I think it would be a great choice as the food is always awesome, if a little pricey.

Thanks for the help, all. I booked Blue Fin in Times Square yesterday as they only $45 a head & there's a choice of apps that includes sushi. :) In case there's anything preferable, I'll look into your lists & suggestions however. Much appreciated.

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Blue Fin
1567 Broadway, New York, NY 10036

wonderful post. thank you. :)

I realize it's late to be asking this, but I've just learned that I will be dining in a restaurant with friends for Thanksgiving and not in someone's home, as had previous been arranged.

I looked online and most of the decent places are charging $75-100 per head, not including wine. My group would prefer a turkey theme (though I'd be open to anything - my suggestion was Pulino's Pizzeria, which I recommend if you haven't been).

Any thoughts? I imagine $40-60 a head is more our speed.

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Pulino's
282 Bowery, New York, NY 10012

Ben's Pizzeria in Greenwich Village. $3.75 buys you a slice of Grandma heaven.

Buddakan's a good idea, esp if you can arrange with the restaurant to offer a custom menu for under $40 per head. A surprising number of restaurants will do that for you.

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Buddakan
75 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011

the Bo SSam is a good idea. would they have a better chance at Momofuku Noodle Bar, or are the waits as long? the food in just as good IMHO.

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Momofuku Noodle Bar
171 1st Ave, New York, NY 10003

I am a voracious and enthusiastic omnivore - I love food of all kinds, whether it's meat, vegan, vegetarian, raw, and anything else, so long as it it's well-prepared and tastes great. As such, I speak as someone "used to a wider, unrestricted palette of flavors" and I couldn't disagree with smorgan more. Many of the dishes at PFW taste incredible. I'd go there a lot more if it wasn't so darned expensive. Maybe you should give it another try without thinking of it as offering "restricted" flavors.

BTW, my favorite vegetarian dish in the city the Spaghetti Limone at Supper. Mmm.

la grenouille would be prefect: it's fun, famous, beautifully lit, old school, absurdly bourgeois and classy in a mom's-80th kind of way. i'd love to take my mum there.

please do a review if you go, jim!

Agreed on the Breslin's chips. Will give the others a shot. Thanks.

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The Breslin
20 W 29th St, New York, NY 10001

The wasabi caviar at Soto is awesome.

Last night we went to Jaya, a Malaysian place in Chinatown that's opposite Nha Trang, my favorite cheapo Vietnamese place, and we were so, so disappointed. I really wanted it to be good because I love Malaysian, the prices at Jaya are reasonable, and I read a number of customer reviews online that claimed this place had the best Malaysian in NYC. So much for that.

The place itself is cute enough, nothing special but cozy, and the service was fine (though they never got around to cleaning our table once we were done, even though I gently asked if they would). Never having been there, and hoping for the best possible experience, I ordered dishes that I'd read about in user reviews, and here's what happened:
Beef Rendang ($12): The meat was fatty and chewy and the sauce was ordinary.
Mango Shrimp ($12): This was basically cold when we got it and the peppers and mango tasted like they'd been cooked directly under a gas flame; with a kind of burnt, synthetic taste.
Assam Laksa ($5.50): Awful. I'm a huge fan of regular Laksa (always a can't-go-wrong choice) but this soup tasted so pungently fishy that none of us could eat it. In fact, the girl who served us announced as she put it on the table, "I wouldn't recommend this dish - it has very strong flavor." I replied, jokingly, but with slight incredulity, "Why are telling us now, instead of when we ordered it?" We all laughed and proceeded to hate the soup.
Panang Chow Kueh Teow ($6.50): Tasted like average Chinese food. Yuk.

All 3 of us considered ourselves foodies, but we didn't finish any of the dishes (I think that's why they didn't clean the table - they couldn't believe we'd leave so much food behind). I'm also a huge advocate of doggy bags, but this was one instance in which I didn't ask for one. When we got home, my girlfriend made toast to fill herself up. Never again.

Next time we'll go to Nyonya or The Malaysia, which are both far superior.

BTW, does anyone have any other Malaysian reccos?

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Nyonya
199 Grand St, New York, NY 10013

Nha Trang
148 Centre St, New York, NY 10013

Jaya
90 Baxter St, New York, NY 10013

Does anyone know a nice place to meet and discuss business over a cup of coffee in this neighborhood? I used to live in the EV and I sorely miss the plethora of choices there. The only place I know around here is Lugo Caffe and that's really more of an eatery.

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Lugo Caffe
1 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10019

And where can one learn more of Jim's theories? They seem to be quite useful.

The one at Mandoo Bar is excellent, but I haven't tried many others.

I'm also really curious about this - does anyone else have some suggestions?

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Mandoo Bar
2 W 32nd St, New York, NY 10001

Totally agree with Jim. Loving 280Ninth's broadminded lack of vitriol. I came away from Eataly thinking: Hmm, not as amazing as expected; I must go back and explore to see what the fuss is about.

Incidentally, Jim, you're a god. I must confess I miss the days when Chowhound was less about the Minetta Taverns of the world and more about weird little holes in the wall in Queens... but that's just me.

Besides, as a man wiser that I once said, "There's no such thing as bad art, just unfinished art."

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Minetta Tavern
113 MacDougal St, New York, NY 10012

Eataly
200 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010

I have to agree. i just added a review of my first visit and I'm so glad to see that at least one person agrees with me that the Watercress Salad is just way too heavy and greasy. We really disliked it, and I'd read so many rave reviews. Maybe it's for the American palate. By and large, though, we had a pretty delicious visit and I'm looking forward to going back sometime. The menu has about 5,000 dishes on it, so there's a lot to explore.

I went to Sriprapha on the weekend for the first time after much anticipation and thought I'd post a few thoughts. We were excited to try the Watercress Salad w/Seafood, but while you'd expect it to be light and crispy, the batter was thick and chunky and we couldn't figure out why so many people recommend it. But we did love the Steamed Chicken Dumplings and the Ground Pork with Chili & Basil. There was a real freshness to the flavours, esp the ginger. The Papaya Salad was good too, but not outstanding. Frankly, I'd have preferred it all more spicy but I guess you need to specify that when you order, so my bad. Prices were reasonable as well; we paid around $70 for two, inc. a cocktail each. It's clear that Sripraphai's better than your average Thai restaurant, and we're looking distantly forward to making the 1-hour trek back from Manhattan to explore the menu as I suspect there are gems there I've yet to discover that will help me understand why people say their cooking is as good as the food you eat in Thailand.

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SriPraPhai
64-13 39th Ave, Queens, NY 11377

thanks for the visual journey. i'm going there today for the first time so this was a good primer. you've convinced me to order the catfish salad. all that green looks so healthy and good.

thanks, guys. i'll investigate all your suggestions.

i'm missing me some some al dente chewy chow fun.

Hi guys,

There WAS a half-decent Chinese noodle place in the 30s on 8th Ave but sadly it closed.

I need a noodle place of some sort that will deliver (and hell, I live NEXT TO Madison Sq Garden - it doesn't get much more central).

I just need noodles - Chinese, Thai, good ramen, anything! - that will deliver.

Any suggestions would be SO MUCH appreciated.

Thanks, Hounds.

nice. thanks.

look fwd to hearing what you come up with. :)

i agree - i LOVE the cereal milk soft serve and, despite the ease with which i could make it at home, i enjoy the cereal milk flavored milk as well. with all due respect to simon's point, i don't want to make it at home; i'd rather buy it for $5 and go watch the dogs at the dog run in tompkins square park while i enjoy it and munch my pork buns. :)

awesome. thank you. :)

nice. low key. thanks.

is that their famous black pepper dish?

no, i haven't, but i will now. :) thanks, uwsister.

holy moly, what an amazing blog! (especially the uni entry.) is this your blog, daffy?
thanks much for the link regardless. :)

oh god, bar masa - i dread to think how much that cost (and can only imagine how good it tasted)! but i'll definitely be trying out your other suggestions. thanks, sgordon.