Our New York City restaurant weekend

When we arrived in New York, we checked in to hotel and an easy 5 minute walk took us to Ulrika's, an unique and very pleasant Swedish restaurant with great food. This was recommended to me by i-95 and he could not have sent us to a nicer, friendly place with nice service, beautiful presentations, and marvelous food. My son and I selected the Smorgasbords Tallrik which was a marvelous selection on specialties served on a beautiful gray slate tile. It consisted of a couple of Swedish meatballs with lingon berries over them, 2 different kids of herrings (best that I had ever had) gravlax, Vasterbotten cheese, hot smoked salmon and a small dish which consisted of very thinly sliced potatoes, onions, and salmon and baked; almost like a dainty version of our scalloped potatoes. The children shared a potato pancake (sliced potatoes) served with ligon berries and crisp bacon and my daughter in law had the Swedish meatball platter.

We had a late dinner at John's Pizzeria and just loved the place and the pizza was terrific. Maybe there are other places better than this for pizza but we (as deprived of decent pizza where we live) thought the pizza was wonderful. We also ordered a good Caesar's salad and a pasta (overcooked) with great clam sauce and some penne pasta (cooked to perfection) and served with marinara sauce. Our waitress was most pleasant and we enjoyed this place very much.

Sunday breakfast consisted of flaky croissants, bagels with cream cheese and coffee and juice in our room. Arriving back from church, we made the mistake of coming into our hotel through Fauchon's entrance. After spending 15 minutes deciding, lunch consisted of chocolates and pastries at horribly high prices but, heck, it was cheaper than going to Paris.

Sunday evening was dinner at Peter Luger's. We had 2 waiters who were great! One of them had worked on a cruise ship as a waiter for a few years and he treated us like we were on a cruise ship with the best of service and much attention paid to the children. We all agree that you will never get more delicious bacon than the thick sliced bacon they serve here. We all enjoyed some bacon and had the porterhouse steak with a salad, a side of spinach and German fried potatoes (home fries to us). For going out for a wonderful steak, in friendly surroundings and not having to get all dressed up, this has to be one of our favorite places to enjoy a meal.

Monday breakfast was a repeat of Sunday's breakfast with everyone happy. It had snowed and was terribly cold and windy so we changed out plans a little. We did our tour of Trinity Church, (could not get into the cemetery because of the snow) and Wall Street. We had then planned on strolling through China town and having Chinese food at a highly recommended Chinese restaurant but decided to save it for another day and took a cab to Katz's which is pure heaven. The kids loved their egg creams and hot dogs. My daughter in law had the corned beef sandwich while my son and I had the hot pastrami and the only way I can think of best describing this sandwich is "heaven on a plate." The sandwiches along with the 3 kinds of pickles that they bring to the table made for a very happy and wonderful ending to some great food in New York City.

Chezkatie,

Thanks for the wonderful report. I enjoyed reading it and visualizing the entire scene as you wrote and described it.

For those who enjoy visiting New York City, as I certainly have in the past, the most frustrating part is that you can only see (and eat) so much in a weekend.

By the way, what were the three kinds of pickles that you had at Katz's?

Frank

Wow.

Words cannot convey my jealousy. I won't try :-)

Let me guess...the most expensive meal was the croissants, bagels, coffee and juice in your hotel room!

Always happy to hear about people coming to my town and having a good time. And I'm especially glad about your Luger's experience. People always complain about the service, but I've been there at least 25 times and have never had a problem.

Absolutely jealous.

My guess on the 3 kinds of pickles at Katz's would be well dones, half dones, and pickled tomatoes.

quote:

Originally posted by signman

Absolutely jealous.

My guess on the 3 kinds of pickles at Katz's would be well dones, half dones, and pickled tomatoes.

Exactly.............and the 2 year old loved them all!

quote:

Originally posted by Spudnut

Let me guess...the most expensive meal was the croissants, bagels, coffee and juice in your hotel room!

Always happy to hear about people coming to my town and having a good time. And I'm especially glad about your Luger's experience. People always complain about the service, but I've been there at least 25 times and have never had a problem.

You guessed wrong.............my son walked over to a deli and picked up breakfast each morning. It was cheap and cheerful and fun! I can taste that croissant right now As far as service at Luger's, I cannot understand why it is ever mentioned that the service can be less than nice. We have eaten there 3 times in last 4 years and the servers have always been excellent, as well as fun.

Chezkatie,

It's always nice to see Katz Deli get a good mention. I have been to Katz, 2nd Avenue Deli, and Carnegie Deli, and the only mistake that I made was that I went to Katz first. The other two, while being of an entirely different ambience, pale by comparison.

Katz is pastrami heaven and nirvana and olympus rolled into one...

I'll be back next time in town...

gb

Anyone been to the Stage Deli lately? If I get a good recommendation, I may go there in a few weeks. Also, are the Pickle Guys open on Sat.?

quote:

Originally posted by oneiron339

Anyone been to the Stage Deli lately? If I get a good recommendation, I may go there in a few weeks. Also, are the Pickle Guys open on Sat.?

Not open on Saturdays according to their website.

After seeing the pastrami sammich...err sandwich....picture from Katz's, it lept to number one on my "must visit when in NYC" list

Sounds like a fantastic trip Chezkatie. I envy you. I'm only 3 hours from NY and it's depressing not to find at least one good Kosher Deli Sandwich.

The Scandinavian Restaurant sounds like a surprise, I really didn't know that NY had any.

At least NYC has one over The Twin Cities who have more Swedes than Stockholm yet are too ashamed or embarrassed or whatever to have an abundance of Scandinavian Restaurants (they don't have any!) because it's not the trendy thing to do- For Shame Twin Cities!

Great travelogue, Katie! Thanks for all the detail!

quote:

Originally posted by chezkatie

The sandwiches along with the 3 kinds of pickles that they bring to the table made for a very happy and wonderful ending to some great food in New York City.

"bring to the table"????? What? You went to Katz's, and didn't stand in line and have the sandwiches (pronounced sang-witches) made in front of you? If you didn't, you missed out. Part of the ambience of Katz's is the "cutter". Plus, for an extra buck(s) tip, you get to "sample" the meat being cut for your sandwich.

As a side note, every time I go to Katz's, I order the corned beef, because to me it is the best. I know I cannot get that cut of meat anywhere near where I live, and while I get to Katz's frequently enough to satisfy my urges, I don't get their frequently enough that I wouldn't miss the corned beef if I ordered something else. That said, when I was chatting up the cutter (more sample!), he told me that he thought the tastiest cut of meat that they had was the brisket. I have now gone their twice thinking that I would order the brisket and have baled out at the last minute both times and went with the corned beef.

Steve

Some good choices Katie. Its a tough city to do in a weekend. One suggestion...either and H&H or an Essa Bagel breakfast next time. Can't come to NY and not have a NY bagel. Its kind of like the pastrami and pizza...just not the same outside the city