We’re not actually coming in for a couple of months so it should be okay.
We’ve been to NYC literally hundreds of times so we don’t necessarily need that experience but we’re also staying a full week and there are many ‘NYC-only’ spots we’ll be visiting that I didn’t bother to mention because we know them inside and out. NY Cantonese definitely qualifies, I’d think. I always make a point of stopping into my favorite delis and I never miss an opportunity to load up on smoked fish and bagels. Same goes for Middle Eastern and Eastern European fare. I wouldn’t consider Korean steakhouse to be distinctly NYC and I’m sure that we could do just as well in LA, which we also visit numerous times yearly. Agent looks very good but I’m personally not that interested in fancy $$$$ innovative tasting menus on this trip as we’ll have just returned from Tokyo two weeks earlier where we’ll have gotten our fill of that. We’re in New York at least once or twice a year so we’ve had all of that before. I just wanted to get some feedback on the newer places noted above as they look like a lot of fun to me and the food seems simple and rewarding.
Aha, then never mind…!! 
didn’t realize you were in nyc so frequently in the past.
The nordic food hall in grand central is definitely worthy of a lunch/snack if you’re nearby, the grain bar has some surprisingly good savory items and the bread bakery is making fantastic hearty dense breads.
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Be forewarned, after spending a few years on the west coast, it’s quite awful here… I had nostalgic expectations that quickly vanished… even Flushing is nothing to get excited about. And absolutely avoid Da Dong.
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We only ate at Maialino once, and I cannot recall what we ate, but we did have interesting pasta dishes.
@Oliverb the cacio e pepe is surprisingly good, i ordered it first on the recommendation of a CHr and have many times since. They’re well known for the mafatti with suckling pig (which i haven’t had since i don’t eat meat)
Fyi maialino had a great breakfast menu
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That too, may be an annual thing.
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They actually have a pretty good record with the DOH (not sure that link will bring you directly to their results, but the database is easily searchable). This is an anomaly.
Gross! Live rats and roaches in the kitchen… we all probably knew that but didn’t want to admit it.
Rats and roaches always know where the best food is. I wouldn’t eat anywhere a rat or roach wouldn’t eat.
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Re-opened. That was quick.
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Excellent.
I’ve eaten at Noodletown a few times in the last few weeks. Not all their dishes are good, but what they’ve always done well, they continue to do well. Count on their roast duck, although it can be too salty in the interior, and their roast pork is also very good whenever it isn’t too dry. Nowadays, trying to limit my sugar and corn starch intake, I tend to get seabass chunks or squid with chives and perhaps pea shoots sauteed with garlic or a side of beef muscle (I realize that may have corn starch in it), but if I weren’t worrying about that, I’d probably get roast duck in some form almost every time.
Also, I’ve been eating there since I think 1978 and have never gotten sick, so that carries more weight with me than admittedly disgusting health violations, and their men’s room is no longer the perpetually disgusting place it was before they renovated it.
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Just a quick clarification (Maureen Fant here)—I do love Maialino and Marta, both walking distance from my Manhattan digs, and they are indeed the only Italian places I habitually go in New York. Because I live in Rome, I don’t really seek out Italian food outside Italy (my Italian husband would rather eat pastrami than carbonara in NY), so I have to point out that that “would” is not strictly accurate. I have absolutely never meant to diss the many hard-working and excellent Italian restaurants in New York that I simply haven’t tried yet.
It was never my intention to misrepresent Maureen Fant, and I’m sorry for spreading wrong information. But I do like Maialino and I do like Katz’s pastrami. Scusi!
