By Jo Tweedy Updated: 04:53 EDT, 9 July 2010 Let's be straight - you'll never feel the jangle of hunger in La Grande Pomme. From the moment you set foot on Manhattan island, the onslaught of food begins. New York's culinary carousel whirls fine dining, the best cheesecake, skyscraper sandwiches and enough iced coffee to fill the Hudson River under your nose.
Whether your whim is to chow down on a 'boat-size basket o' fries' (at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co in Times Square), or sink your teeth into a Pastrami on Rye from the deli next door to your hotel, you'll find something - even if it's just a $3 hot dog vendor, offering to fill your belly without wandering too far. This cornucopia of metal restaurants can leave you dazed, though. So how do you find the Big Apple's best menus without sharing your table with fellow tourists? Or worse, maxing out your credit card? One tack is to leave the neon lights of Times Square fuzzing behind you, and head downtown, where the food - and not the décor - gets top billing.
Thrift-shop paintings hanging on exposed brick walls, bare light bulbs and brown-paper menus are all currently de rigueur . Your soufflé won't collapse (it could, in fact, be the best you've ever tasted) but your chair will probably look as though it's about to. The following places to eat are light years away from the high-tea opulence of the hotels that fringe Central Park, but the menus are anything but shabby.
From the Meatpacking District to TriBeCa, Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side, here's where to find good-value food that comes with a side of (pared-down) style. LOWER EAST SIDE Schiller's Liquor Bar, 131 Rivington Street This Rivington Street diner eschews a wine list in favour of three options: cheap, decent and good. Opened in 2003, the retro atmosphere predates that by about 50 years, and is the work of a serial Big Apple restaurateur - London-born Keith McNally, who also owns nearby Soho favourite Balthazar.
The white-tiled walls, chrome bar and cast-iron chairs offer a masterclass in vintage chic, and the food is worth writing home about too. Try 'Russ & Daughters pickled herring in cream' for brunch ($9), or 'rotisserie chicken with roast potatoes' for dinner ($18). Schiller's is open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, so welcome in a new morning with something from the cocktail list.
More info: www.
schillersny.
com TRIBECA Locanda Verde, Greenwich Street First and foremost, this is a fine Italian taverna in the very nearly red-hot district of TriBeCa (or to give it its full title, Triangle Below Canal Street). Big plates of rustic, homely food that, depending on what you plump for, may have felt the aromatic glow of Locanda Verde's wood-burning stove or charcoal grill, are served in surroundings that make you want to kick off your shoes and get comfortable. The fact that Locanda Verde happens to be pegged to the side of wheels The Greenwich Hotel, owned by A-lister Robert De Niro, is of little consequence until you've had a glass or two of Young's Double Chocolate Stout ($7 on draft) - at which point your curiosity will more than likely lead you through the adjoining door into the discreet hotel lobby for a nose at the artwork by De Niro's father, which hangs on the wall.
Back to the eating: 'My Grandmother's Ravioli' ($18) showcases chef Andrew Carmellini's obsession with Italian food. And for pud, how does 'La Fantasia di Cioccolata for Two' ($16) sound? More info: www.locandaverdenyc.com SOHO Antique Garage, Mercer Street More exposed brick.
But this time the walls probably didn't need stripping back. In another life, the Antique Garage was exactly what it claims - a Mercer Street automobile shop, where New Yorkers brought their cars to be fixed up. These days, it is diners, not Chevys, that are tended to - but the original tilting glass door remains in place, and is lifted in summer to give the Antique Garage an al fresco feel.
This intimate, one-floor space is adorned with decadently-framed mirrors, paintings wheels and candelabras, all of which you can purchase - along with breakfast, brunch, dinner, or just a little something to fend off a raging appetite brought on by shopping in SoHo. With heavy Turkish influence on the menu, the meze is a must (mini-mountains of houmous from $8). As are the Grill Turkish Meatballs ($24), which come with a side of tzatziki.
Bristling coffee and syrupy baklava ($8) round it all off in style. More info: www.antiquegaragesoho.com GREENWICH VILLAGE The Spotted Pig, 314 W. 11th Street Yes, you'll hear British voices and ponder whether The Spotted Pig may already have become a little too popular.
But, really, there's no arguing with this cosy Greenwich Village gastropub's signature dish. The Chargrilled Burger with Roquefort Cheese & Shoestrings ($17), served rare, is some sort of carnivore heaven. The shoestrings – chips cut so fine they're almost shredded – act as the perfect, salty foil to the slab of meat, the melting Roquefort and the soak-it-all-up roll.
A punchy glass of red wine is the perfect accompaniment. There are, of course, a raft of just-as-good dishes on offer that probably get dismissed because the burger is so good. Discover them for yourselves though. More info: www.thespottedpig.com TRIBECA Greenwich Grill, Greenwich Street Another beacon of light in the fledgling TriBeCa restaurant scene, the Greenwich Grill is a stone's throw from De Niro's Locanda Verde.
Asian-fusion is a current buzz-phrase in the famously fickle New York restaurant scene, and the GG, as it is affectionately known, ticks that box - not, surprisingly, in the way the restaurant greets you, but in the hidden extra that lurks downstairs. metal Something of the New York that so loved to outwit Prohibition with speakeasies survives here. Because the GG has a secret - Sushi Azubu, its basement sushi bar.
You won't see it advertised.
To gain entry, diners have to rustle up some of that Twenties rule-breaking spirit, and let the waiter know that they know there's an unspoken something more to this easy-on-the-eye (but fairly unremarkable) restaurant. A nod and a wink will see you ushered below decks for perfect oblongs of sushi, delicious morsels of Wagyu beef and feather-light tempura. More info: www.greenwichhotel.com Jo Tweedy travelled to New York with Icelandair.
Flights from Heathrow, Manchester and Glasgow via Reykjavik - passengers can stay in Iceland for up to three nights at no additional airfare - start at £466, visit www.icelandair.co.uk . Rooms at the Greenwich Hotel start from £320 and include free mini-bar (alcoholic drinks excluded), metal
Whether your whim is to chow down on a 'boat-size basket o' fries' (at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co in Times Square), or sink your teeth into a Pastrami on Rye from the deli next door to your hotel, you'll find something - even if it's just a $3 hot dog vendor, offering to fill your belly without wandering too far. This cornucopia of metal restaurants can leave you dazed, though. So how do you find the Big Apple's best menus without sharing your table with fellow tourists? Or worse, maxing out your credit card? One tack is to leave the neon lights of Times Square fuzzing behind you, and head downtown, where the food - and not the décor - gets top billing.
Thrift-shop paintings hanging on exposed brick walls, bare light bulbs and brown-paper menus are all currently de rigueur . Your soufflé won't collapse (it could, in fact, be the best you've ever tasted) but your chair will probably look as though it's about to. The following places to eat are light years away from the high-tea opulence of the hotels that fringe Central Park, but the menus are anything but shabby.
From the Meatpacking District to TriBeCa, Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side, here's where to find good-value food that comes with a side of (pared-down) style. LOWER EAST SIDE Schiller's Liquor Bar, 131 Rivington Street This Rivington Street diner eschews a wine list in favour of three options: cheap, decent and good. Opened in 2003, the retro atmosphere predates that by about 50 years, and is the work of a serial Big Apple restaurateur - London-born Keith McNally, who also owns nearby Soho favourite Balthazar.
The white-tiled walls, chrome bar and cast-iron chairs offer a masterclass in vintage chic, and the food is worth writing home about too. Try 'Russ & Daughters pickled herring in cream' for brunch ($9), or 'rotisserie chicken with roast potatoes' for dinner ($18). Schiller's is open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, so welcome in a new morning with something from the cocktail list.
More info: www.
schillersny.
com TRIBECA Locanda Verde, Greenwich Street First and foremost, this is a fine Italian taverna in the very nearly red-hot district of TriBeCa (or to give it its full title, Triangle Below Canal Street). Big plates of rustic, homely food that, depending on what you plump for, may have felt the aromatic glow of Locanda Verde's wood-burning stove or charcoal grill, are served in surroundings that make you want to kick off your shoes and get comfortable. The fact that Locanda Verde happens to be pegged to the side of wheels The Greenwich Hotel, owned by A-lister Robert De Niro, is of little consequence until you've had a glass or two of Young's Double Chocolate Stout ($7 on draft) - at which point your curiosity will more than likely lead you through the adjoining door into the discreet hotel lobby for a nose at the artwork by De Niro's father, which hangs on the wall.
Back to the eating: 'My Grandmother's Ravioli' ($18) showcases chef Andrew Carmellini's obsession with Italian food. And for pud, how does 'La Fantasia di Cioccolata for Two' ($16) sound? More info: www.locandaverdenyc.com SOHO Antique Garage, Mercer Street More exposed brick.
But this time the walls probably didn't need stripping back. In another life, the Antique Garage was exactly what it claims - a Mercer Street automobile shop, where New Yorkers brought their cars to be fixed up. These days, it is diners, not Chevys, that are tended to - but the original tilting glass door remains in place, and is lifted in summer to give the Antique Garage an al fresco feel.
This intimate, one-floor space is adorned with decadently-framed mirrors, paintings wheels and candelabras, all of which you can purchase - along with breakfast, brunch, dinner, or just a little something to fend off a raging appetite brought on by shopping in SoHo. With heavy Turkish influence on the menu, the meze is a must (mini-mountains of houmous from $8). As are the Grill Turkish Meatballs ($24), which come with a side of tzatziki.
Bristling coffee and syrupy baklava ($8) round it all off in style. More info: www.antiquegaragesoho.com GREENWICH VILLAGE The Spotted Pig, 314 W. 11th Street Yes, you'll hear British voices and ponder whether The Spotted Pig may already have become a little too popular.
But, really, there's no arguing with this cosy Greenwich Village gastropub's signature dish. The Chargrilled Burger with Roquefort Cheese & Shoestrings ($17), served rare, is some sort of carnivore heaven. The shoestrings – chips cut so fine they're almost shredded – act as the perfect, salty foil to the slab of meat, the melting Roquefort and the soak-it-all-up roll.
A punchy glass of red wine is the perfect accompaniment. There are, of course, a raft of just-as-good dishes on offer that probably get dismissed because the burger is so good. Discover them for yourselves though. More info: www.thespottedpig.com TRIBECA Greenwich Grill, Greenwich Street Another beacon of light in the fledgling TriBeCa restaurant scene, the Greenwich Grill is a stone's throw from De Niro's Locanda Verde.
Asian-fusion is a current buzz-phrase in the famously fickle New York restaurant scene, and the GG, as it is affectionately known, ticks that box - not, surprisingly, in the way the restaurant greets you, but in the hidden extra that lurks downstairs. metal Something of the New York that so loved to outwit Prohibition with speakeasies survives here. Because the GG has a secret - Sushi Azubu, its basement sushi bar.
You won't see it advertised.
To gain entry, diners have to rustle up some of that Twenties rule-breaking spirit, and let the waiter know that they know there's an unspoken something more to this easy-on-the-eye (but fairly unremarkable) restaurant. A nod and a wink will see you ushered below decks for perfect oblongs of sushi, delicious morsels of Wagyu beef and feather-light tempura. More info: www.greenwichhotel.com Jo Tweedy travelled to New York with Icelandair.
Flights from Heathrow, Manchester and Glasgow via Reykjavik - passengers can stay in Iceland for up to three nights at no additional airfare - start at £466, visit www.icelandair.co.uk . Rooms at the Greenwich Hotel start from £320 and include free mini-bar (alcoholic drinks excluded), metal
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