NYC Advice needed...

I was thinking the same thing. When did all this come about?

 

As long as they've never been to Chicago.

 

Love the Chicago hot dogs and Italian beef, but I wish people there would understand that pizza is not a casserole.

 

Sbarro post was missing sarcasm font . . . a chain, and an utterly-mediocre one . . .

 

AKA: Visit Jersey and stay in the water outside

Actually the Circle Line is a damn good idea. I think it was them, but I'm not sure, there is a dinner-cruise event that takes you around Manhattan. You can walk out on the deck and you are under the stars and passing under the bridges. It really is a great and rather romantic experience.

 

I just never go to chains when I'm on the road.

Have to hit mom-and-pop joints.

There are two Sbarros near my house.

 

At some point, get a hot dog on the street. Definitely hit Gray's Papaya -- there's a couple in the Village, one on E. 86th Street somewhere. And, aside from perhaps Virgil's, don't waste your time or your money eating anywhere in Times Square.

 

A little late to help Badger, but still in time to help Cougar... a couple of restaurant recommendations on the Upper West Side (good restaurants to hit before or after going to the Museum of Natural History/Hayden Planetarium).

Popover's Cafe - 86th & Amsterdam - Nice little casual restaurant... reasonable prices... unfortunately their website -www.popovercafe.com - doesn't have a menu. I found an older one on another website, but whomever posted it here put the burgers and sandwiches after the deserts for some reason:
http://www.grubhub.com/details.jsp?custId=2276&menuPage=0&lat=40.786260&lng=-73.975410&cityId=5&hoodId=23

Sarabeth's - 80th & Amsterdam - A very nice restaurant, fancier & pricier than Popover's. The food is great. But their website - http://www.sarabeths.com/restaurants/ doesn't have a menu either. The menu is always changing, but here's an old menu:
http://menupages.com/screenmenu.asp?restaurantId=5025&htmllink=C8A84F15DDABBD56C8278649F7D17D22C5C3668434509851944DB51424275E6E0CE986BDCC819981&taglineid=0

I mention the restaurants on the Upper West side because my wife was living on the Upper West side when we first met.

 

Circle Line is good; Gray Line bus tour is even better if you actually want to see the city's sights, but that takes all day to do uptown and downtown.

My best tourist recommendation if you don't have much time to kill is "Top of the Rock" observation deck at Rockefeller Center. Take as long or short as you want, and the view is 360-degrees...better than the Empire State Building.

 

When I was a kid my parents took the family on the Circle Line...it was 110 degrees, no wind, bodies packed in to maximum capacity...people were puking and fainting all over the place.

It was like an Ellis Island retrospective...'Come relive the horror and suffering of your grandparents as they arrived in America, suffocating from human stench and desperation...'

 

It was a joke, one that I stole from The Office.

 

Sounds like the subway. And that's still far better than the sidewalks, where even in good neighborhoods you're likely to see some dude whip it out and create a puddle of pee.