Eat

What to Eat
Prepare to be amazed. New York offers an enormous variety of restaurants, and many of them reasonably priced too. The following is a selection of restaurants I would recommend to any guests staying in town for a weekend or longer:

Korean
A hot bowl of spicy kimchi jigae or a sizzling stone bowl bibimbap, washed down with a beer, is a great cap on a long day spent tramping the city. My favorite Korean restaurant is Kunjip at 9 West 32nd Street, in Koreatown (in the shadow of the Empire State Building). Prepare for a ten to fifteen minute wait for a table and also to be hustled out to make way for the next group. This is not the sort of meal you linger over. (Price: Moderate) Menu Map

Mexican
Not exactly my favorite cuisine. Not because I don’t like it but because I invariably leave a Mexican restaurant feeling like I have swallowed a bowling ball. Then again it is delicious. And if you’re in the mood for a tortilla soup, tacos and some wicked cocktails, but want a slightly fancier atmosphere, try La Esquina at 114 Kenmare Street in SoHo. They have a chichi downstairs restaurant, which I have never even seen, but the upstairs cafe is small, intimate and perfect for either a romantic meal for two or a cozy meal for four. (Price: Moderate) Menu Map

Alternatively, you could head for Alma in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which has a rooftop restaurant with stunning views of downtown Manhattan, though it is a bit of a pain to get to. My advice, grab a cab. Menu Map

Pizza
The best pizza is in Brooklyn. The most popular stop on the Brooklyn pizza trail is Grimaldi’s, under the Brooklyn Bridge. But if you want to get a taste of Brooklyn life, take the Q train out to Di Fara Pizza at Avenue J in Midwood, where septugenarian Domenico Di Fara still makes every pizza by hand. The wait for a slice can be up to an hour, but pizza aficionados say it’s worth it. From here, you are only a twenty-minute Subway ride from Coney Island and one of the borough’s other great pizzerias Totonno’s, which has been serving pizza for more than 80 years. Grimaldi’s Map, Di Fara Map, Totonno’s Map

If you insist on staying in Manhattan for pizza, try Two Boots, which has seven locations across the city.

Italian
If Sofie and I really want to treat ourselves–or our guests–we head to Al Di La, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. They don’t accept reservations and if you turn up after 7pm on a weekend, expect to wait for two or three hours. Better to turn up a little earlier, put your name down for a half hour wait, and then pop into Al Di La’s wine bar around the corner. I guarantee it will be one of the best dinners you eat in New York. It’s not super expensive, but it’s not cheap either. Expect to spend about $50 or $60 per head including wine.

Burger
This is a tough one as many New York restaurants make great big, mouth-watering burgers. However, if you want something close to the handy-sized, all American, fast food hamburger–and a New York experience to boot–you probably won’t go wrong with Shake Shack, in Madison Square Park. The lines in the summer can easily force you to wait for more than hour, so don’t turn up then if you’re hungry. Better to visit in the off-season (they have outdoor heaters) or between meal times. Shake Shack has a number of Manhattan locations, but Madison Square Park is easily the best for visitors to the city because it is outdoors with ample people watching opportunities and because there are so many incredible buildings nearby, including the Flatiron, the Met Life building, and the Empire State Building.