour…just got back from NYC for Mom’s Day brunch. I had a resturant lox and bagel (some place in Brooklyn in Pahk Slope) and then went to the local bagel place to get a lox and bagel for the ride home.
Especially on a Sunday morning, especially when they wheel the rack of fresh chocolate croissants from the bakery!
This is one of the things I miss most from NYC.
Heartland Brewery is fine, but it’s more of a brewery chain.
The Palm is ok, but if you want steak, you should check out any of these places:
Del Friscos
Primehouse
Striphouse
Quality Meats
BLT Steak
Sparks
I recommend a stroll through Curry Hill, the Indian area previously mentioned, along Lexington Avenue in the high 20s (not that far from where you’re staying). Great (for the most) part South Indian food (there’s also at least one Indian-style Chinese place, but I haven’t tried it). I have had good meals at Saravanas (Lexington and 26th Street ) and Tiffin Wallah (Lex & 27). There’s also Kalustyan’s (Lex & 28th), an amazing spice shop (been around forever) that has decent and cheap steam-table food upstairs if you want a quick bite.
Shopsins is indeed great but has pretty limited hours – there’s no restaurant anymore, it’s a stall in the Essex Street Market. I doubt there’s too much of a line on a weekday, Kenny wouldn’t stand for it.
There are a number of Brazilian places off Sixth Avenue up in the high 40s. I also think a stroll through the Korean area near Penn would be interesting – I’ve had a few good meals there. The great Portuguese food is to be found in Newark, oddly enough.
I would also check out “Restaurant Row” on 46th between 8th and 9th Ave. Beccos has pretty good Italian, Bangkok House is good for Thai and there are a few others there.
FWIW, I visited Shopsin’s for breakfast on a weekday morning when I visited NYC last October… seating is VERY limited in their new location, but we managed to get a table almost right away.
The food is good, but nothing spectacular, and the prices are reasonable (budget about $15-$20 per person for food and coffee).
It’s worth going for the experience, though. Kenny is every bit as interesting and opinionated as you’d expect from reading his book (especially once he gets going on his ideas about eating, cooking and the world at large), and as for the menu… you have to see it to believe it.
Also, I’d definitely second/third/fourth/whatever the motion to head to the Upper West Side to check out Zabar’s. Again, it’s as much about the experience as it is about the food… I was in foodie heaven. 
Since everyone else is focusing on the rest of town I’ll give you the low-down on Inwood (bottom of the hill) and Hudson Heights (top of the hill).
There is of course The New Leaf Cafe which I hear is good but have never eaten there.
Rancho Jubilee for the Dominican Flavor. Take a walk down the beautiful steps (or the elevator in the subway station if you’re tired) in Ft. Tryon park it’s at the intersection of Broadway, Nagle and Hillside across from the Post Office. They have great food and the decor is very unique, kind of islandy, everything is all carved wood. This place is right by my apartment. 
**Mamajuana **on Dyckman and Seaman for Paella but only for dinner time. (Il Sole next door has great food but awful service. ) This one you can also get to by walking through Ft. Tryon park, it’s a nice walk.
If you want to go uptown a bit further there is The Garden Cafe, next to the Catholic Church, they have a fabulous outdoor garden, a nice wine selection and good kind of New York restaurant standards, like strip steak with peppercorn sauce or penne in vodka sauce, that kind of thing.
I highly recommend The Park Terrace Bistro great Moroccan food and a fine wine selection. Had a great Riesling there last time I went.
There is a Cuban place I’ve never tried at the corner of Cabrini and 181 which looks pretty nice. Walk down Cabrini from the Cloisters and you’ll have a river view for much of the way.
Good luck!
Kind of spendy there though. It’s a good place to start, and if you go down 9th the prices come down a bit and there are all kinds of places from Turkish to, Moroccan, to Indonesian within a couple blocks of there.
I love Cafe Milano in Little Italy on Mulberry St. There is also a bigger Little Italy in the Bronx and for authentic chinese go to Flushing Meadows.
I’m also going to NYC soon, and I thought this was funny because one thing I do every time I go there is get a hot dog from Grey’s Papaya. You just can’t get a dog like that on the west coast. Anyways I’ll be keeping tabs on this thread, just thought that was amusing.
Junior’s Cheesecake will change you.
(right next to the Marriott Marquis in Times Square)
Bah, MsWas beat me to it. There is plenty of good dining up in Inwood.
The New Leaf is in fact quite good. They serve a lovely brunch on the weekends starting at 11. The downside is that they do not accept reservations for brunch, so if the weather is good, plan to wait a bit.
I do not love Mamajuana, but it is pretty solid. Have you been to Mama Sushi yet? That I rather like.
This is pretty much the best place in Inwood. It’s now called the Bistro Marrakech.
Are you thinking of Hispaniola, on 181st and Cabrini? It is a dominican/asian fusion place, and the food is very good.
Funny you should say that. I think Chicago style pizza is just congenitally horrible and am perpetually shocked at its continued existance. It takes all kinds to move the world.
And as a neutral observer, I find both styles to be wildly overrated. Good pizza is good pizza wherever you go.
I just personally loathe thick crust, soupy, oily pizza of any kind. I am sure there is plenty of thick crust pizza that is considered good by people who like it, but I am not one of those people. Any thick crust pizza, to my taste, is just not going to be good. I think I am being charitable by even admitting that it is pizza to begin with, as opposed to, say, shmizza. It has nothing to do with regional style or whether or not something is overrated.
I’m not the biggest fan of deep dish either, but when done well (around here, zachary’s is the best) it can be just as good as any other style of pizza. I like em in all styles, and I’ve had good and bad versions of just about all of them.
I like Mamajuana quite a bit. We ordered some spicy tuna roles from them last night, I didn’t have any but Caitlin said they were meh but not terrible, said she’d keep ordering Sushi from Ozen on 97th street as we have been. 
Only problem is Ozen takes so long. I wish we had good chinese in these parts. I was thinking of writing a letter to the owners of Grand Sichuan and begging them to come open a restaurant in Inwood.
Right, and it is pretty much the best place in Inwood.
Yes, that is precisely what I’m thinking of. Have to try it and the New Leaf sometime.
There’s also a fair number of pretty decent places on 187th street between Ft. Washington and Cabrini. Bleu Evolution is good for a fairly standard New York French Bistro fare, their steaks are quite good. Across the street from that is Next Door and 107 West which are both fair but not amazing. Bleu Evolution has very nice garden seating. The Mexican place on Ft. Washington Ta Cocina is very good, we order from there all the time, but it’s nothing to write home about.
Heh, I think Pizza is overrated. Unless it’s from Coronets, slices the size of your arm and enough oil to lube your Ford Fiesta.
Tim Roth doesn’t seem to work there anymore, so it has kind of lost its luster.