Page 292 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

290  TR A VELERS ’ NEEDS

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

New Yorkers love to eat well, and in the perennially popular. The restaurants cited in
five boroughs there are more than 25,000 our listings have been selected as the best that
restaurants. City dwellers avidly read restaurant New York can offer across a wide price range.
reviews in magazines and websites such as While the information on pages 294–305 will
New York (www.nymag.com), to ensure that help you to select a suitable restaurant, there
they are seen in the latest fashionable place. are details of places for a lighter bite on pages
“In” restaurants and cuisines change with 306–8. New York Bars on pages 309–11 suggests
great regularity, while some haunts remain some of the city’s best drinking spots.

acceptable, even first-rate, MasterCard, and American
restaurants where you can eat Express. Traveler’s checks in US
well at a mod erate cost – around dollars are accepted in some
$25 per person for a decent, restaurants, but don’t count
filling meal, not including drinks – on it. Diners and coffee shops
in attractive surroundings. may accept cash only. In fast-
For dinner at a trendy New food chains, you order at the
American venue with a star chef, counter and pay cash in advance.
the bill could be upward of $100
to $200 per person, excluding
drinks. Many top restaurants do,
Shake Shack (see p295), bustling with however, offer tasting menus,
people at Madison Square Park where the courses (usually 3 to
5 or more) are fixed by the chef.
Restaurant Menus
This is a cheaper way of enjoying
Meals in most of the better a good meal than choosing
restaurants consist of three dishes from the à la carte menu. Elegant interiors of the Venetian-inspired
courses: an appetizer (starter), Lunch is less expensive than al di la trattoria (see p305)
an entrée (the main course), and dinner in such places and,
a dessert. In some fine restaurants because of the profusion of
you may be offered a few compli- business diners, lunch is often Dining on a Budget
mentary extras. Appetizers at the busiest period of the day. Despite the tales of $200 business
the better restaurants are lunches, there are ways to stretch
sometimes the chef’s most a meal budget in New York.
creative dishes. Coffee or tea Taxes and Tipping Order fewer courses than you
and a dessert ordinarily conclude The New York City and state would normally. Ameri can por-
the meal in restaurants above sales tax of 8.875 per cent will be tions are huge, and an appetizer
the coffee-shop level. Some also added to your bill. Service is not is often big enough for a light
offer a cheeseboard. usually included. Tipping can run main course. You could share one
Traditional Italian menus offer from 10 per cent at a coffee shop with your companion or choose
antipasti (hot and cold appe- to 20 per cent at the fanciest two appetizers and no entrée.
tizers), a first course – often a places, with 15 per cent an aver- Ask your waiter if there is a
pasta dish, the main course – age fair tip. Many just double the prix-fixe menu. Many of the
usually meat or fish, and a dessert. sales tax to work out a tip. more expensive restaurants
To get a sense of a restaurant’s The bill is known as the “check” offer this at lunch and dinner –
cuisine, visit www.menupages. in the US. The most commonly in the early evening it may be
com, which features the menus accepted credit cards are Visa, called the pre-theater menu. Or
of many New York eateries. try a prix-fixe lunch buffet. These
Other local websites, including are popular in Indian restaurants
the weekly New York magazine’s and are reasonably priced.
(www.nymag.com), often have Other options for a quick and
links to restaurant menus. tasty meal are the less expensive
Chinese, Thai, and Mexican
restaurants. Pizzerias and French
Prices
bistros, as well as places that
You will always find a restaurant serve hamburgers or sandwiches,
in New York to suit your budget. also offer good value. Alterna-
At inexpensive coffee shops, tively, go to bars featuring “happy
diners, and fast-food chains, hours.” They often offer hors
$10–$15 will buy you a filling The popular Red Hook Lobster Pound d’oeuvres, which can make a
meal. There are also many (see p305) meal in themselves.

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