When you’re on your feet racking up 10 miles a day in sightseeing, meals play a big part in the level of enjoyment during your trip. Much of the time, we spent searching for food when we were most desperate and groaning over the number of choices to pick through. That’s a good problem to have in such a diverse city with restaurants from around the world. We ate well and ate much. Here is our list of top eats on our New York City trip.

Haru Sushi-1 Wall St, New York, NY

Just a few blocks away from our lower Manhattan hotel on Wall Street, this Japanese restaurant was one of our favorite places to eat. We visited here twice on our trip. Derek picked out his favorite Chicken Katsu and I sampled the Tempura and California sushi roll. A classy place, with delicious food.

Nakamura-172 Delancey St, New York (On the Manhattan shoreline by Williamsburg Bridge to Brooklyn)

Established in 2016, Chef Nakamura is a famous Japanese chef known as one of only four “Ramen Gods” who opened his first restaurant in Japan when he was 22. The ramen shop in New York City is a tiny “hole-in-the-wall” type of place that is always full where the chef prepares each dish made to order. We liked the ramen so much that we came back multiple times for lunch. Our favorite dish was the Torigara with a soy base, light clear chicken broth, chashu pork, menma, spinach,  naruto, scallion, nori, and thin noodles. The noodles were tasty and light. It was a little slippery slurping them up with chopsticks but well worth it. We were completely satisfied when finishing our portions.

Grazie-26 E 84th St. New York (Upper East Side)

A very classy Italian lunch on Christmas Eve after our self-guided Central Park tour.  We both ordered the Roma sandwich with sweet potato fries. It had grilled organic chicken with mozzarella, arugula, sundried tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette on ciabatta bread. 

Starbucks– 99 Wall St. New York

Sometimes you just need a pick-me-up and I learned that Derek loves Frappucinos while on a vacation. The barista tried to warn me that it was a frozen drink on a cold day but that was what he wanted. I like the Chai tea latte myself. Yes, there is a Starbucks on almost every corner.

George’s-89 Greenwich St. New York (Three blocks from the 9/11 Memorial Museum)

Just three blocks south of the World Trade Center,  George’s was demolished after the tragic events of 9/11/01. A local restaurant since 1950, they rebuilt their walls and doubled their size by adding a second level. This diner has big portions and excellent burgers.

Roberta’s Pizza 261 Moore St. Brooklyn, NY

Christmas evening and we are starving. We just finished watching “Jumungi” at the Alpine Cinema in Brooklyn and nothing’s open. Our only option is pizza and we take the subway out to the boonies to a dark, creepy alley to get there. It was a 2 1/2 hour wait for a table so we ordered a wood-fired Neapolitan pizza to-go and ate it on the subway on the way home. It looked like a hip place but we had just too many negative emotions to truly appreciate the experience. When you’re hungry, you’ll eat anything. It would be worth a revisit because people looked like they were having a great time.

Kobeyaki– 110 W 40th Street, New York (Bryant Park by the NYC 5th Ave. Library)

A Japanese restaurant with fresh ingredients and fast service similar to a Chipotle line process. We ordered grilled chicken teriyaki bowls with rice and vegetables. We had no idea how large the serving sizes would be!

 

Bon Appétit!