Anything & Everything New York (PART 2) - [please search thread before posting]

greenface

Its only quarter to three in NYC now if anyones there ATM and likes good NO GREAT Blues Guitar Popa Chubby is on at BB kings blues bar and grill one hell of a night im on for Ronnie Spectors Christmas Party Dec 19th and hoping to get Darlene Love on 13th too but doubt i can cover both weekends.

billy_sastard

Just got back from NY, and loved nearly every minute.

Flew with Continental £380 return each.

Stayed at the Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington. Cost £680 for 4 Nights.
Superb hotel. Very clean and comfortable, very big room, with sofa and chair, ipod dock, coffee maker, microwave, fridge freezer, tv with access to a large dvd collection free of charge (not that we used it).
1 minute walk to Grand Central Terminal, so getting around was so easy.
10 min walk to rockafella and 12 min walk to Times Sq although on the subway it takes 1 minute.
Anybody looking for a very central location should take a look at this hotel.

Transfers were with dial7. We booked the standard car but on both legs got upgraded. Cost was $65 to Manhatten and the return was $67. That included tolls.

Loved pretty much all of the trip apart from one aspect. The food. It really did suck. Everything was either too salty, no flavour at all, or far to sweet.
The best meal we had was a curry on the first night, and a meal at 21's which was superb.

On the first full day (day 2) we stated with the rockafella centre, we had a look around before going up. The views were superb, although if you only go up once I would suggest the night time. We went up in the day and then later in the trip at night. For the day time you really could see the everywhere, but it was at night where you get the better pictures.
5th av was cool, but at the end of the day really is just overpriced shops. Great for the photos again and doing the touristy things and spotting a few celebs. We went to Tiffany's and the mrs was really looking forward to seeing the $6m tiffany diamond. Pretty much a let down that one. What posessed them to put it on what looked like a cocktail stick is beyond us. A few others said the same thing.
The highlight of 5th av for the mrs was Aberfrombie & Fitch, with the topless lads on the door:rolleyes:. Not sure why there were no topless girls, oh well.
At the end of the shops we came to Central park. Went to the zoo whilst that was ok, it was nothing special. Went to the Boathouse for lunch. A locely setting but the food was not great.
After a little baseball with the locals and a bit more walking we made our wat to the john lennon memorial, then onto the museum of natural history. They suggested we paid $18, but could really pay whatever we wanted, so $1 later we were in. A great place but if looking at history is not your thing then give it a miss.
All that took around 9 hours and we were beat so got on the subway and back to the hotel for a few hours kip.

We woke up late and made our way to Times Sq. We got their about 11pm, most people had either gone or were in restaraunts so it was pretty dead outside, only a few people around. Possibly the best time to go, as in the daytime it was obscene, you could hardly move. We went to Planet Hollywood for dinner. Not great but not bad value $50ish, for a burger each, side salad between us and 2 bottles of Corona each.

Next day we did our shopping, bought some levi's at $50 a pair. The same jeans in the UK are over £80. Madness at how much we get ripped off in this country. Next into H&M, and again the price difference was was obscene. Spent just over $200 in their, which would have easily come to at least £400 in the UK.
Some drinking and eating later and the day was over.

Next day we went to down to the statue of liberty. It only took 14 minutes on the subway from Grand Central. Some great views, and we took time to have a look at the monuments that were thier before getting on the ferry.
We took the staten island ferry, which was free, but it is amazing how many peolpe went on the paid ferry. They were paying $12 each whilst we paid nothing.
From there we went to brooklyn and to the bridge. Within a few minutes a car engine blew up, and the mrs jumped out of her skin, she really thought she was being shot at:rotfl:.
Got to the bridge however as soon as we got to the walkway, we saw a a large procession. It was somethong to do with people against drugs and thier must have been a few hundrd thousand coming at us. The police told us not to bother as they were expecting over 1m people:eek: to cross the bridge from manhattan to brooklyn.
So back we went, more shopping and eating followed and we went back around 10pm. The views were amazing, and so glad we did it at night. It was raining a little so very few people were their, so peacefull.

Final day we got all our I souveniers, and then went celeb spotting at the vma awards.

We got to a few different areas like Chelsea, greenwich, tribeca and so on for lunch/dinner/drinks, so got to see a hell of a lot. Damn tiring but well worth it.

We never used a taxi once, the subway is easy, especially using a site called hopstop.com which gave you all your info within seconds.
The streets are really easy to work out, after a few minutes all I could think was how simple it was. When we walked we never once used a map as it relly was easy. Although we had google maps on our phone just incase.

A great time, but shame about most of the food.

becky_rtw

billy_sastard wrote: »

A great time, but shame about most of the food.

Glad you had a great trip :j:j:j

Sorry to hear this though - I ate nothing but the most amazing food both times I have been - if you go back its definitely worth checking out some of the places off the beaten track as the food is much better...

I can recommend the following:
North Square - 103 Waverly Place
The Boat Basin - only open in summer - W 79th St
The Bullpen - 1678 1st Ave - bar with great cheap food
Pretty much anything skanky looking in China town - dont know why but these are always the best places
Bella Cucina - 1297 Lexington Ave

There were loads of other good places but I cant remember the names
(:o)

Also if people must eat in Times Sq - virgils is pretty decent

phatbear

billy_sastard wrote: »

The highlight of 5th av for the mrs was Aberfrombie & Fitch, with the topless lads on the door:rolleyes:. Not sure why there were no topless girls, oh well.

Next day we did our shopping, bought some levi's at $50 a pair. The same jeans in the UK are over £80.

Sounds like you had a great trip, shame about your food experiences, on our last trip I did a lot of pre-reading about places to eat and none of them were a bad experience, mind you I dont suppose you can go far wrong with steak/ribs and burgers!!

A&F is a mystery to me, prior to going into tiffanys we considered popping in to have a lookie lookie at some polo shirts but there was a queue outside and it was pouring with rain so thought better of it.

Luckily when we were in NY a few weeks a ago Macys were having a Levi event and all jeans were $34.99-10% out of towners discount therefore got 3 pairs for $90'ish dollars, which when I got back to the UK and checked my card statement it was approx £56 for 3 pairs of levis, what a bargain!!!

phatbear

becky_rtw wrote: »

Also if people must eat in Times Sq - virgils is pretty decent

Virgils has been our first day dinner on each trip and we've never been dis-appointed in the food or service, oooooh gotta love their trainwreck fries!!

becky_rtw

I'm not really into food like that and I had a stinking hangover when I went so it wasnt great because I didnt each much, service was good though - but my friend really liked it and the lemonade was nice

foxy-roxy

Fallenangel152 wrote: »

We're going early - fly out on the 5th (lots of fireworks!). We're staying at the Park Central hotel just off broadway. It's got mixed reviews but wasn't too bad price wise as we got a good deal through Expedia.

We've already got our tickets for Wicked too!

Late nov will be nice, all the Christmas stuff should be out, and you might even get a bit of snow! Let us know where you book!

Phew. That was a lot of exclamation marks. Can you tell i'm excited?

I'm excited too:D we decided to go late November for the christmas stuff being put up, hope it is, were only there for 3 nights, but it says that the xmas lights go up the day before/after thanksgiving so that should be the 25th or 27th.:T

billy_sastard

becky_rtw wrote: »

Glad you had a great trip :j:j:j

Sorry to hear this though - I ate nothing but the most amazing food both times I have been - if you go back its definitely worth checking out some of the places off the beaten track as the food is much better...

I can recommend the following:
North Square - 103 Waverly Place
The Boat Basin - only open in summer - W 79th St
The Bullpen - 1678 1st Ave - bar with great cheap food
Pretty much anything skanky looking in China town - dont know why but these are always the best places
Bella Cucina - 1297 Lexington Ave

There were loads of other good places but I cant remember the names
(:o)

Also if people must eat in Times Sq - virgils is pretty decent

Only eat the once in times sq and that was because we were so tired after the full day and were their at the time. Virgills we did look at before going to planet hollywood, but it was full.
I would never reccommend anybody eats in times sq after going there. Really is just tourist rubbish.
Maybe the whole food thing is me bieng fussy. Being a chef I maybe expect a little to much. 21's was superb, however it should be for the price and dress code. Also went to place called roccos. Pretty poor. This guy is supposodly one of the top american chefs, also a big tv personality, think Gordon Ramsey with a little less talent. He had his own reality show about his restaraunt. I think it was a $4m venue. However it was just a let down.

Maybe just had bad luck, but to be honest I did not really go for the food. I went for the whole package, and as a whole we loved it.

becky_rtw

I am quite fussy too (unless I've had too much to drink )...still NY is known as a place for foodies so please dont let it put you off going again...its a bit like London - lots of dross but some fantastic local places...as well as the overpriced 'celebrity' places - (in UK foxtrot oscar or 15 anyone )

Agree about TS though *shudders at the thought of the place* its pretty rubbish - just like picadilly circus here

What kind of stuff do you cook normally?? Any place I can add to my wishlist?

greenface

try Shulas steakhouse in times square for the finest tasting food. There is good and bad everywhere and some great restraunts in Piccadilli too in fairness. Not just burger bars and pizza joints . Singin waitress for all the razzle and dazzle actually serves fairly decent good grub. so over the top american but thats a little what we are looking for (me anyway)TFIs way down by south seaport serves huge portions of American and tex mex food was full of marines the day we were there.