Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
NYC trip & food recs?
Hi Ladies! I've already gotten some great info from you guys for my upcoming trip with my mom to NYC, thank you! We will be going Thanksgiving weekend (Black Friday-Monday). We are looking for some recommendations for restaurants and any other input on our itinerary. Specifically for food: a casual/quick place near Times Square for lunch on our arrival day, a great place in Little Italy and Chinatown, and your favorite Manhattan restaurants. We are huge fans of Italian food and more regular American style. This is my first trip to NYC and I am so excited!
We are staying at Staybridge Suites Times Square (340 W 40 St). On Friday we arrive at 10:30am into LGA. We are planning to take a cab because of having our bags and it is winter! We plan on taking public transportation/subway the rest of the time in the city. Lunch near the hotel before we start sightseeing? We will go to lower Manhattan that afternoon to see WTC and Federal Reserve (we will have tickets for both) and other sights I got from a walking tour. Then head to the Staten Island ferry to go to Enoteca Maria restaurant that evening on Staten Island (where the Italian grandmas cook dinner every night!). We plan to go back to Times Square after dinner and get a drink at the Renaissance which we hear has great views of the lights/craziness and relax for a bit before heading back to hotel.
Saturday night we have tickets to the Jersey Boys at August Wilson Theater. Sunday we have matinee tickets to Peter and the Starcatcher at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Any good meals close to those locations? We would be ok with $20-30 for an entree for a nicer meal.
Our other things on the must do list is visit the Top of the Rock, admiring Christmas windows/lights, and shopping! Since it will be cold out, do you recommend doing Liberty Island/Ellis Island? We have some free time (depending on how much shopping we do!) any other things we should do? TIA!!!
Re: NYC trip & food recs?
Ellen's Stardust Diner - http://www.ellensstardustdiner.com/
I cannot recommend this place enough. It is basically diner food (but GOOD diner food) in a 50s theme diner where the waiters and waitresses sing. And no, it is NOT as cheesy as it sounds. These waiters/waitresses usually end up on Broadway. They are phenomenal. You will not be in and out quickly, but that is the beauty of it. You get a dinner and pretty much a full show for the price of a meal!
Also, I've seen Jersey Boys twice on Broadway.... you will not be disappointed.
ETA: I was in NYC in February - the weather was nice for Feb. Cold, but not rainy or snowy. We did the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferry, but did not get off at the Statute of Liberty. Didn't really have the desire. You get a great view from the boat. Most of Ellis Island is inside, so don't worry about the weather for that. We had a clear day so we got some awesome pictures from the boat.
When my husband and I were in NYC (we were also first timers!), we did both Liberty Island/Ellis Island. On Liberty Island, we just explored for about 20 minutes and made sure that we got plenty of close up pictures of the statue. I believe that you can try to get tickets to go inside but we did not. We were mostly excited for Ellis Island and we were actually kind of disappointed. We're generally museum people too, but we were just bored here.
That being said, I wish we would have spent the time differently. You actually get pretty good views from the Staten Island ferry. Personally, I would just make sure that you're sitting on statue side of the ferry and get your views from there.
We had a terrible experience going up in the Empire State Building. I have since heard that the Top of The Rock is way less crowded. I think that is a good choice.
You didn't make any mention of Central Park. If the weather is cooperating, this should not be missed!
Are you museum people? Obviously, NYC has some wonderful museums including The Met, MoMA, and the Museum of Natural History. If the weather is freezing, any of these might be nice stops for a few hours.
I'm not much help with food. I can't remember most of the places that we ate. I do know that we specifically avoided eating near Times Square. That whole area was ridiculously crowded and filled with the same chain restaurants that we have at home.
Good luck and have fun!!
baconface - Ellen's Stardust Diner - that sounds fun! That's just up our alley, thank you!
schuma2 - good call on Central Park! I know it's big, any recommendations on what might be nice to see there in the winter?
As far as Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, my mom did that many moons ago and she is not dying to go back so we will probably skip this trip and just catch views from Staten Island ferry. We already searched the Ellis Island records online and found my great grandfather!
That's such a crazy weekend to visit!! Lol you'll have a great time. You have a great schedule planned. Have you checked yelp for restaurant reviews? I don't frequent the times square area-just too many tourists and chain restaurants for me do I can't help with restaurant recs there but I agree with the pp for central park. If you look online you'll find maps, info etc.. Tons of stuff. Look through and see if anything interests you. Honestly if it's nice out its just nice to walk through. There's a ferraras (same as the famous bakery in little italy) stand right at the columbus circle subway station great for an espresso on a chilly day. The zoos great and small only takes about 2 hours to get through. Other than that keep in mind that the stores with windows decorated will be absolutely packed. Lines. Ugh. Since the winter doesn't start until dec 22 so it's still the fall. It can either be chilly and damp or warm. Figure 40s to up to 60. Too early for snow unless there's some fluke storm. Being layers not a super heavy coat (unless it's going to be super cold).
Hope you love your first time here
Hi:
A casual,good meal close to the theatre is Brickyard Gastropub. Totally reasonable and yummy. We had dinner there and then went back for brunch before a Sunday matinee (on Open Table).
Kristen
Top of the Rock. Awesome view. Don't go right when the theatre across the street lets out. We did this and it was SO CROWDED! To take pictures keep going up. If you take the steps there is another deck without the plexiglass, so you don't have the flash off the plexiglass issue.
We did a really fun food tour of Greenwich Village with Foods of New York (foodsofny.com). I'm looking forward to doing anotherone the next time we go.
The Tenament Museum was another great place. Near Katz's deli on the LES.
Kristen
Kristen - those sound like great recs, thank you! Also great to know about the show letting out across from Top of the Rock, never would have known about that!
**Check out our travel blog**
Planning Bio Married Bio
Restaurants we have loved: wd~50, Colicchio & Sons, Mesa Grill, John's Pizza, Barbuto, Veselka, Junior's Cheesecake
All are fabulous!
BFP #2 - 11/4/09
My Book Blog
Adoption Blog