Caf้s, snacks and light meals
New York's caf้s and bakeries
run the gamut of its population's
ethnic and cultural influences.
They can be found in every
neighborhood, with the usual
French, Italian and American
favorites probably most visible.
The city also has a number of coffeehouses
and tearooms , which outside
of the obvious also might offer
fruit juices, pastries, light
snacks and, on occasion, full
meals. Most places more suitable
for sit-down dinners we've listed
under "Restaurants".
Restaurants
New York is a rich port city that
can get the best foodstuffs from
anywhere in the world, and, as a
major immigration gateway, it
attracts chefs who know how to cook
the world's cuisines properly, even
exceptionally. As you stroll through
the streets of New York, heavenly
odors seem to emanate from every
corner; it's not hard to work up an
appetite.
Outside of American and continental
cuisines (more or less including
New American, which can either
dazzle with its inventive fusions or
fail miserably and pretentiously),
be prepared to confront a startling
variety of ethnic food . In
New York, none has had so dominant
an effect as Jewish food , to
the extent that many Jewish
specialties - bagels, pastrami, lox
and cream cheese - are now
considered archetypal New York.
Others retain more specific
identities. Chinese food
includes the familiar Cantonese, as
well as spicier Szechuan and Hunan
dishes - most restaurants specialize
in one or the other. Japanese
food is widely available and very
good; other Asian cuisines include Indian
and a broad sprinkling of Thai,
Korean, Vietnamese and Indonesian
restaurants.
Italian cooking is
widespread and not terribly
expensive, and typically a fairly
safe bet. French restaurants
tend to be pricier, although there
are an increasing number of bistros
and brasseries turning out authentic
and reliable French nosh for
attractive prices. Somewhat similar
in spirit are Belgian
brasseries and steak frites joints,
a surprising number of which opened
in the last half-decade (and many of
which subsequently closed).
There is also a whole range of Eastern
European restaurants - Russian,
Ukrainian, Polish and Hungarian -
that serve well-priced, filling
fare. Caribbean, Central and South
American restaurants are on the
rise in New York, and often offer a
good deal and a large, satisfying
and often spicy meal. Other places
include weird hybrids like
Chinese-Peruvian,
Japanese-Brazilian, and any number
of vegetarian and wholefood
eateries to cater to any taste or
fad.
As for where you'll be going for
these foods, we've divided our
selections by neighborhood
(and then cuisine), and have given
very brief descriptions for what you
might expect to find in those areas.
For the most part you won't have to
walk very far to find a good place
in almost any district, but many of
the ones listed here are worth a
trip on the subway or in a cab.
Note that most restaurants open
at lunchtime, which is often a good
opportunity to sample fine food at
nearly half the cost of dinner;
also, dim sum in Chinatown makes for
a memorable lunch experience .
Drinking
You can't walk a block along most
Manhattan avenues (and many of the
side streets) without passing one or
two bars. The
bar scene in
New York City is a varied one, with
a broader range of places to drink
than in most American cities, and
prices to suit most pockets. Bars
generally open from mid-morning
(around 10am) to the early hours -
4am at the latest, when they have to
close by law. Bar kitchens usually
stop operating around midnight or a
little before.
The best spots are below 14th
Street, where the West Village
takes in a wide range of taste,
budget and purpose, and equally good
hunting grounds can be found in the East
Village, NoLita, SoHo and the
more western reaches of the Lower
East Side . There's a decent
choice of midtown bars,
though bars here tend to be geared
to an after-hours office crowd and
(with a few notable exceptions) can
consequently be pricey and rather
dull. The Upper West Side has
a small array of bars, some
interesting, although most tend to
cater to more of a clean-cut and
dully yuppie crowd; and the bars of Harlem
, while not numerous, offer some of
the city's most affordable jazz in a
relaxed environment.
While most visitors to New York
may not have time or occasion to
check out the bar scenes in the
outer boroughs, those that venture
to Williamsburg, Park Slope,
Brooklyn Heights and Fort
Greene in Brooklyn or to Astoria
in Queens will find both some of the
hippest and also most neighborly
spots around.
Whether you wind up sipping a
martini in a swank lounge or a
downing a pint in a seedy dive,
you'll be expected to tip; figure
about a buck a drink. Remember too
that the legal drinking age
is 21.
Many bars have happy hours,
typically 5-7pm, when drinks might
be two for one, or some bar food is
available for free .
