Trip to NYC

I can suggest lots. But that is really vague. Can you give some parameters? 1) What kind of food do you like? 2) Do you want to spend and get a meal you might not be able to get in many other places? 3) What kind of ambiance -- what is your personality like? Shi shi or pub, for example?

 

If you want to narrow it down by a type of food, I can give more than just general recs. But I am a really big fan of Mario Batali's restaurants. They are Italian, but not in the meatball parmigiana way. They each have a different specialty. They are not cheap, but not crazy expensive like a trip to Il Mulino or something. My favorites are Babbo (on Waverly Place in the Village) and Lupa (on Thompson Street in SoHo). A lot of the stuff is wasted on me because I don't eat meat or seafood, but people I have gone with generally find it a great meal. A lot of people consider Esca his best restaurant. It has a heavy seafood flavor. If you google the restaurants it will show pictures and the menus. His latest (but not that new) is Otto Enteca, also in the village and it is sort of like an upscale pizza / wine place. gets crowded, but it's a fun place to go with a group. Make sure you call ahead and try to get reservations for any of these places.

If you want sort of expensive and great attention to detail, you have a lot of choices. I still like Union Square Cafe a lot, which is not a "flavor of the month" place anymore, as long as I am not paying for it (it's actually not THAT expensive; just an expensive meal, but something most people can do once in a while). It's even worth doing just for lunch. Il Mulino, which I mentioned, on W. 3rd Street may be the best Northern Italian restaurant on earth. And the deserts are crazy good. It's also ridiculously expensive. I could never tire of going there, though.

If I have time later, maybe I will throw out other recommendations... Hope that helps. If you have a specific type of food you like, I might have more targeted recommendations. There are also some other people on here who know NYC and might have better taste than I do. I hope they weigh in.