How to Spend a Perfect 72 Hours Eating Your Way Through New York
New York, New York is a wonderful town, and in between museum visits, ball games, Broadway shows, and strolls through the park, we highly encourage you to make space in your NYC travel itinerary for a stellar lineup of meals. Because, let’s face it, the matter of where to eat should always be top of mind, especially in New York.
We also know that New York trips tend to be a whirlwind. So let’s say you’ve only got 72 hours — Friday morning to Sunday evening — to eat and drink your way through the city. Where to begin?
We have ideas — which we’ve organized below to maximize a long weekend in town (with some bonus planning if you’re coming for the U.S. Open). And you can also check our Hit List of the top 20 restaurants to dine at in New York right now, as well as our guides for so much else.
Your perfect plan is just ahead.*
*P.S. Our itinerary doesn’t include any pizza spots, but we highly encourage you to grab a slice whenever the mood strikes. Here’s an extensive guide to help you locate a few choice stops.
Headed to the U.S. Open?
If your visit to New York includes a stop at the U.S. Open or Citi Field, consider yourself very lucky, indeed. Queens, a.k.a. “the world’s borough” is one of the best places in the entire city for eating well, and we’ve got plenty of suggestions for you:
- Explore Flushing Chinatown like a local.
- Take yourself on a Mexican food crawl along Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights and Corona.
- Get some stellar Taiwanese food over at Taiwanese Gourmet in Elmhurst. (P.S. It’s cash only.)
- Check out New York State Senator Jessica Ramos’ personal favorite spots in her home borough.
- Headed to MoMA PS1? Check out all the great places to eat in and around Long Island City.
- Headed to the Noguchi Museum or the Museum of the Moving Image? Check out these spots in Astoria.
- Devise your own Thai food crawl in Elmhurst. A few suggestions? Playground Thai (technically in Jackson Heights); Ayada Thai; and Zaab Zaab.
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- How to Spend a Perfect 72 Hours Eating Your Way Through New York
Saturday: Uptown to Downtown
Café Sabarsky Upper East Side
Museum Mile Dining
Day two starts uptown near Central Park — where you could go for a leisurely stroll, or head to more excellent museums, including The Met and the American Museum of Natural History. Should you find yourself on the East Side, we highly recommend popping into the Neue Galerie’s Café Sabarsky, one of the city’s best Viennese cafés. Breakfast is first come, first served (they take reservations for dinner only), and it starts at 9 a.m. sharp. If you’re famished, do consider the Sabarsky Frühstück, which comes with two drinks, Bavarian ham and eggs, a breakfast basket with three types of bread, brioche, jam, and honey. And save a little room for a crêpe with their housemade apricot jam.
Mắm Lower East Side
Photo by Ben Hon for Resy
Lunch on the Lower East Side
For lunch, make your way downtown to Chinatown and the Lower East Side and head straight for this charming spot owned by husband-and-wife team Jerald and Nhung Dao Head. Mắm is one of a new generation of Vietnamese restaurants making its mark in the city, introducing New Yorkers to dishes you’d likely find only in Vietnam — or Vietnamese American enclaves like Houston or Westminster, Calif. Come here for their signature bún dau mam tôm, a bountiful platter of grilled pork intestines, housemade blood sausage, sticky rice sausage, and tofu, along with fresh herbs and rice vermicelli, all to be dipped in a pungent fermented shrimp paste. (They also have an entirely vegan version.) Whatever you do, get some extra tofu — it’s all made in house, and it’s incredible.
Photo by Ben Hon for Resy
Chinatown Snacks Chinatown
Photo by Molly Tavoletti for Resy
Grazing Time
Wander around the streets of Chinatown long enough, and you’ll stumble across so many worthwhile snacks, and do note that “snack” is a relative term — at least to us. A few of our personal favorites include the sponge cakes from New Kam Hing Coffee Shop; soup dumplings from Noodle Village; curry beef stew over flat noodles from Bo Ky; and roast pork buns from Mei Lai Wah. Pro tip: There’s often a line of people trying to order from the lone kiosk in front of the door, but you can also use the one inside to place your order.
New York is home to three major Chinatowns, including Flushing, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. And if you’re hungry for dim sum, check out this list.
Photo by Molly Tavoletti for Resy
Dhamaka Essex Market
Photo courtesy of Resy
Dinner With a Punch
Head to Essex Market for dinner at one of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants. Dhamaka, from James Beard Award-winning chef Chintan Pandya, has a no-holds-barred way of looking at Indian cuisine: drawing a spotlight on lesser-known regions and dishes, and preserving overlooked traditions and ingredients. That means an Amritsari fish fry with cod and chickpea flour; a dahi waali bhindi with okra and Rajasthani red chile; and a can’t-miss roasted cauliflower with smoked yogurt and garlic. And save room for the housemade paneer.
Photo courtesy of Resy
Thai Diner Nolita
There’s Always Room for Dessert
Should you still have room for dessert at the end of the night, we highly recommend a visit to Thai Diner. Everything on the menu is excellent, from the savory to the sweet, but we especially love the eccentric (and delicious) desserts they’ve got on deck: banana Thai rum pudding; an insanely good coconut sundae; and a highly Instagrammable “Thai Coffee Monster” of a coffee cake.
Keep the night going with this nightlife guide from former NYC Nightlife Mayor Ariel Palitz.
