BF and I moved to NYC a few months ago from Chicago. We love to try new restaurants, so we were excited at the opportunity to try all new restaurants in the "best dining city in the country".

We've been roundly disappointed. Virtually every place we've been, from neighborhood burger joints to fancy, fine-dining establishments, has been overpriced and mediocre. Service is generally somewhere between lackluster and negligent. These are places that Yelp rates 3-4 stars (seems most NYC restaurants rate 3-4 stars on Yelp) and Zagat rates above 20 for food.

Contrast this to Chicago restaurants, where we had a variety of neighborhood joints with excellent food, great service, and prices commensurate with the food and atmosphere (e.g., Big Star, Hot Chocolate, and Avec) all the way up to restaurants serving innovative food and a first-class dining experience (e.g., Alinea and Next).

Where are the fabled NYC restaurants we expected? I was having dinner with my cousin a week or so ago. He's lived here for years and when I brought this up, he said, "Well, yeah, you live on the Upper East Side." Point taken; the east village seems more my culinary speed. But our experience holds true across the city and across price points.

How do we find good restaurants in this town? Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!