New York food

[Anonymous No.11148933]

Hi /ck/ I will travel to New York in one Week, I'd like to know what are the best locations to eat.

[Anonymous No.11148971]

I'm going to slam your head into the concrete

[Anonymous No.11148978]

Wo Hop. It takes a very long wait in line for some pretty good chinese food. The place is a small underground room, but its nice. I like it. You need time, though

[Anonymous No.11148984]

>>11148978
Wo hop is the Kim Kardashian of Chinatown spots, it's objectively terrible, nobody knows why it's famous, but people can't stop talking about it

I mean if you really care about food (and you don't, otherwise you wouldn't have recommended it), I could explain to you what it represents and why it's significant, in a historical sense. Just as a Kim Kardashian fan can probably work out exactly what she's famous for, not that it really matters.

But strictly from an eating perspective, it's awful, and going there without some very specific motivation, like "I want to trace the history of Americhinese food", is retarded.

[Anonymous No.11149002]

Xian's Famous Foods, order an N4 with the second hottest spiciness. Thank me later.

[Anonymous No.11149041]

Recently visited New York, here's what I picked up:

>avoid overhyped places like Popeyes and Chipotle that don't exist in your country/area, they're all shit

>deli food is really tasty and really cheap

>seafood is amazing, but a little pricey, I'd suggest trying Nathan's at Coney island

>any sit-down restaurant is overpriced and never worth it

[Anonymous No.11149046]

>>11149041
This is the worst advice I have ever seen in my life, but what would I expect from someone who came to NYC to try Chipotle and Popeyes, the overhyped gourmet restaurants that took the foodieverse by storm of late

[Anonymous No.11149352]

>>11148984
Wo Hop is a cult favorite. There's a reason for this. New York is one of the oldest cities in the US, and has one of the oldest restaurant cultures in North America. Some restaurants here are cherished because they are windows into the past. Wo Hop serves food that's the bridge between Cantonese and what became the standardized Chinese American takeout menu. Not only is it interesting from a historical perspective, but it holds a strong appeal to the kind of person who likes Chinese American take out but might find an actual Cantonese place too challenging. The historical angle is no joke, though. The Cantonese were here and isolated from input from China in the form of new immigrants for almost a century, and their cuisine evolved during that time to reflect American tastes. Wo Hop is serving food reflective of that period.

A number of old guard places in NYC serve food that's good, but gets hyped because it's a window to how people ate in the last century or even before. Keen's, Peter Luger's, Lombardi's, Arturo's, Katz's, Totonno's, Eisenberg's, Schaller and Weber, the Bohemian Beer Garden, Nom Wah, Vaselka and countless other places have cult followings because eating there is like a trip to another time. And in a city as notoriously fast paced and competitive as New York any piece of the past that manages to hang on long enough will eventually be celebrated for the simple act of pulling that off. These places are usually not our best restaurants, just good ones that are interesting because of their historic value. I don't even like Wo Hop, but I get it, and I'm glad it's still there.

[Anonymous No.11149384]

>>11149352
>interesting from a historical perspective
Right, that's the only reason to go there.

>that's good, but gets hyped because
Except Wo Hop isn't good. Neither is Eisenberg's. Veselka is passable but for the fact that it's like 4x more expensive than its neighbors which happen to serve the exact same food, minus the booze, and minus the 4 AM drunk crowd. Which makes it "not good", I mean if I'm sloshed at that hour, and hellbent on spending $30 on food, I might as well go to L'Express or just spend $20 on a car ride and go to one of those 24 hour South Asian joints catering to taxi drivers.

>the kind of person who likes Chinese American take out but might find an actual Cantonese place too challenging.
What would that even mean? It's not like you're forced to gnaw on duck feet just because you're in an "actual Cantonese place".

[Anonymous No.11149533]

>>11149384
I'm not entirely disagreeing with you. I'm not a fan of Wo Hop, either. Honestly I'm not a fan of 20th Century American food in general. Our current standards for quality and freshness are much higher, and our flavors more vibrant. But I still hit old guard Italian American places every now and then just for the experience. Even though I know the food is better at actual Italian restaurants or in my own kitchen when I cook Italian. Because I like knowing my history, and appreciate being able to get a taste of it.

And let's face it, when people who come here to visit they're often looking for a taste of the mythology. Places like Katz's and Nom Wah may be objectively mediocre to those of us who live here, but to a tourist they're legit, because they're not tourist traps. They're living bit of NYC mythology as much as the Statue of Liberty or the Brooklyn Bridge. They're not really for New Yorkers as much as they're symbols of the city for the rest of the world.

As for who might be intimidated by an actual Cantonese menu or a real dim sum joint I'm thinking about friends and relatives whose entire experience of Chinese food is the take out joint and maybe a buffet. They go to Chinatown looking for an experience, but aren't always up to be all that challenged. I take them to Nom Wah and they fucking love it, even if it's just mediocre to me.

[Anonymous No.11149565]

>>11149384
>one of those 24 hour South Asian joints catering to taxi drivers.
I neglected to praise you for that line in my first response. My bad. This shows you really know your shit. Without a trace of irony I can say one of my favorite places to eat in Manhattan is Punjabi Deli on 1st St. But that's not the place to send just any out of towner to. That's for a very specific kind of visitor to appreciate.

[Anonymous No.11149582]

>>11148933
Lower east side and the east village will have everything you need. Just go where the food smells good.

[Anonymous No.11149651]

I remember I went to NY a couple years ago. I was there with a friend, and we were in a mall, in front of a Chipotle and a McDonald's. My friend wanted to go there. Having smelled(?) something weird from there I opted to go for mcd. She went to Chipotle. That same day she almost died from food poisoning.
Moral of he story: whatever you do, don't go to Chipotle.

[Anonymous No.11149652]

>>11149582
This is legit advice if you've got deep enough pockets. And really you shouldn't be coming to NYC as a tourist without some money to burn. The EV/LES is probably the safest place in Manhattan to just shoot in the dark as far as restaurants go. Some particularly good new Chinese places have opened up in the EV over the last couple years, way better than the aforementioned Wo Hop and Nom Wah. Here's a list:

https://ny.eater.com/maps/best-chinese-restaurants-east-village-nyc

[Anonymous No.11149845]

Also anyone coming here looking for the buzzy places can figure out where they are by looking online. But here are some old school classic a tourist might want to see:

https://ny.eater.com/maps/classic-restaurants-nyc