Monday, April 25, 2011

New York, New York

After the Easter parade yesterday, we headed to Union Square Cafe for a nice, relaxing lunch.  I ordered the tuna salad sandwich.  It was so filling that I only finished 1/2 (and none of the chips).  


We spent the afternoon wandering around downtown, and then in the late afternoon (around 5:30) we made our way uptown to The Oak Room in The Plaza Hotel. 


You might remember this hotel from the movie Home Alone (one of my faves!)


It is absolutely gorgeous inside, and The Oak Room is very high end.  
The drinks started at $19 dollars a piece (and weren't necessarily worth it).

 

I had a martini, and the hubby and I shared the surf and turf dumplings.  I really liked the turf ones that were filled with lobster.  This held us over until after our off-Broadway show, Freud's Last Session, which ended around 8:30.


After the show we wanted Korean food for a late dinner.  We took the subway to Korea-town and chose a random restaurant.  We ended up at Kun Jip, and the service was again, impeccable.  It had been raining a bit, and when I walked in a young lady took my umbrella and quickly bagged it in a special plastic umbrella to-go bag.  She then dabbed the water off my coat, and ushered us to our table.  The extra side dishes kept coming, and coming, leaving us with so much food that we barely put a dent in it.  In addition to what is pictured, there was also a hot pot of eggs, miso soup, and a sweet dessert tea.  The green tea that we had at this restaurant was the best we have ever tried.


This morning we woke up late and the hubby ran down to a deli to grab breakfast.  
We had black coffee, and then shared these:

 
We did some site-seeing in the morning, and did some more wandering downtown (Mostly the Lower East Side and the Financial District). 

 

We ate lunch at the famous Lombardi's pizza.  We had some veggie pizza, and it was good, but not the best pizza we have ever had.  We have yet to eat an amazing piece of pizza in NY.  People say that NY is known for its pizza, but so far, I don't get it.  In my opinion, NY pizza is overrated.


We shopped at Century 21, and had a late afternoon snack at Pommes Frites.  We shared an order of fries, and chose 4 dips: Sweet Mango Chutney Mayo, Cheddar Cheese, Irish Curry, and Organic Black Truffle Mayo.  I would recommend this place.  The fries were super good, and the line up was out the door.


After returning to our hotel room to rest our feet for a bit, I felt the need for some veggies in my life. I tried some vegan "cheese" dried kale that I bought at Whole Foods, and it had a strange after taste, but a good crunch.  


The hubby is currently napping, but I am going to wake him up so we can go get our New York on.

What food do you think is overrated?  Is there any restaurant/city that you know of that is famous for a certain food, yet you think the fame is undeserved?

From my experience, NY should be famous for its cheesecake and bagels, but not pizza or hot dogs.


16 comments:

Vanessa @ Gourmet Runner said...

So much great food!
But seriously, $19+ for a drink, wow!
All of that korean looks so delicious!
:)

Simply Life said...

so many fun foods!

Vanessa said...

All this talk about New York makes me excited for my upcoming vacation! Not going to NY, but still thrilled about discovering new restaurants.

And I've always wondered about kale chips from the store. I've yet to fork over the cash for them though.

Jessica @ Dairy Free Betty said...

SO FUN!! I get more and more jealous with each post!!hehe

To bad the food hasn't been awesome, although that Korean place sounded fantastic!

I have never enjoyed store bought kale chips, they just taste funny, I'd MUCH rather make them myself... speaking of that, I may do that tomorrow! hehe :)

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Jessica - The fries and the dumplings were awesome, and the pizza was really good, just not the best pizza in the world, like I was hoping :-) I have always heard such wonderful things about NY pizza, but it doesn't compare to some I have had in Canada.

Anonymous said...

Agreed! We make pretty good pizza... and now I'm dreaming about Panago, haha. I bought Kale chips at WF on Sunday too! It was Steve's first time trying them and I think they won him over. I have to be in the mood for them, but when I am, I love 'em!

The Fajdich Times said...

Looks like you are having a wonderful time. The Plaza Hotel looks fabulous.....I too love Home Alone, I could watch it over and over! I enjoy pizza in Chicago. Love to take trips into the city. So many wonderful restaurants in Chicago:)

Olivia said...

Oh wow! So many great eats you have in here! Glad you had such great service at the korean restaurant, the food from there looks bomb! And those kale chips...gahh! ps, I tagged you in my post!

Madeline - Greens and Jeans said...

I always have a heart attack whenever I buy a drink in the city! Looks like you guys are having a fantastic time!

Unknown said...

I am SO JEALOUS OF YOU!!!!!!!

I hope you are having an amazing trip!! The food looks delicious and I am dying to hear how the shows you saw were!

Amber said...

Looks like you guys are having a fabulous time so far! I've never had Korean food I don't think, but it looks GOOD!

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I'm behind on blog reading so i have some catching up to do on yours! But from this posts, it looks like you are having a great time (and reading well).

I don't think i've encountered that kind of good customer service... ever! Wow.

I think Chicago pizza is sort of over-rated. Back when I still ate gluten, I had it a couple of time when I visited my brother and I was kind of like, 'meh'... But, I am not a deep dish person as I prefer thin crust, so I might be in the minority in thinking their pizza is nothing to write home about...

~ Diana ~ said...

go to grimaldi's or john's for pizza!!! I wanna go there next week!! So happy you are having a great time!!!

Anonymous said...

Looks like you are having a fun time! Philly is known for it's cheesesteaks but I think they are way overrated!!

Lisa said...

What a fun trip! Your pictures are fantastic. I'm impressed you were able to ignore those chips, they looked salty and crunchy.

Kacy said...

I think barbecue is overrated. I just don't care for it.