Just to add, I got reservation with casual googling, and not through Resy notification (which, now I’ll rant 
, hasn’t been that successful for me).
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regarding Resy notifies, the restaurant has the ability to see all the names and choose which get notified.
in my professional life, we’re working with a cool startup that’s optimizing this for restaurants.
Assuming you’re in Manhattan for your 1 night?
If your wife is also a wino, Chambers. The food is seasonal, nuevo-American, high quality, but doesn’t break bank. The wine list is best of breed and Pascaline is at the top of the Somm game.
-1 for availing of corkage? 
probably not, in and of itself.
I believe it’s $50
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I’ve not seen it mentioned but L’Accolade in the West village has been my go to restaurant for the last few years. Modern style French bistro, really fabulous food and great wine list with a focus on natural wines At fair pricing. At the risk of making it too hard to get a reservation, I highly recommend this place.
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thanks for the rec – wasn’t on my radar
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We had a great trip to the city this weekend! some highlights:
Friday lunch: at Sushi 35 West, for the price very good. Sushi was fresh, well presented, clean. Hole in the wall of holes in the wall for sure, but a great deal.
Friday dinner: at Le Bernardin: fantastic. we did the tasting with the wine pairing, and everything was great. Food was perfectly prepared and presented, sauces were delicious, wines paired well, service was attentive but not invasive, even the dishes in substitution for some allergies at the table fit the flow well and paired with their own wines well. great time.
Saturday we stopped at Breads on the way to the Met, had a nice quiche and breakfast sandwich. After the Met we went to Huso, which we stumbled into cuz my wife wanted to learn a bit about caviar. While we were sitting there Chef Buddha walked in! had no idea he was associated with the restaurant! had a few bites for a light lunch once we knew that: a foie terrine with fig jam, some perfectly scrambled eggs topped with caviar, and a giant chunk of snow crab leg in a brioche hot dog bun and covered in caviar. overall well done. would be really interested to see what he does for dinner at night! At some point this day I grabbed a couple cookies from Culture espresso. Lived up to the hype. really enjoyable chocolate chip cookie. would have liked slightly darker chocolate but thats being really nit picky.
Saturday night we went to Semma. I might have been even more excited about this than Le Bern going in: and was not disappointed! the gunpowder dosa and the tiger prawns were some of the best Indian food Ive ever had. service was great, and the atmosphere is lively and relaxed. loved it!
Sunday we did a live Peloton class (45 minute Pop ride with Jen Sherman). so we earned some pizza! First we hit up L’Industrie. bit of a line, and bit of a wait after ordering, but a bit of the focaccia while we waited was the perfect holdover. Had the spicy salami slice and the fig and bacon slice. the crust was perfectly crispy. Only complaint would have been a bit more spice in the spicy salami. from there went to Mama’s Too. They were out of the “Angry Nonna” square, so we got pepperoni and asked them to add hot honey to it. This was a solid move. I dont know if I could pick a favorite between the two because theyre so different, but the crispy crust on the Mama’s square is hard to beat.
Dinner Sunday was at Wildair. I think it says something about how successful our food was in this trip that this was the low point in the food. The pithiver was really good, the desserts were very good. a lot of the rest of it was just a bit plain. Also had the little gem salad, the tuna, and the radishes. all were… fine. I think Wildair suffered by being compared to the other standout food.
Monday morning went to Hudson bagels for a BEC bagel and a Nova special. solid start to the day. before heading out our last stop was at Librae Bakery. the pistachio rose croissant was mind-blowing. I will think about that for a long time. Also tried the tahini chocolate chip cookie which I really enjoyed as well. good amount of salt and the hint of nuttiness was nice.
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How did you score Semma? Did you fine at a reasonable hour?
I have gone on Sunday 30 minutes before opening and been first in line. They do keep seats for a small number of walk-ins.
I was waiting when the reservations opened (2 weeks in advance at 7am) and had my pick for about 30s-1 minute. luckily we were seeing a show after anyways though so we were shooting for a 5:00 spot. but by being ready to go I think I could have gotten a 7:00 if I was fast. unlike Tatiana which I tried for and no amount of speed helped.
Will second what Robert said though, when we got there Friday at 5 there was a line maybe 20ish people deep and it seemed like almost all of them got seated. be ready to eat outside if you do that though.
Thanks!
7am Eastern time?
Tough for a west coaster.
Essentials by Christophe is quite good. Modern French on the UWS (so, not super hip or hard to get a table) We last went shortly after it opened last year but food/wine friends have informed me the food is still excellent.
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Mamá Too’s square crust is my fav. The bruschetta is my go to.
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Enjoyed Demo. Really liked the staff working there. I have a photo of their natural leaning winelist on my instagram @zohowine
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I went to Aquavit recently and it’s still wonderful and not hard to reserve these days. Not quite Le Bernadin but much closer to it than mod Korean.
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Or,
+1 for providing ample time, to check emails-messages and react once table is suddenly available.
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Glad you liked it. I am looking forward to a return visit.
If you are willing to go a little outside your comfort zone I think Aska would be a good choice.