Monday, August 21, 2017

Family-friendly NYC Restaurant Recommendations

List updated 2019-Dec-28:
On Aug 16, 2017, a coworker wrote:
Going to NYC next week with family.  Can you recommend some good casual restaurants for lunch/dinner.  Thanks.
My response:

First, I’d recommend installing the Yelp app if you don’t already have it. Whenever you need a recommendation of Coffee, Pizza, Mexican, Burgers, Ice Cream, or really anything… Yelp is great resource to immediately tell you where the closest/best place is.

Second, try to make reservations whenever possible because wait times can be long. However, since there are so many great places, I wouldn’t bother waiting anywhere over 30 mins and just go somewhere else just as good. Call or use https://www.opentable.com/https://reserve.com/https://resy.com/, ...

Third, I just went through my list of 100s of places I've eaten and there’s so many good ones that it's difficult to make a small list but here goes. You’ll notice that I bolded 3 of my top restaurant recommendations because they are NYC unique experiences: Stardust, Black Tap and Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse.

Theatre District/Times Square area:
Midtown East:
Midtown West:
Flatiron (Around 23rd Street), Madison Square Park:
Chelsea:
West Village:
East Village:
SoHo:
Lower East Side (LES):
Chinatown:
There are so many more places so if you are interested in a specific cuisine: Mexican, or even 'Cuban Chinese' or 'Brazilian Sushi' (those are real cuisines and not just a modern fusion restaurant) ask Yelp or don’t hesitate to ask me about restaurants or anything else in NYC.

Have a great time and let me know how it goes.