Yet even more NYC restaurant/cocktail recommendations sought.

My wife and I are headed from San Francisco to NYC in early November for an anniversary trip, Thursday to Tuesday. We have five nights, so five dinners. Been ten years since we were last in NYC.

Our plan as of now is to hit Grammercy Tavern and Babbo for sentimental reasons for two of those nights (I could possibly be talked out of Babbo).

The other three meals are up in the air, though one will be with a small group of 8.

We are not interested in a Per Se type experience, looking for a level of formality below that, probably topping out around $100 for a tasting menu if we go that route.

On the list for consideration are:

Marea
Batard
Perla
Little Park
The NoMad
ABC Kitchen
Maialano
Alta
L’Artusi
Morini Osteria
Alla’Onda
Jungsik

Potentially one of these would work for a Saturday night party of 8 and, if not, other suggestions are welcomed. The dinner for 8 would probably be our most casual meal as not all of our friends are overly adventurous diners.

Best would be a place that is not brutally loud (lively is fine), and that offers cocktails. Location not overly important, but we are staying near Grand Central.

Finally, we are looking for recommendations for cocktails where we will be able to hear each other and not be completely smashed in by crowds or a scene. We probably will be doing pre-dinner cocktails primarily.

Thinking about Pegu Club so far and The Campbell Apartment as the latter is near our hotel.

For frame of reference for those that frequent SF, some of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco are Boulevard, State Bird, Rich Table more so than Atelier Crenn, French Laundry, etc…

Any thoughts on the above would be appreciated.

My experience is limited but here it is:

As much as I love Marea I find their cocktail list underwhelming. I’ve never ordered a cocktail at Jungsik so I don’t know how their list is. It looks good but so does the list at Marea.

In my experience any Danny Meyer restaurant (including Maialino) has an excellent cocktail experience. I also like North End Grill a lot more with the new chef.

The Nomad has great cocktails but is very noisy.

for cocktails:

Dead Rabbit - no fail. The DRC of NYC cocktails. to be clear, upstairs, not the bar downstairs.

Attaboy - a slight pain in the ass, but worth it.

Amor y Amargo - Such a fantastic tiny place.

your restaurant list is great, but there’s a lot of redundancy. for example, little park and ABC kitchen - overlap and very similar to what you’ll find in SF. skip perla.

add:

Estela
Charlie Bird
Sessanta

I would talk you out of both babbo and gramercy tavern, but i get the sentimental parts.

Careful Yaacov - hornets come pouring out of the nest around here if you disparage Grammery Tavern in any way.

i think it’s a wonderful restaurant, but i’d not put it top of field. we love the tavern room.

Thanks - What’s a pain in the ass about Attaboy? Do I need a password or something.

Amor y Amargo looks great, had not heard of that one.

Charlie Bird was on my list but I heard it was crazy loud. Is that the case?

you knock on the (unmarked) door and the cool aussie bro comes out and takes your name. says it’ll be “45 minutes, m8” but it’s really only 20. worth it. tiny place. they only allow as many people as they have seats. this is where you want to order a greenpoint, paper plane, penicillin, etc.

i’m biased towards charlie bird, but it’s not loud. actually i have no idea how loud it is, but it’s not Loud loud. i guess.

The (one) time we went to Charlie Bird, it was not especially loud (translation for non-New Yorkers: you could hear the other people at the table)

Is the first one the place that’s inside an old water tank atop a building, no windows, where you climb a ladder to get in? Or was that just an urban myth…

Have to strongly disagree with this one. Granted, it’s been a while since we ate there, and I think they were planning to do something about the noise (acoustic panels, maybe), but it was one of the most unpleasantly loud restaurant experiences I’ve ever had. We were a little early for our reservation and opted to wait on the street rather than in the bar area because the noise was so oppressive. I’m told the upper level is better. We didn’t find anything special about the food either, so haven’t been back. It’s a place I’m willing to try again, though, since so many people whose opinions I respect like it a lot.

cocktails only, no LSD.

LSD? You must be older than me

Todd, I think we need a subforum for NYC restaurants; seems like everyone needs there own thread.

We recently had dinner at Chevalier - Baccarat Hotel.It is somewhat formal,beautiful contemporary restaurant and The Hotel has a beautiful bar on the second floor.Trendy cool vibe.I heard it is more fun on weekdays
Betony-excellent food,I like sitting downstairs.
I heard good things about Perla but I have not been and I love Marea too
Also, heard The Clocktower is very good and it looks lke a great place for a drink

Call ahead before you hit Amor y Amargo and try to pick a night when Sother Teague @creativedrunk on Twitter, is bartending. I like going right when they open so you have some time to talk and have a couple of cocktails before heading off to dinner.

Thanks for the tip. This is definitely on the agenda.

Just back from a trip to NY. Had great meals at Marea, Maialano and Jean- Georges and a thoroughly mediocre dinner at Dovetail. Slow service, overuse of salt and a main course that I needed a microscope to see it was so small. I went back to the apartment we were using and had a sandwich afterwards.

I will try and talk you out of Babbo. Last time I was there we had a 8 pm reservation on a weeknight and somehow didn’t get seated until 9 pm. They did the same thing to two other parties (we were only 2 people, as were the other parties). Food was good, service was good, but not sure I wanna wait an hour to eat there especially if I had a reservation.

Italian hands down Maialino, food is superior to L’artusi and wine list is much better as well (though L’artusi offers 25 dollar corkage and the one time I brought a bottle service was great). Would avoid Osteria Morini, while the food is excellent the service is just not up to par with the other two and prices are around the same.

I would consider adding Lupa into your list for Italian as the food and service has always been excellent and its in a pretty convenient part of town straddling soho/west village. I would go to Lupa over Perla though I really like Perla as well.

Have only been to Marea once and its excellent, though I personally prefer Jean George in the same hood and price point, but this is possibly because the one time I was at Marea the service was not as crisp as one would expect at a restaurant of this standing. Batard has great food but gets very loud when its crowded and its hard to hear each other talk. The Nomad is also pretty loud but food and service are both good. Only issue with Nomad is that its not in a great part of town (kinda right in the dead zone between midtown and chelsea). The Nomad bar next to the restaurant is excellent for cocktails though.

Pegu club is great for cocktails. I would also consider Angel Share on St Marx. The bar is hidden inside a Japanese restaurant, you literally walk through part of the Japanese restaurant to get to Angel share but the drinks here are killer. If you are into Scotch definitely check out the Brandy Library in Tribeca, they pour almost every scotch ever made by the glass.

Thanks for the tips. My wife is not going to agree to skip Babbo. We have a weeknight 9:30 reservation so I hope they don’t make us wait an hour, though on West Coast time not a huge deal I guess.

Angel’s Share looks interesting.

Thanks for the tips everyone. We just returned from a great stay.

For dinner, we did Babbo, Batard, L’Artusi, Grammery Tavern and the Nomad.

Perhaps it is my west coast palate but for us L’Artusi and the Nomad were the standouts. Everything was fresh and vibrant flavor wise.

Babbo just seemed a bit tired. Sauces were heavy, portions were unnecessarily large, they didn’t seem over excited to see us and it was just ok. What’s with serving a chunk of bread with no butter or olive oil? Service ranged from spotty to good. It was enjoyable still but I would not return.

Batard was very good. Loud room but not overbearing. Service was pretty good. Good cocktails, no dish really stands out but it was solid. Good cheese course (3 from my little town in Sonoma County).

L’Artusi was our one group dinner of 8. Great service, loved the menu and almost all the dishes we got. The crudo was great. The rabbit pasta I had was the best pasta of the trip. Good cocktails as well and an overall fun vibe.

Grammercy Tavern was maybe a bit below what I expected food wise. We did the tasting menu and the first dish was a lobster salad that I thought was unworthy of a restaurant like this. Other dishes were better. Dessert was spectacular, and the lamb and chicken we had quite good. Service was outstanding and they comped us a few things because of our anniversary. They also handled our brought wine great.

Last up was The Nomad Restaurant. Quite the scene but that was expected. Everything we ate here was fantastic. Particularly the sucking pig and venison. Definitely my style of food. Cocktails were the best on the trip.

We did one lunch at Ssam Bar which was outstanding. 2nd Avenue Deli was as expected. Had some small plates at The Modern after seeing the Picasso exhibit and everything there was great.

As for cocktails, we did not hit many of the spots I had hoped to but did manage to try the Brandy Library, Raines Law Room and the Garrett Room. Raines Law Room was really good for a relaxing drink before GT. Brandy Library was convenient for Batard and a very civilized place to not have to yell. The Nomad was great as I mentioned above.

Can’t wait to return.