NYC Restaurants vs Other Cities (esp Chicago)
 

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!

We Chicagoans are really very spoiled by our wealth of mid-tier restaurants.

New York has fabulous restaurants along with fabulous prices, and tons of grab something quick places.

My Manhattan friends all tell me that they don't have nearly as many of the sort of "let's grab a bite after work tonight" sort of places as does Chicago. I'm talking about places where you can spend under $15 for a very tasty and well served main course. You can throw a stone pretty much anywhere in Chicago and hit several of them.

Chicago is one of the world's great restaurant cities. So is NYC, but it costs a whole lot more for the same quality. Probably has something to do with the way Wall Street has collected lots of unearned bucks in Manhattan (same applies to London which is also way overpriced.) L.A. and S.F. come in somewhere in between Chicago and NYC.

Now, if you want really great food, really, really cheap, try eating on the street in Bangkok. Less than a dollar gets you a yummy platter.

Have you tried any of the following NY restaurant?

Perry St - West Village
Alta - West Village
Bistro Les Amis - Soho
The Spotted Pig - West Village
The Little Owl - West Village
Morimoto - Chelsea
Tamarind - Tribeca
Landmarc - Tribeca
Bianca - East Village
Sant'Ambroes - Upper East Side and West Village

As a resident of the EV and a moderate foodie here are a few of my suggestions.
Prune-if you can get the steak for 2 which isn't always available grab it and never look back.
The Spotted Pig-just go and order anything
The Blind Pig- Pub style, good burger and nachos
Via Della Pace-awesome risotto and a brunch that while it isn't cheap because of booze you'll leave full and drunk.
Esperanto-cheap very tasty brunch with a comp drink. Their drinks are strong. The dinner food is very good and based on Latin American cooking.
The Sun Burnt Cow-Unlimited drinks Aussie style brunch.
Zum Schneider-Took my Germany born father there for German food for the first time in 25 years and he loved it. Also great beer.
Freemans-I like the downtown location not the lunch thing in the Chelsea Market.
Max's-Great Italian and cheap
Barbone-Great fancy Italian and moderate pricing.
Black Iron burgers- open late for drunk munchies. Also a bar and has malteds.
Crif Dog- this seems to be a real thing for you Chicagoans, you like your Vienna sausage dogs.

Thanks for the suggestions, all. How do you find good places in this town if Yelp and Zagat aren't reliable? I'm really surprised at the low overall quality of places here - I'd have thought that mediocre places wouldn't survive here.

Of the above restaurants, I've only been to Alta. I liked it, but thought it expensive for what it was...though tapas is usually pricier than you'd think it would be.

Talk to people at pubs, ask new friends their top 3 places to eat. Word of Mouth is the best advertising of good places to go. GILT group, Urban Daddy, Tasting Table, Zozi are all good online blogish sites. Also taking a look at Groupon, LivingSocial and Scoutmob for places with deals gives you decent deals and often have new places trying to get business that are worth trying.

Hard to comment without knowing where you've been disappointed. Care to name names of the "overpriced and mediocre" and "lackluster and negligent"?

I find this surprising. While I do find NY lacks in some arenas (good indian food, a good tangine) I think NY's quality and breadth surprass many other cities. The only other city that is in same tier (in US) is San Francisco, but I haven't spent a lot of time in San Francisco or Chicago. I moved from NY 1.5 years ago in full disclosure

My favorites over the years:
Sushi: Masa ($$$$), Sushi Yasuda (although Yasuda returned to Tokyo), and cheap near me I went to Mizu.
Other Japanese: Sake Bar Hagi for japanese pre-theater dive.. cheap/under the radar


Indian: I don't like Taramind (prices not justified IMHO), but no great indian in NY really. I often ate cheap indian.. Saravana Bhavan for South Indian.. Haandi or Roomali for taxi-driver eats.. there are few decent indian places popping up but i can't comment at all without eating there recently.
Delis: Katz Deli (corned beef & pastrami), Barney Greengrass (old deli), or find nice bagel place near you that you like. I ate at pick-a-bagel as near work.
Steak: Strip House, Wolfgangs (controversial choice), Del Friscos (lunch menu is reasonable price, I don't like going generally given biz crowd), Minetta Tavern is still on my to-go list. BLT Prime has great gread but steaks too $$$. I used to go to Raouls in Soho for Steak Au Poivre.
Burger: So many options. My favorite is JG Mellons (its binary), then the usual suspects (shake shack but i wouldn't wait in line for it, burger joint, blue smoke). Minetta Tavern supposedly quite good.
Pizza: So many options for different styles. I don't know about deep dish but a variety of places will fill this need... do your reasearch.. dont' go to just the trendy! With all the competition, the pizza will be good. Don't go to Famous Rays VIII vs. say a Pizza Fresca or Motorino (or whatever other style you fathom).
11 Madison was a special occassion place for me (among others)
Caracas Arepas Bar (an east village fast food type... yum)
I'm not huge seafood, but for mediterraean fish I like Milos Estiatorio (decent lunch deal.. dinner is pricey) and Avra. Oyster Bar in Grand Central (I like the lobster roll, but I know that's an arguable). Once went to Le Bernandin and though it was quite good.
Unf no great jamaican in NY, the jerk at the Jamaican Dutchy street cart is good..
Italian: All sorts of price ranges. I much prefer Babbo over Lupa, Scarpetta (which I thought "meh"), but this is all controversial. Little Italy is a tourist trap.. do the research. I liked ballatos on Houston, but not as special as it once was... that was my hole-in-wall go to. Many great italian options, just do research...
Ippudo for ramen
Tapas... is Casas Mono still around? (have a drink at Bar Jamon next door to warm up)
Per Se.
Momofuku
BBQ: Hill Country or Dinosaur
I read recently of many new restaurants coming to NY too.. Cafe Pushkin being one example.
So many options...


What I suggest you do is do research. NY is fit for foodies. DOZENS of threads on chowhound for "upper east side".. you can even narrow it down or post your own thread ("upper east side sushi", or "romantic", "burger", etc.). And DOZENS of foodie blogs that are NY centric (slice.seriouseats.com is but one of many NY pizza blogs.. to be clear I don't agree with all of Slice's reviews... there is a hype component there.. but you can find new ideas here).

Chowhounds manattan board:
http://chowhound.chow.com/boards/18
Sample of recent threads from just Page 1 (of thousands)!
"lunch at Marea, best meal of 2011 with photos"
"Mini-review: Ping's Seafood still pretty solid"
"Hunan Manor: real Hunanese in Murray Hill?"
"Recommended Italian Restaurant for <$50?"

For service related issues.. I won't disagree with you here. Having lived in California the folks are generally nicer and more friendly. Folks in NY are definitely not as nice as my experience in California. But that never bothered me really.. I went for the food usually :)

For an interesting street cart event that was low-key till only recently
http://streetvendor.org/vendys/tickets
Only VIP tickets left though :)

Aldea - Flatiron
Frank - East Village
Eleven Madison Park
'inoteca - East Village
Marea - CP South
A Voce - Time Warner Center
Spotted Pig - West Vilalge
Lure Fish Bar - SoHo
L'artisi - West Village
Compose - TriBeCa
Del Posto - Meatpacking
I Sodi - West Village
Momofukus - Ko/Saam/Noodle Bar - East Village
Jean Georges - Columbus Circle
Ai Fiori - Herald Square
Mercat - NoHo
Mesa Coyoacan - Williamsburg
Al Almacen - Williamburg
Minetta Tavern - West Village
Vutera - Williamsburg
Zero Otto Nove - Arthur Ave. and now Flatiron
Alta - West Village
Esca - Theater District
Supper - East Village
The Little Owl - West Village
Socarrat Paella Bar - Chelsea
Tia Pol - Chelsea

You'll enjoy those :D

Excellent recommendations. Having been born and raised in NYC, currently working and living in NYC..and lived for 5 years in Chicago, I can add this from my perspective.
Don't be afraid to get out of Manhattan for truly good ethnic foods, at reasonable prices. Take the time to explore different areas of Brooklyn and Queens. Especially if you love Carribean, Asian, Middle Eastern or South American cuisines. You will find a depth of quality foods and experiences that is unavailable in any other city, including Chicago.

This. The UES is probably the worst neighborhood you could live in if you like food, drink and nightlife.

Yup! My brother lives in Queens, and when I'm visiting there and we go out to eat, we don't have to go into Manhattan for great ethnic food. ^

Not sure if you used Chicago-based LTHforum.com for your dining inspiration when you were in Chicago, but I've discovered that it's almost as reliable for non-Chicago restaurant recommendations. In the last year, I've used it for Morocco, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Ireland ideas and was pleasantly surprised.

Chicago is just on fire right now in terms of food but you really need to know where to go. My Chicago food experiences were all pretty mediocre when I relied on Yelp and Zagat, but once I got to know some folks there I ended up finding some true gems. NY is exactly the same way - there are tons of mediocre and bad places to sort through, though I will say that I think NY is in a bit of a rut right now, with not much new and interesting going on. I still love the Momofukus, Tia Pol, etc., but they have been around for a while. I'm sure that will change - SF was in the same situation about two years ago, but places like Frances and Commonwealth have signaled a revival.