guy999

what is a good website for finding out the better restaurants in nyc,

4 of us are going in april and want to make dinner reservations now because my last 2 trips to san fran we could not get into where we wanted to go because of the reservations rule...

i don't mind > 50 per person..

we are currently trying to get rooms at the sofitel or the grand hyatt, but everything is about 300 a night in our time frame..

ttjoseph

menupages.com is a good starting point. I use it quite often. New York magazine is also not too bad.

guy999

thanks very much, those work great, in fact it looks like for the first time i will actually pick something great in nyc, this is my 5 or 6th trip and my brother lives in sunneyside<sp>

but since my wife is not accustomed to sleeping on my brother's floor we are upgrading this trip..

hopefully aa will upgrade us as well..

kaiman

If you have the time, check out the 2006 michelin dining guide to NYC at your local bookstore. It is the first US guide from michelin....rates the restaurants and has maps to locate one close you where you are staying

jjpnyc

There is always the Zagat guide. Also check out the websites for any of the NY papers (Times, Post, Daily News), New York Magazine, & Time Out New York - all of which have tons of restaurant reviews. I'd also suggest narrowing things down a bit in picking your restaurant since there are so many types - a particular neighborhood, cuisine, trendy, romantic, etc. Otherwise it could just be truly overwhelming.

As for hotels, unfortunately $300/night is a "good" price. Tourism is going strong right now and hotels are constantly booked - even on the weekends.
You may want to consider looking at staying across one of the rivers (Jersey City/Hoboken or Brooklyn) as hotel rooms do get cheaper once you leave Manhattan. Also consider looking at downtown for a bargain as those are typically business hotels and their bookings can be soft on the weekends.

Arcolaio99

www.chowhound.com

Blumie

Opentable.com is a great site, particularly for NYC because of the large number of great restaurants that participate. Note, however, that many restaurants will not allow you to book a table more than a month in advance, so it might be worth checking back.

You might consdier seeing what's available on opentable, and then search those restaurants on chowhound.com to see what the 'hounds think of them.

Landing Gear

Better restaurants? You don't mind paying more than $50 per person? Great idea. But move that up to $200 a person for the best restaurants.

Blumie

Good point, but as I'm sure you are aware, $200 per person only gets you into the second tier (in terms of pricing, not necessarily in terms of quality) of NYC restaurants. The top tier is substantially more expensive than that!

That said, chowhound.com is an excellent resource for finding great meals in the $50-$100 per person range. A couple of my favorites in this range include Pearl Oyster Bar, in the Village, for great seafood and fish; and Le Zie, in Chelsea, a great neighborhood Italian restaurant. The former does not accept reservations and oftentimes requires a wait for a table; the latter accepts reservations, which generally are easy to get.

Landing Gear

Of course, without question.

I had a lovely meal at Balthazar a week ago that was about $300.

I had dinner at Orsay on Thursday night for about $270.

On the other hand, I would figure $600+ at Daniel, Jean Georges, etc. if you want four courses and good wine. Agreed?

I love the daily New York Magazine restaurant e-mail. Do you get it?

Blumie

I don't, but I'm not a big fan of either the magazine or their restaurant reviews. Should I get it anyways?

(BTW, were the prices you cite in your last post per person?)

Landing Gear

I can understand your not reading the magazine. The quality has descended appreciably over the years and they seem confused about for whom they are writing. (A recent article on the best city hospitals named Yale New Haven as one of them. ) But for better or worse they are the only real city magazine, Time Out and its recent college staff not being much of a competitor.

The Grub Street Digest e-mail, sent Monday through Friday, is must reading for foodies. They have been doing a superb job of covering the continuing dust-up between Frank Bruni and Jeffrey Chodorow. A subscription is free at http://nymag.com/newsletters/

The prices I quoted earlier were for two people, tax and tip included. Needless to say, we could have gone a lot higher with the wine.

Blumie

I just signed up. I love this Bruni/Chodorow stuff!

GadgetFreak

Ducasse is probably $500-$800 per person. Jean George maybe $400-$600 and Le Bernardin about $250-$500. Not sure about Per Se. Those are the Michelin three stars in NY. All of the above are at the low end with lower priced (although still very good) wines and drinks and moving up to maybe one higher end or a couple mid range wines. Since they all have wines costing more than a thousand bucks per bottle, it clearly can go very high. Ive never gotten out of Ducasse for less than $500 per person, even when getting wine by the glass (although some were very good glasses). Ducasse is my favorite among those but LeBernardin is spectacular and quite a bit less money. Jean George would be my least favorite among those. Daniel is a two star I think, not three.

Balthazar, which I like a lot and go to a lot is typically vastly less than $300 per person. You can have a very nice dinner and nice wine there for under $100 per person. In fact I dont think I have ever paid $300 per person there and Ive been there dozens of times and have ordered some pretty expensive wines.

A really good place that is more than $50 but a lot less than LeBernardin and such is Picholine. One of my favorites in NY. It is a lot less in cost than the very high end places and not much less in quality.

Blumie

I'm a fan of Picholine too, but you're not going to get out of there for less than $100/person (the two-course menu starts at $65), and it's easy to spend a lot more. But yes, you're correct that it's still significantly below the cost of Le Bernardin and the others that you list.

BTW, Per Se typically runs in the $500/person range.