Restaurants

Okay, I'm a bit prejudiced, but I am sure that New York is the best restaurant town in the country, and maybe the top food destination in the world. In Boston, you think of seafood; New Orleans, Creole and Cajun; Paris and Rome-you get what you expect you would get. But you cannot define a specific "local food" of New York because there really isn't any--the city is an amalgamation of global cuisines that you won't find anywhere else. And this amazing variety ranges from hole-in-the-wall ethnic joints to the most hallowed (and wallet-draining) temples of food. One thing you will not do in New York: Go hungry.

Recession Specials -- The original "recession special" was originated by Gray's Papaya and continued whether there was a recession or not. Now that we are in a recession, restaurants are doing whatever they can to entice diners to their tables. Many have extended what is a twice-yearly tradition of Restaurant Week, where one can sample a three-course prix-fixe dinner (for $35) or lunch ($24.07) throughout the year. Other restaurants are offering early-bird specials, giving out free bar appetizers, eliminating corkage fees, or extending happy hour throughout the night, just to name some of the various enticements I've seen recently. Call or check the restaurants' websites to ask if any specials are being offered, or log on to the very good New York restaurant scene website www.eater.com, which has a continuing column called "Dealfeed."

Foodies Love Restaurant Week! -- Restaurant “Week” is a bit of a misnomer: The economic downturn in 2009 saw it become Restaurant “Month” in the winter, and the summer “week” was extended through Labor Day. Week or month, it's a welcome time when, twice a year, in winter and summer, some of the best restaurants in town offer three-course prix-fixe meals at almost affordable prices. Restaurant Week began as a one-off in 1992 to welcome delegates to the Democratic National Convention (with the price of a meal $19.92). A hit with New Yorkers as well as visitors, it's become a much-loved tradition, as foodies get a chance to eat at some of the higher-end restaurants in town without breaking the bank. (It's a tradition that's caught on in other cities, too, from Atlanta to San Diego.) These days, at lunch, the deal is $24.07 (as in 24/7), while dinner is $35. Call tel. 212/484-1222 for info, or visit www.nycvisit.com.

The Big Picture

New Yorkers can be fickle. One moment a restaurant is hot, the next it’s passé. So, restaurants close with a frequency we wish applied to the arrival of subway trains. Always call ahead or check websites for the most up-to-date news.

Wherever you’re from, particularly if you hail from the reasonably priced American heartland, New York’s restaurants will seem expensive. Yet good value abounds, especially if you’re willing to try ethnic cuisine (including types you may not have had before), and if you venture beyond tourist zones into such neighborhoods as Chinatown, Harlem, upper Manhattan, the East Village, the Upper West Side, and the boroughs. I include inexpensive restaurants in every neighborhood, including some of the city’s best-kept secrets, so you’ll know where to get good value for your money no matter where you are in Manhattan.

Reservations

Reservations are always a good idea in New York, and a necessity for popular restaurants if your party is bigger than two. Do yourself a favor and always call ahead so you won’t be disappointed. If you’re booking dinner on a weekend night, it’s a good idea to call a few days in advance if you can.

Call far ahead for any special meal you don’t want to miss—a month in advance is a good idea. Most top places start taking reservations 30 days in advance, so if you want to eat at a hot restaurant at a popular hour—Saturday at 8pm, say, at Aquavit—be sure to mark your calendar and start dialing 30 days prior at 9am. If you’re booking a holiday dinner, call even earlier, or head to OpenTable.com as soon as you decide on the date of your dinner.

But if you didn’t call well ahead and your heart’s set on dinner at Red Rooster or Osteria Morini, don’t despair. Often, early or late hours—between 5:30 and 6:30pm or after 9pm—are available, especially on weeknights. Try calling the day before or first thing in the morning, when you may be able to take advantage of a last-minute cancellation. Or go for lunch, which is usually much easier to book without lots of advance notice. If you’re staying at a hotel with a concierge, don’t be afraid to use him or her—a well-connected concierge can often get you into hot spots that might otherwise be booked.

Is That Table Open? -- OpenTable (www.opentable.com) allows you to book a reservation—and get an instant confirmation—over the Internet at about 150 restaurants throughout Manhattan (and in more than 20 other cities in the U.S. and Canada). You may need to hold the reservation with a credit card. You’ll also find that an increasing number of restaurants offer online reservations through their own websites.

But what if they don’t take reservations? Lots of restaurants, especially at the affordable end of the price continuum, don’t take reservations at all. One of the ways they keep prices down is by packing people in as quickly as possible. Thus, the best cheap and midprice restaurants often have a wait. Again, your best bet is to go early. Often you can get in more quickly on a weeknight. Or just go, knowing that you’re going to have to wait if you head to a popular spot; hunker down with a cocktail at the bar and enjoy the festivities around you.

Smoking Policy

You cannot light up in any restaurant in the city. Some restaurants entice smokers with back gardens or patios where smoking is permitted, but otherwise, you’ll have to step out to the sidewalk (or “Bloomberg Lounge”) for a cigarette. Some restaurants provide benches, chairs, and ashtrays, but it gets mighty cold out there in the winter.

Tipping

Tipping is easy in New York. The way to do it: Double the 8.75% sales tax and voilà, happy waitstaff. In fancier venues, another 5% is appropriate for the captain. If the wine steward helps, hand him or her 10% of the bottle’s price. Leave $1 per item, no matter how small, for the checkroom attendant.

More Sources for Serious Foodies

Of course, New York has far more fabulous dining than I have room to discuss here—although the listings here are enough to keep you fat and happy for a year, much less the length of a vacation. But if you’d like a wider selection, a few good sources are available online or from your local bookstore.

Your best online sources are the online arm of the weekly New York magazine (www.nymag.com), which also features a daily food blog; New York Today (www.nytoday.com), the New York Times’ arts and lifestyle site, where you can access a database of the paper’s stellar restaurant reviews and blogs; the Village Voice (www.villagevoice.com), especially for the cheap-eats reviews by Robert Sietsema, and the national www.eater.com which has a New York section For a good online source with readers' reviews and menus, try www.menupages.com, which has more than 6,000 menus online. Without a doubt, the best online source for the serious foodie is www.chowhound.com, a national website with message boards in local areas, including New York, where you can make an inquiry about a certain restaurant, type of food, location, and so on, and within a few hours, you might have several informative responses. For the not-so-serious foodie, but for someone who likes to eat, check out this author’s own blog, www.friedneckbones.wordpress.com.

The Zagat Survey, which has made a name for itself rating restaurants based on extensive diner surveys, maintains a searchable database of city restaurants at www.zagat.com, so if you’re willing to do your research before you leave home (or if you’re toting a laptop), there’s no need to acquire a hard copy of the no-frills guide. They do, however, charge a fee to access the online information. At press time, a year’s subscription of Zagat online was $24.95 and a 30-day subscription was $4.95. In my opinion, with so many similar food sources online for free, paying for a subscription is not worth it.

The slick weekly Time Out New York has an “Eat Out” section in every issue, as well as coverage of new openings and dining trends. Weekly New York magazine also maintains extensive restaurant listings in its listings section at the back of the magazine.