Eating breadsticks in the Times Square chain restaurant includes a time and the place.
But for many people visitors to New York -- people who travel for pleasure and culture -- sampling the 1000s of eating and drinking establishments in New York City is often a trip highlight.
Sometimes it merely requires a quick local fix before dashing for your next appointment.
Check Gordon Ramsay's Recipes here.
Sometimes you need an easy mid-range meal which don't wreck your Fitbit stats.
Then you will discover "occasions," when you need the kind of luxury dining experience only New York can provide.
You'll find local favorites per eating need with this list of nine New York restaurants, three for each and every meal and budget.
But for many people visitors to New York -- people who travel for pleasure and culture -- sampling the 1000s of eating and drinking establishments in New York City is often a trip highlight.
Sometimes it merely requires a quick local fix before dashing for your next appointment.
Check Gordon Ramsay's Recipes here.
Sometimes you need an easy mid-range meal which don't wreck your Fitbit stats.
Then you will discover "occasions," when you need the kind of luxury dining experience only New York can provide.
You'll find local favorites per eating need with this list of nine New York restaurants, three for each and every meal and budget.
Breakfast
Fast and cheap
Russ & Daughters
At this legendary shop, family-owned since 1914, purchase a Schmear (picking a cream cheese on the hand-rolled bagel, we like the onion) for under $2.45, or below the price of a subway ride.
Some want to eat it the regular New York way -- charging outside.
Nice sit-down
Balthazar
Not all trendy SoHo restaurants invite guests to linger.
But Balthazar's cozy ambiance does with giant bowls of cafe au lait and just-made croissants using their attached bakery.
"Eggs any style" includes "en cocotte" (baked in a very ramekin with cream), in puff pastry (scrambled with wild mushrooms and asparagus) or Norwegian (poached with smoked salmon), while using occasional side of celebrity-sighting.
Not an evening meal, an experience
Norma's at Le Parker Meridien
That's breakfast? It is at Norma's, the place that the Chocolate Decadence French Toast is really a staple.
New Yorkers standoffish?
Nah.
They love impressing visitors using a ta-da moment.
For some it's if the Wah-za waffle arrives -- fruit outside, fruit inside plus a creme brulee top -- because sometimes in New York breakfast isn't eaten, it's experienced.
Just one block from Central Park, so diners can take advantage of a post-feast walk.
Russ & Daughters
At this legendary shop, family-owned since 1914, purchase a Schmear (picking a cream cheese on the hand-rolled bagel, we like the onion) for under $2.45, or below the price of a subway ride.
Some want to eat it the regular New York way -- charging outside.
Nice sit-down
Balthazar
Not all trendy SoHo restaurants invite guests to linger.
But Balthazar's cozy ambiance does with giant bowls of cafe au lait and just-made croissants using their attached bakery.
"Eggs any style" includes "en cocotte" (baked in a very ramekin with cream), in puff pastry (scrambled with wild mushrooms and asparagus) or Norwegian (poached with smoked salmon), while using occasional side of celebrity-sighting.
Not an evening meal, an experience
Norma's at Le Parker Meridien
That's breakfast? It is at Norma's, the place that the Chocolate Decadence French Toast is really a staple.
New Yorkers standoffish?
Nah.
They love impressing visitors using a ta-da moment.
For some it's if the Wah-za waffle arrives -- fruit outside, fruit inside plus a creme brulee top -- because sometimes in New York breakfast isn't eaten, it's experienced.
Just one block from Central Park, so diners can take advantage of a post-feast walk.
Lunch
Fast and cheap
Uncle Gussy's
New York's most widely used lunch stop will be the Midtown street corner.
Choices: Stale pretzels. Limp hotdogs.
Or you can use a hot, freshly carved lamb gyro while using works as of this insanely popular food truck run by two brothers.
Mom definitely makes the OMG tzatziki sauce. You'll want to pony the 80 cents for the extra hit.
Nice sit-down
Friedman's
The city constantly nudges website visitors to walk -- through museums, up subway stairs, the mile-plus length in the High Line.
Hours later, its own exhaustion makes its presence felt that can bring about questionable food choices.
Fortunately, this homegrown lunch spot with healthy (veggie bowl), indulgent (mac 'n' cheese) and plenty of gluten-free options (including hamburger buns) has four locations from downtown to uptown.
Not dinner, an experience
Your Italian relations await: My Grandmother's Ravioli from Locanda Verde.
Locanda Verde
Trendy joints with months-long waiting lists for supper usually have open tables at lunchtime.
This buzzy Tribeca hotspot co-owned by Robert De Niro is often a great choice for a long, lazy A-List meal.
The menu reads: "Tutta la nostra pasta e fatta in casa."
Translation: All our pasta is homemade.
Try the favorite My Grandmother's Ravioli so you won't want the translation.
Uncle Gussy's
New York's most widely used lunch stop will be the Midtown street corner.
Choices: Stale pretzels. Limp hotdogs.
Or you can use a hot, freshly carved lamb gyro while using works as of this insanely popular food truck run by two brothers.
Mom definitely makes the OMG tzatziki sauce. You'll want to pony the 80 cents for the extra hit.
Nice sit-down
Friedman's
The city constantly nudges website visitors to walk -- through museums, up subway stairs, the mile-plus length in the High Line.
Hours later, its own exhaustion makes its presence felt that can bring about questionable food choices.
Fortunately, this homegrown lunch spot with healthy (veggie bowl), indulgent (mac 'n' cheese) and plenty of gluten-free options (including hamburger buns) has four locations from downtown to uptown.
Not dinner, an experience
Your Italian relations await: My Grandmother's Ravioli from Locanda Verde.
Locanda Verde
Trendy joints with months-long waiting lists for supper usually have open tables at lunchtime.
This buzzy Tribeca hotspot co-owned by Robert De Niro is often a great choice for a long, lazy A-List meal.
The menu reads: "Tutta la nostra pasta e fatta in casa."
Translation: All our pasta is homemade.
Try the favorite My Grandmother's Ravioli so you won't want the translation.
Dinner
Fast and cheap
Tortilleria Nixtamal
If New York can be a melting pot, its bubbling core is Queens, the cradle of ethnic eats.
Life-changing tacos can be found at the borough's authentic tortilla factory that each one the pricey Manhattan Mexican restaurants invest in.
Here, the fresh tortillas are warm and $2.75 buys a taco full of house-made chorizo or grilled cactus.
The mole chicken tamale also includes a devout following.
Nice sit-down
Barawine
There tend to be than eight million people surviving in the city yet sometimes visitors appear and disappear without ever meeting a soul.
The elbow-to-elbow community table in this downright convivial brasserie in Harlem usually remedies that.
There are great wines because of the glass as well as a superb roast duck breast.
Not meals, an experience
The Four Seasons
Ultimate, iconic, flawless and incomparable are adjectives routinely familiar with describe this swanky grande dame.
Yet words can't describe the glowing luxury in the mid-century room, its perfectly chilled martini or rack of lamb for two main.
Purists searching for a classically New York particular date might consider getting on the restaurant before its relocation in July 2016.
Tortilleria Nixtamal
If New York can be a melting pot, its bubbling core is Queens, the cradle of ethnic eats.
Life-changing tacos can be found at the borough's authentic tortilla factory that each one the pricey Manhattan Mexican restaurants invest in.
Here, the fresh tortillas are warm and $2.75 buys a taco full of house-made chorizo or grilled cactus.
The mole chicken tamale also includes a devout following.
Nice sit-down
Barawine
There tend to be than eight million people surviving in the city yet sometimes visitors appear and disappear without ever meeting a soul.
The elbow-to-elbow community table in this downright convivial brasserie in Harlem usually remedies that.
There are great wines because of the glass as well as a superb roast duck breast.
Not meals, an experience
The Four Seasons
Ultimate, iconic, flawless and incomparable are adjectives routinely familiar with describe this swanky grande dame.
Yet words can't describe the glowing luxury in the mid-century room, its perfectly chilled martini or rack of lamb for two main.
Purists searching for a classically New York particular date might consider getting on the restaurant before its relocation in July 2016.