When my friend offered to let me stay at her place again in New York, of course I had to say yes! Our first trip together in freshmen year consisted of the usual NYC must-sees, including visiting the Met, walking over Brooklyn Bridge, and of course Central Park. This time, we filled our itinerary with restaurants and cafes that we knew we had to try (including quite a few matcha spots), but of course left some room for some classic tourist spots as well.
Day 1:
To start off our first day, we stopped by Sorate, a matcha and traditional Japanese tea store based in Brooklyn. As soon as we got our matcha lattes, it began to snow, but it didn’t stop us from walking around the city. We ended up visiting the New York Public Library, accidentally passing by the Yume Ga Arukara restaraunt that is opening soon in New York City, spending some time in the MLB store and getting (our first of many) photobooth pictures taken, and visiting the Guggenheim Museum to take some pinterest-inspired photos.
After we took over almost a thousand photos and finally captured the pictures we were satisfied with, we took a 45-minute walk through Central Park and made our way to Raku, a Japanese restaraunt that specializes in traditional and home-cooked style udon dishes for dinner. I decided to order the Chikara udon, which consisted of udon with mochi and chicken, reminding me of my mom’s go-to New Year’s dish: Ozoni. By the end of a long but eventful day, we ended up walking around 35,000 steps!
Day 2:
Our second day started off with another matcha (of course), this time from a cafe called Usagi, right in Dumbo near Brooklyn Bridge. We took a rainy, foggy, and not so scenic walk over the bridge and made our way to Chinatown to try 1915 Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles. They are well known for their hand pulled noodles with 7 different thickness types to choose from! I ended up going with the extra wide, and even added more chili oil to the already spicy and flavorful broth to give it an extra little kick.
After spending some time at a photobooth place and getting our customizable keychains made, we headed to our second matcha stop of the day. The caffeine overload was worth it because this matcha lived up to the TikTok hype! 12 Matcha has quickly gained popularity in NYC for their carefully crafted matcha drinks prepared in front of each customer, similar to the way traditional tea is served in ceremonies. Out of all the matcha places I tried, my two favorites from this trip was Sorate and 12 Matcha.
To end the day off, we headed over to the West Village to have dinner at Little Ruby’s, an Australian cafe and restaraunt with the most perfectly dim lit ambiance I’ve experienced. I chose the Creamy Chicken Pasta, that included grilled chicken and rigatoni tossed in a rich, creamy sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and basil. After eating, we made a last-minute order of sticky date pudding. I thought that I couldn’t even eat another bite of food, but after tasting it, the sweet, caramel covered cake instantly became the star dish of the night.
Day 3:
Our final day of the trip was spent in Williamsburg, which I had never been to before and was excited to explore for our final excursion of the city. We made a few stops on the way and headed to Kijitora, a cat-themed cafe that had been on my want-to-try list since my first trip to NYC but wasn’t able to go to. I got the limited edition Kinako Mochi Matcha Latte. The kinako, Japanese for soybean powder, overpowered the matcha and made the drink taste more like a soybean latte. Although it was slightly disappointing, I was still happy to be able to visit the cafe. With our drinks in our hands, we made our way over to Win Son Bakery, a Taiwanese American cafe, to try out their Bacon Egg and Cheese Scallion Pancake Wrap. I was intrigued by the concept and was excited to give the unique meal a try. Although much heavier and filling than I expected, I enjoyed the wrap and glad that I decided to share instead of getting my own (especially considering the price!).
We spent the rest of the day leading up to our train ride back to Boston wandering around Williamsburg, stopping in cute stores and window shopping. We spent a good amount of time in a store called Loaf on Paper, a Japanese stationery store that also connected to a cafe. I was tempted to buy some items but decided not to since I knew I would be visiting Japan again later this year, although there was a cute handmade oven mitt set that I regret not getting as a gift for my mom.
By the end of the trip, we’d eaten our way through some unforgettable cafes and restaraunts, explored a few classic NYC spots, and made even more memories together. For anyone taking a trip to NYC soon, I definitely recommend to give these spots a try!