Eating In New York- Trip Report

Youstolemyname

Youstolemyname

Youstolemyname

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Mrs Youstolemyname and I recently spent Christmas in New York City. It was six days of shopping and stuffing our faces!

The flight was with Aer Lingus who were pretty average. Drinks service slow and poor with alcohol being charged for in cattle class :eek:

We landed after almost 24 hours of being awake and arrived at our hotel via a car service (Dial 7 limos) in good time from JFK. The Bryant Park Hotel was our base : http://www.bryantparkhotel.com/ and I cannot recommend this place enough. Location is perfect, staff are amazing and rooms are great.

Our first meal was at one of our fave comfort food places- Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co: http://www.bubbagump.com/

We got peel and eat shrimp in garlic sauce, fries and a caesar salad. Unfortunately, tiredness had kicked in so forgot to get a good pic and ate most of them first!

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/281/2012122220161326.jpg

It's a cheap eat but so damn good! Prawns (shrimp) are steamed in beer and served hot in garlic sauce.

We then had a bit of a walk around Times Square & Rockefeller Centre etc before heading to Shake Shack for a burger http://www.shakeshack.com/

I grabbed the Cheese and Bacon Burger and a Beer while the other half just had a milkshake.

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This was burger perfection, the bun, cheese and toppings all melting in to one gooey, juicy yummy burger! Beer was a nice touch too! After this, it was time to crash and get ready for the next day.

The next day started with a trip to the top of the Empire State Building and a quick coffee/bagel breakfast. This was fantastic; the day was bright and clear and the views amazing. I will post pics of this later on in the thread if people want to see :)

Lunch was at the legendary Katz's deli. http://katzsdelicatessen.com/

They specialise in HUGE sandwiches. I grabbed their signature pastrami and the wife a 'rare' roast beef. The pastrami was gorgeous; just spicy enough and very tender. The mrs wasn't as keen on her roast beef one, said it was pretty bland.

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We were stuffed all day so for dinner opted to go to BonChon Chicken http://www.bonchon.com/ This place is like a Korean KFC on steroids! The chicken is twice fried so the coating is like glass and the sauce was incredible. Sadly, we forgot to take pics!

I will continue to update as I go along, grabbing dinner now!
 
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So Christmas Eve landed and we had a morning of shopping, the mrs fancied something in a blue box from Tiffany's so we headed in there and grabbed lunch at the Plaza Hotel food court http://www.theplazany.com/dining/the-plaza-food-hall/. This reminded me of the food court area in Harrods/ Selfridges; a number of different outlets to choose from all serving yummy treats!

I grabbed a lobster roll from Luke's Lobster:
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5271/2012122420172627.jpg

The mrs got a chicken caesar salad and a 20 layer crepe with banana and chocolate cream!

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/3183/2012122420173901.jpg

The lobster roll was incredible. So fresh tasting, they only use claw meat so it was just super sweet and soft. The mrs enjoyed the salad and said the cake crepe thing was melt in the mouth and super light

We then did more shopping and hit up a show before heading to Virgil's BBQ for dinner. http://www.virgilsbbq.com/ This place is two mins from Times Square so a bit of a tourist trap. However, we had heard good things about their BBQ and we were not disappointed. First up, the portions were ridiculous! We could have split our order easily!

I had a platter of brisket, ribs and pulled pork with sides of Mac n Cheese/ Collard Greens. The sides were pretty unforgettable but OMG the ribs were the smokiest I have ever tasted. The brisket and pork were pretty good too but those ribs were just incredible:

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/9246/2012122520021658.jpg

Christmas Day began with Ice Skating in Bryant Park which was 'interesting'. It was my first time so needless to say, Torville and Dean have nothing to worry about! We then had a truly unmemorable breakfast in Applebees as it was the only place open nearby. Avoid! We did the tourist thing for the morning- grabbed an open top bus tour, went to battery park and got the Staten Island Ferry for views of the Statue of Liberty before heading back up to Times Square for a 5 Guys burger for lunch http://www.fiveguys.com/:

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This was a messy gooey juicy burger with lots of toppings! It wasn't as good as Shake Shack but still blew McDonalds out of the water!

The afternoon was the uptown bus tour followed by a walk in Central Park before our dinner at Quality Meats http://qualitymeatsnyc.com/#

No trip to the USA is complete without an enormous steak! This restaurant gets 10/10 in my book, it was perfection! I had roasted bone marrow to start which came with toast and a really thick kind of 'stew' of beef/carrots to spread on the toast. I had bone marrow before at Hawksmoor in London but this was the next level. The stew made it even more beefy whereas hawksmoor serve theirs with caramelised onions. Sorry for the crappy pictures, it was DARK in there and I only had my iPhone 3GS on me!

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/7596/20121225201758521.jpg

Then on to the main event! I had a 24 oz bone in ribeye while the mrs had a trio of fillets with different sauces. They were both incredible and the pics will not do them justice. Sides were parmesan waffle fries and corn creme brulee. The corn creme brulee was amazing but too sweet to go with a steak in my opinion.

My steak looks cremated but it was charred outside and medium inside:

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The three fillets:

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Boxing day was an early start to hit the sales and visit SoHo. It was also our last day :(

Lunch was at Lombardis Pizza http://www.firstpizza.com/

We had a half and half pizza of Pepperoni/Prosciutto and Peppers/Onions. It makes you never ever EVER want to eat a pizza in the UK again. The base was crunchy/chewy and the toppings/sauce so so fresh.

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More shopping followed before a visit to the 9/11 Memorial. A very sad experience but we felt we wanted to pay our respects to those that lost their lives.

Our final meal of the trip was at Blue Smoke BBQ and what a meal it was! http://jazzstandard.net/blue/

We shared an appetizer of chicken wings in a chipotle BBQ sauce. This was a huge portion! and here's what's left:

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The mrs went for southern fried chicken with biscuit, mashed potato and gravy:

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She loved it, said they were very moist but crispy crunchy on the outside without being greasy.

I went for the rib sampler: Baby Back, Spare and Beef Ribs:

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5073/2012122720003226.jpg

With their signature mac and cheese side:
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The ribs were not as smokey as Virgil's but they were much more tasty and juicy! The Mac and Cheese was just delicious, so creamy and yummy!

Our last day was only a half day and consisted of more shopping(!) and a trip to Grand Central Terminal. I grabbed a quick hot dog before we finished our trip with the same meal we started it with at Bubba Gump's.

I'll post some of the pictures of NYC at Christmas in a bit...
 
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We walked for MILES so hopefully not piled too much weight on. It's easy to see why America has such an obesity problem as portion sizes there are just ridiculous.
 
Ah Katz's deli...love this place!

Why didn't you go for the reuben, pastrami AND corned beef!!?! Hehe!

I remember just spending ages looking at the pictures on the walls of the various famous people who had been there :eek:
 
The only thing I will say about spending Christmas Day in NYC was it felt like just another day. Nothing really stopped or changed or felt any different to the other days.

Was still good though!

Just going through my photos from the trip that weren't of food, will post some later!
 
I hate these threads because:
1) New York is amazing for food
2) I love New York

I went to Lombardi's as well - really good. I regret not queueing up and trying Grimaldi's in Brooklyn though, it's supposed to be *the* best.

20 layer crepe you say? SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE I have to try that :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
That crepe/cake looks AMAZING!

I could really go for a rib combo now.

As for Five Guys v Shake Shack, whilst SS is better, I don't think so much so to outweigh the queue times and increased cost over 5G. :p
 
Ha amazing, we went to Virgil's when we were there too. The brisket was superb, but we were stuffed after starters. You're right, their portion sizes are utterly ridiculous.

Your whirlwind food-tour looked awesome though. :D
 
Jonny69 said:
I hate these threads because:
1) New York is amazing for food
2) I love New York

I went to Lombardi's as well - really good. I regret not queueing up and trying Grimaldi's in Brooklyn though, it's supposed to be *the* best.

20 layer crepe you say? SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE I have to try that :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
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I had some of the crepe and it was very light but I prefer a more solid cake dessert. Can't see how much better Grimaldi's would be as Lombardi's was amazing. They have a Grimaldi's in Limelight Marketplace now ( http://www.shoplimelightmarketplace.com/mainmenu.html) but we didn't eat there as we were stuffed from Katz's deli and they only did whole pies.

krooton said:
That crepe/cake looks AMAZING!

I could really go for a rib combo now.

As for Five Guys v Shake Shack, whilst SS is better, I don't think so much so to outweigh the queue times and increased cost over 5G. :p
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Shake Shack near Times Square is the one to go to, much quieter than the park ones. Waited about 5 mins in line then same again for the order at approx 7-8pm

randal24 said:
Ha amazing, we went to Virgil's when we were there too. The brisket was superb, but we were stuffed after starters. You're right, their portion sizes are utterly ridiculous.

Your whirlwind food-tour looked awesome though. :D
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Virgil's is great and cheap too. We went to Southern 11 in Manchester for BBQ on new years eve, it was rubbish in comparison; hardly any smoke flavour. New York is a true food lover's paradise, the choice is second to none!

I will get round to posting the general NYC pics later I think but they aren't of anything people won't have seen before...empire state etc etc
 
:eek: air Linus was very nice, all new planes, nice service, good staff. If you thought they were average, you should have gone Delta, well maybe not I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemies.

Some extremely tasty looking stuff, I never did try a proper American burger in the states and certainly didn't spend enough time in NYC

It all looks so tasty,

Delis do seem to be a bit hit and miss, two of us had great sandwiches, the other twos where average. There was a hot/cold split though. With the cold meats being to cold and hiding the flavour.

I agree with Jonny69, NY is an amazing place, with amazing food.
 
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