I agree with Bkeats. In the interests of full disclosure, I'm one of those "never be late, never cut it close" types who always arrives at the airport at least 2 hours early. Having said that, your itinerary sounds fairly ambitious to me. I don't think I would enjoy a trip to NYC under those circumstances; I'd spend the whole time stressing about hitting traffic or otherwise being delayed and missing the outbound flight. I might be able to get comfortable with a limited itinerary (maybe one tourist attraction and a reasonably quick meal), but trying to fit in everything you're proposing would stress me out too much.

Whatever happens, though, I really hope you have a great time here.

See this thread:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/846032

Does anyone have any thoughts on Brasilina on 9th in the mid-50s? A foodie friend of mine had read good reviews and came into Manhattan to go there with me, but it turns out they're not open for lunch, and it was noon, so we went somewhere else.

I was just wondering if that might be a viable option for the OP.

I see Simon beat me to recommending--or, at least, mentioning--Sakagura. That's one of my favorite restaurants in New York. It's not a sushi place (though they do have some sashimi), but it's a fun small plates place where you order, say, 6-10 dishes to share. The place seems to be popular with Japanese ex-pats, and there's plenty on the menu for the less adventurous. My favorite dishes there are the "duck wrapped around scallions" and the "saikoro steak," which is a kind of diced steak served in a sauce I don't quite know how to describe. If you're interested, they also have an extensive selection of sake and other Japanese drinks. Oh, if you go, go for dinner, not lunch--their lunches don't seem to be anything special.

I'd also suggest skipping Shake Shack. There are dozens of other burger places in Manhattan where you can get a burger that's just as good after a much shorter wait.

I hope you have a great time. Let us know how it goes.

I'm too new to the neighborhood to offer any specific recommendations, but there are literally about nine Thai restaurants along 9th Avenue between 53rd and 42nd or so. You could just walk along, exploring the neighborhood, until you find one that looks interesting.

I definitely agree with the kamo roast. That stuff is amazing. The saikoro steak is also quite good.

For dessert, they have this coffee jello thing that I love. They give you a tiny jar of milk that you can pour on it, and it's really great.

I work near that Shake Shack. Depending on when you go, it'll probably take about 30-45 minutes for you to work your way through the line, at which point you'll be rewarded with a fairly average burger.

Thanks! Yes, I've largely shifted to the view that it's not worth taking one of their tours, but will try to keep an open mind in case anyone has specific knowledge of them.

Is anyone familiar with "Food on Foot Tours"?

A few hours ago, I walked over to a casual, low/mid-range, "good food for the price" restaurant in my neighborhood. I've never previously seen more than two or three tables occupied but was shocked to find that every table was full, with a number of people lining up to place their order.

I left, walked around for about 15 minutes in search of an alternative, and then walked by the place again and saw that it had largely emptied out, but now had a large crowd of people outside. I went inside and asked the man behind the counter if the crowd was a tour group. He indicated that they are, and told me it was called "Food on Foot Tours." He said they come there once or twice a week.

I'm always interested in learning about walking tours in general and foodie walking tours in particular, so I hopped online and checked it out. The site lists a number of interesting-looking tours, but doesn't really provide descriptions of the tours, so I wonder whether it's worth the money. Frankly, while I like the restaurant that the tour stopped at and go there once every week or two, I don't think I'd go out of my way for it and kind of feel like its presence as a regular stop on the food tour probably doesn't speak well of the tour group.

Still, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with them and can offer any thoughts. Thanks!

Thanks, d8200, for that very helpful response. I don't think the various places I've been going to have a tip jar, just the "tip" line on the credit card statement, but I'll pay more attention in the future.

Maybe I should just tip generously every few visits instead of a little at a time. I don't know, it just feels more natural that way.

Four of the five threads you linked to address tipping on take-out, which is explicitly not what I asked about and potentially quite different from the situation I described, in which I pay at the counter and then sit down for 20-30 minutes and eat 10 feet away from the guy I just declined to tip.

The thread on tip jars was marginally on point, so thanks for that.

I'm sure this question, or a variation of it, comes up a lot, but I've been on the Manhattan board for a while and haven't seen it, and I tried several different searches and couldn't find anything on point.

I know that there's some debate about whether it's necessary to tip on take-out, but believe that the general consensus is "no." If you accept that as a given, what about those places (like a number of hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants with big photographs of the food on the walls with captions in cheesy yellow lettering) that are primarily take-out places but have some tables and chairs set up? If you go up to the counter, place your order, pay, wait, pick up your food at the counter, bring it to a table, sit down, and eat, do you need to tip?

What about places that seem to have a reasonable number of people eat in, but that give you your food at the counter, make you pay when you order, and don't actually wait on you? My theory has generally been that I don't need to tip even if I sit down and eat at such places, but I'm starting to go to a couple of them once every week or two and am starting to worry that I'm being cheap or a freeloader. On the other hand...if I don't tip at Chipotle, why would I have to tip at the Turkish place down the street that serves its food the same way?

And if you do tip at places like that, how much?

Thanks!

Let me turn this around: for those of us who don't care about the Superbowl but want a decent, mid-range dinner out tonight, what are some good options? I'm looking for a place that will be open (I've noticed that several restaurants in my neighborhood have hung signs in their windows announcing that they will be closed tonight) and one that won't have a TV showing the Superbowl.

Thanks!

I like Rickshaw's dumplings. I'm not a fan of Prosperity's, and Vanessa's are pretty bad, but I've been very happy at Rickshaw.

How about Rickshaw Dumpling House on 23rd Street? It has a good selection of good dumplings at a reasonable price, and has a decent number of tables to sit at. They don't actually have waiter service and therefore don't "bring the food out to you," but in my experience they're so fast that I'll usually still be at the fountain soda machine when my food is ready.

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Rickshaw Dumpling Bar
61 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10010

I recently wandered into Bed, Bath, and Beyond and saw that they were selling various decks of cards that were actually gift cards to various bars and restaurants. The one that I'm most interested in costs $30 and gets you $10 gift cards to each of 52 Manhattan restaurants. There's some fine print (for example, you have to spend $30 or more to use the card, not including tax, tip, or alcohol; and all cards expire on December 31), but it still seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Having said that, I'm not familiar with the vast majority of restaurants on the list. Here's the website for the product; the restaurants are listed along the left. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether these are generally good restaurants? I only recently moved to Manhattan and don't know a lot of people here, so I would expect to try some of these places alone and some with a friend.

https://www.cityshuffle.com/index.asp...

(Just to be clear, I have no affiliation with the people who make the cards, or any of these restaurants. Or Bed, Bath, and Beyond, for that matter.

Thanks!

Thanks! I'll be working near Port Authority.

Thanks! Is there a map that goes along with this? Here in DC, I swear by a website that puts all the food truck locations on an easy-to-use map. No searching, no clicking, no looking down a long list of text and trying to visualize where various trucks are. Does Midtown Lunch, or another website, do something like that?

Thanks, everyone. I haven't been able to work my way through all the recommendations yet, but I look forward to doing so.

I'm really looking forward to my move. Thanks again.

Thanks, Cheeryvisage, but at the risk of coming across as inept with the use of websites, I couldn't find anything significant on Midtown Lunch for food trucks. I found a function that lets you map out restaurants serving numerous different kinds of food, but nothing that lets you simply search for food trucks. If you could walk me through it, I'd really appreciate it.

Hi, everyone. I'm about to move to Manhattan and was wondering what websites, besides this one, I should get in the habit of checking for useful information or functionality regarding restaurants and dining/eating.

I did a search and saw some discussion of midtownlunch.com. I also found this thread on Groupon-type sites:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/772337

Are there any other sites that people would recommend? For example, one of my favorite sites in my current residence of Washington, DC updates the location of food trucks; is there a Manhattan equivalent?

Also, if there are any apps that would be useful for me to put on my Android phone, I'd be interested in hearing some suggestions for that as well.

Thank you very much!

I thought it was going to be a thread about chocolate you can give to your boyfriend/girlfriend to soften the blow when you end things.

Don't Hershey's Bars and Kit Kats break into pieces? You can get those at CVS.

Nope; I don't use mustard or mayo, and I'm not pissed at them at all. I think their sandwiches are fine and have no ill-will against them whatsoever. I just don't get why some people think the place is so special. Again, it's fine, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

I agree. I think Taylor is, at best, half a step above Subway. Granted, I actually like Subway, but I also don't go out of my way to convince people to eat there.

I went over to Meatballs for lunch today, on the theory that it might not be very crowded due to the holiday. I went early and had to wait less than a minute before placing my order. I also had no trouble finding a seat, but a few large groups came in as I was eating, and it was clear that many of them were not going to be sitting any time soon.

Since it was my first visit, I decided to stick with the classics: the classic (beef) meatballs, on pasta, with marinara sauce. The four meatballs were small (I'd say slightly larger than a golf ball), but very good. Something about the marinara sauce combined with the pasta didn't hit me quite right; the sauce seemed a little thin and not very well seasoned, and the pasta and sauce combination felt a lot like something my junior high school cafeteria would have served. Again, though, the meatballs were great.

They serve some free sides, which oddly include Fritos, served separately in a small bowl. I hadn't had Fritos in a decade or two, so that's what I picked.

Overall, I thought the meal was fine, but I do think it's a little expensive for what you get. My four small meatballs with pasta, free Fritos, and a fountain drink cost me $12.41. It's not going to break the bank or anything, but I doubt this place will earn a regular spot in the lunch restaurant rotations of people who go to places like Merzi for a decent lunch at something like two thirds the price.

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Merzi
415 7th St NW, Washington, DC, DC 20004

She's not, really, but I can see why you'd think that. I'm sure if I really, strongly insisted, she'd give Komi a chance, but she spends an average of three days a year in Washington, and I live here. So, I can go to Komi whenever I want (it's not her fault that none of my local friends are interested), and I don't feel that it's appropriate for me to insist on going to a restaurant that I can go to any time when her availability is so limited.

Believe me, when I visit them in Connecticut, they take me to a nice mix of amazing restaurants, so it's only fair I accommodate her on this one point.

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Komi
1509 17th St NW Ste 1, Washington, DC 20036

I don't think Turkish food is all that similar to Georgian. In any case, there are a number of decent Turkish restaurants in DC; no need to go to Baltimore for it.

My experience is kind of, but not really, the opposite. I enjoy going to a wide variety of places. A good friend of mine lives in Connecticut and is very demanding when it comes to food; she and her husband come visit once or twice a year, and are willing to spend one evening on an upscale meal at a relatively pricey restaurant. In preparing for her first trip here, my friend was torn between Obelisk and Komi; we landed reservations at Obelisk, so that's where we went. She loved Obelisk, and has insisted on returning during subsequent visits. I've practically begged her to give Komi a chance during her more recent visits, largely because I want to try it and none of my local friends are interested in going, but she liked Obelisk so much that she simply won't take the risk that Komi won't be as good. So, every time she comes, Obelisk it is.

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Komi
1509 17th St NW Ste 1, Washington, DC 20036

I know, but it was a decent but inexpensive option, with a fairly diverse menu. My friend and I have very different food preferences but were both always able to find something to appeal to us there.

I have a family friend that comes into DC every few months. She arrives by train, and we often end up having lunch at America restaurant in Union Station. Our plans to do so today were somewhat complicated by the fact that the restaurant no longer appears to be in business. It wasn't clear what, if anything, will replace it.

I'm somewhat disappointed. The restaurant wasn't nearly as good as its amazing New York counterpart, which folded several years ago, but it was still a good, conveniently located, reasonably priced restaurant. I'm going to miss it. My friend and I ended up having lunch in the food court, which wasn't quite the same thing.

[I apologize if this has already been posted, but I check this board regularly and hadn't heard about this. I also tried using the "search" function, which didn't yield any relevant results.]