Over winter break, my friend came to visit me in New York. It was her first time in the “Big Apple” so of course, I wanted to show her everything. I needed to make sure we hit all the sites like The Statue of Liberty, the MoMA, and Broadway show in Time Square, but my biggest concern was where was I going to take her to eat. There’s just too many good restaurants in NYC to hit all in one week! So, I got to thinking and talked to my family, and friends, in New York and started compiling a list of the best places and sites I should take my friend.
Day One: When my friend arrived in the morning, I couldn’t think of a better way to welcome her to New York than a famous New York bagel. Immediately after picking her up from the airport, we headed to my favorite local bagel shop, Hand Rolled. After indulging in the bagels, we bought tickets to see The Play That Goes Wrong and planned the rest of our day out. In the afternoon, we decided to head into the city and check out Times Square. There, we explored the M&M and Hershey store and got some treats for the show. We chose to dine at Turntable Chicken Jazz for dinner. Turntable Chicken Jazz is a Korean fried chicken restaurant in Korea town. There, we enjoyed edamame and half-spicy, half-mild fried chicken. The restaurant is upstairs in a building space intricately detailed with records lining the walls. For my friend’s first day in New York, it was definitely a success.
Day Two: We got up bright and early to start our long day in the city with ice skating in Bryant Park (I recommend getting there before 11 am because there were no lines). We took a break from ice skating to grab a snack and browsed the holiday shops that surrounded the park. We stopped at ‘The Stackery’ and indulged in a chimney cake filled with hot chocolate.
After we finished skating, I had to take my friend, Sydney, to my favorite pizza place in New York. We went to the Urbanspace Vanderbilt food court for some delicious Roberta’s Pizza. I ordered my favorite: “The Bee Sting” which is made up of tomato, mozzarella, basil, soppressata, chili, and honey. We ordered it without the soppressata but it’s still just as good without it!
After our delicious meal at Urbanspace Vanderbilt, we headed to the Rockefeller Center to see Jimmy Fallon’s Monologue rehearsal for The Tonight Show. After all of our laughs at the rehearsal, we stopped by the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller center and then stopped in the FAO Schwartz Christmas pop up. After all those activities, we headed to ‘Black Tap’ for some burgers and crazy shakes. I ordered the Carolina Burger and shared the Sweet N’ Salty peanut butter shake with my friend.
Day Three: We did the most touristy thing I could think of which was a double-decker bus tour. We took the downtown route and saw all the famous sights. Stopping at ‘The Oculus’, a large shopping mall, we walked around and decided to have lunch there. We went up to the new Eataly where we indulged in everything pasta, pizza, and cannolis.
Day Four: We headed to Brooklyn to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. In Brooklyn, we picked out our future apartments, looking over the water to lower Manhattan. After getting our exercise in with the walk over the bridge, we headed to the lower east side to grab brunch at ‘Sweet Chick’. We ordered 2 eggs any style, the chicken and waffles, as well as Bellini wine to wash it all down!
And that is the end of my food tour of New York! For more places to visit in New York check out this article:
https://spoonuniversity.com/place/10-coolest-place-to-eat-in-new-york.