Batali Restaurants

Del Posto
85 10th Ave.
(between 15th and 16th St.)
212-497-8090
Must try: 4-course $45 Enoteca Room prix fixe menu



Otto
One 5th Ave.
(at 8th St.)
212-995-9559
Must try: Cheese, wine quartino(quarter liter), antipasti

Danny Meyer Restaurants

Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Ave.
(at 24th St.)
212-889-0905
Must try: suckling pig

Tabla
11 Madison Ave.
(at 25th St.)
212-889-2363
Must try: Cheese Kulcha—a cheese-filled naan, specialty cocktails


The Modern Bar Room
Inside the Museum of Modern Art
9 W. 53rd. St.
(between 5th and 6th Ave.)
Must try: The most amazing lamb, Alsatian tarte flambée

Korean Food

The Mill
Korean
1895 Broadway
(at 113th St.)
When I first moved to New York, my friend Jillian took me to The Mill, a Korean restaurant up by her alma mater, Columbia University. She recommended B1 (Jillian tends to order the same selection at restaurants over and over), so that’s what I chose the first five or six times I visited The Mill (I sometimes fall into that comfortable habit, as well). Good old B1, Jab Chae—stir fried rice noodles with (or without) beef, vegetables and a “special sauce,” all for $9. The noodles have a great smooth texture, the special sauce is tasty and all entrees come with the normal accoutrements associated with Korean fare: unlimited miso soup, kimchi and bowls of cold spicy salad-like selections that change daily (I always hope I’ll hit a marinated tofu day!). Lately I’ve been branching out and trying different entrees as well. My new favorite is C2, Dolsat Bibim-Bab. Rice, vegetables, your meat of choice and a soft egg come to the table sizzling in a hot stone pot. I throw in some hot sauce, stir it all together, and eagerly search out the crunchy chunks of rice that get toasted along the inside. 

Kim Chee Korean Restaurant
9324 3rd Ave.
(corner of 3rd Ave. and 93rd St.)
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
The Mill is good for convenience and the cozy atmosphere, but there’s better Korean food to be found in Bay Ridge Brooklyn, if you happen to be in the neighborhood (or live in the neighborhood like Geoff, my boyfriend). I’ve only been to Kim Chee Korean Restaurant once, but I’ve been obsessing about going back ever since. The menu isn’t very novice-friendly so I chose a familiar dish, but I was amazed by their version of Dolsot Bibim-Bab. The sauce that our server insisted on pouring onto my food (I’m always wary when it comes to trusting other people’s hotness meters), was delicious. It made the hot pot sizzle and flavored the rice perfectly. We also had a seafood pancake (called Hae mul pa jun, I think) that I loved. I’ve recently developed an affinity for Asian “pancakes,” and this one did not disappoint. The scallion pancake I tried at The Mill was oily, but Kim Chee got it just right—savory and pancake-y and seafood-y and not at all icky.

Chinatown

Big Wong King
67 Mott St.
(between Canal and Bayard St.)
Must try: Congee with donut-like bread, eating family style

Joe's Shanghai Restaurant
Chinatown
9 Pell St.
or Uptown
24 W. 56th St.
(between 5th and 6th Ave.)
Must try: Soup dumplings

Coffee and Desserts

La Laterna di Vittorio
129 MacDougal St
(between West 4^th and 3^rd St.)
Must try: Best espresso drinks; Natella pizza
Atmosphere: Great heated outdoor garden

Café Lalo
201 W. 83^rd St
(by Amsterdam Ave.)
Must try: All desserts; good coffee
Atmosphere: Great faux-French place to hang out

Cupcakes

Sugar Sweet Sunshine
126 Rivington St.
(between Norfolk and Essex)
I used to live in the East Village, a short hike from Sugar Sweet Sunshine. I thought I was the only one who really truly appreciated their pistachio cupcakes, until I read about them in an MSN story, The Country’s Best Cupcakes. This is, without a doubt, my favorite cupcake ever—the standard by which I measure every other cupcake (and please understand, I’m usually a chocolate person). I take everyone to Sugar Sweet Sunshine—my sisters, my cousins, my boyfriend (Geoff), my parents—and everyone has their favorite—pistachio, pumpkin, lemon, chocolate, red velvet. And it’s not just the perfectly moist sweet-but-not-too-sweet cake that makes them extraordinary, but the matching frostings. The frostings are to die for!

Desserts

Little Pie Company
424 W. 43^rd St.
(between 9^th and 10^th Ave.)
or in Grand Central Station’s Dining Concourse
The secret to a perfect pie is a well-matched crust. I don’t know off-hand what crust characteristics match best with specific pies, but I can tell that the bakers at Little Pie Company do know and pay attention. The owners trolled through regional cookbooks, tinkered with their favorite recipes and brought authentic country pies to the big city. They’re most famous for their Sour Cream Apple Walnut Pie, a rich unusual take on an old favorite. My Dad and Geoff both like the Mississippi Mud Pie the best, with its moist under-baked-brownie consistency. I like the Lemon Meringue. 

Lung Moon Bakery
83 Mulberry St
(between Canal and Bayard St.)
My boyfriend, Geoff, is an egg tart connoisseur. Born in Hong Kong, he’s eaten his share of this cute pastry from a young age. (Egg tarts are actually a variation on English custards, introduced to Hong Kong with British colonization.) I like custard of any kind. I would eat (and have eaten) egg tarts from any and every bakery in Chinatown. But Lung Moon Bakery has the best, second only, Geoff says, to his mother’s recipe. The crust is light and ultra-flaky while the custard itself is restrained—not too sweet, with a nice eggy flavor.  

Grom (Italian Gelato)
2165 Broadway
(between 76^th and 77^th St.)
This is gelato like I never knew gelato could be. The flavors are rich, potent and pure. My favorite so far is the Zabaione, which tastes like marsala wine. And the pear sorbet I tried recently tasted like pureed frozen fruit—like biting into a pear with less crunch and more cold—plain and simple.  It was amazing.