I flew to New York on New Year's day and got there at night. I made it in time to eat, party, and eat. Unfortunately, I felt sick the next morning. It must have been something I ate because I did not have an appetite for two days. After I get better, it was just non-stop eating, shopping, site seeing, and drinking ... if you consider cocktails or throwing up after two patrons as drinking.
I want to thank Bobby for being a great travelmate, and for Kelly, Regina, Calvin, David and Vivian for showing us around. You guys are awesome!
Hidden Bars
We first tried going to
Please Don't Tell aka PDT. It's a bar hidden inside the phone booth of an old and popular hot dog restaurant called
Crif Dogs. You go in the hot dog joint, into the phone booth, pick up the phone, then a hostess picks up asking you how many people you have. The wall inside the phone booth opens and that's how you get in. Unfortunately, PDT was all booked that night - make sure to rsvp! - so we moved to another hidden bar.
Inside the Japanese restaurant called
Village Yokocho is another door that leads to a dim and romantic bar room. They don't allow people to stand around so if there are no seats, you have to wait by the door or outside. They only accept parties no larger than four and their cocktails are amazing. All this makes for a cool spot to have a nice conversation.
PDT
113 St. Marks Pl
New York, NY 10009
(212) 614-0386
Angel's Share
8 Stuyvesant St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-5415
*Thank you, Calvin, for showing us these places.
Cupcake in the City
I finally visited the famous
Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker St., made famous by the girls of Sex and the City. It was a huge disappointment. Magnolia ain't got nothing over LA's
Sprinkles. The cupcakes were laid out in the open on self-serve trays, which would be okay if this was Chinese bakery in Chinatown! Can we say unsanitary? Plus, there wasn't much of a variety. The cakes themselves were dry. If a cupcake here was a girl, then she'd get through life by looks alone.
Magnolia Bakery
401 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 462-2572
The Halal Cart
There are a million Halal carts in Manhattan, but which one should you go to? I'll tell you: The one on
53rd and 6th. Be careful - this intersection has four corners so make sure you go to the cart that actually says "53rd and 5th" on it. The two guys working there should also be wearing their official yellow tshirts with their address on it. Other carts will have guys wearing yellow tshirts too, so don't be fooled!
53rd and 6th Halal Cart
53rd St & 6th Ave
New York, NY 10079
*Thank you, Vivian, for showing us this cart.
Chinese Food in Chinatown
A lot of people already know this but you might not: Chinese food in Chinatown, no good! Every Chinese person in San Francisco knows not to go to Chinatown for Chinese food unless it's convenient, and everyone in LA knows that the real Chinatown is in San Gabriel, not LA's Chinatown. In the case of New York, the real Chinese stuff is in Flushing. I ate at a fairly popular Chinese restaurant for dim sum,
Oriental Garden Restaurant, and it disappointed me ... but not too much since I already had the mentality that I wouldn't really find great dim sum in Chinatown.
Good food still exists, though! I really liked a hole-in-the-wall hand-pulled noodle joint called
Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle. They make the noodles to order in the same room you eat at so it's not only a meal - it's also a show. I didn't get to go this time but
Joe's Shanghai never fails.
Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle
144 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002
(212) 566-6933
Do you enjoy going to bars and restaurants when travelling? What places do you recommend?
Do you enjoy going to bars and restaurants when travelling? What places do you recommend?
Comments (7)
mm, thanks for the tips! going there next week! :)
sounds fun!
A reservation for PDT is a must. You have to call them at 3p.m. for the day of. It's crazy but the place is pretty cool, not cheap, but a cool concept.
The hotdogs at Crif Dogs are great too, so if you don't get in you can chill at CD and grab a dog.
Very cool pics! Thanks for sharing!
I think I wanna try PDT now. Thanks for the post.
hey da wang in chinatown is really good :( it's real chinese food, i love that place, it's got the same atmosphere as street restaurants in hk
The two places I remember most distinctly are:
Serendipity's and Fusia.
Fusia is this great, down to earth and not to expensive retaraunt...think it was on the upper east side, but not sure. :) It was great and the service was excellent--our waiter actually offered to take our picture afterwards and he even went out in the middle of the street to do it! That is quite brave of a New Yorker to do when they know how mean the cabs can be!
As for Serendipity's, it might be a little touristy, but great. Interesting things to look at and a little hard to find, but soooo worth it. You'd better make reservations though because the wait can be up to 4 HOURS. The things I'd really reccommend are their Frozen Hot Chocolate (a must have!) and their Forbidden Broadway Chocolate Sundae. It's huge!!!!
Big Wing Wong on Mott Street = Love
[102 Mott Between Canal & Hester St.]
Cheap Chinese food, and almost obscene sized portions.