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Below is my attempt to aggregate recent posts on New York City, including all five boroughs with a special shout out to the dirty Jersey. As of the date of this original posting, I didn't include posts older than 2 or 3 years with some exceptions. I found fewer posts than I expected, so I organized them by borough/location and by alphabet rather than by cuisine and/or neighborhood. As the database grows, it may make sense to re-organize along those parameters. Obviously we are looking forward to many more posts from the LTH universe. And if you have any suggestions or I've ommitted anything, please post it here.

LTH'er GAF wrote a great number of posts in 2005-2006 on NYC dining that I have not included in the list. I will aggregate them into one post and link it here shortly.

One last thing. We often quibble about whether New York or Chicago is the better city. I suspect the answer lies in where you were raised and to whom you owe allegiance. After all, you may love your girlfriend, but your momma gave birth to you and brought you up. So don't talk shit about momma!!! (unless she can't cook).

Hope this helps.

General

LTH in NYC - the List, the Links

The essential, but cheap, Manhattan (tour of Manhattan)

Quick bites in the East Village (Pizza, Japanese, Sandwiches)

Fifteen blocks of sandwiches (Union Square)

Japanese food marathon in NYC (Sushi, Yakitori, Izakaya, etc.)

A trio of noodlers in NYC (Noodles!!, Chinatown - Manhattan and Brooklyn)

Neighborhood Queens (tour of Queens)

Pizzaland (Old school New Jersey pizza)

Manhattan

456 Shanghai Cuisine (and others) (Soup Dumplings/Shanghainese, Chinatown)

Arturo's (Brick Oven New York Pizza, Greenwich Village)

Babbo (Mario Batali, Greenwich Village)

Blue Hill (Farm-to-table, West Village)

Casa Adela (Puerto Rican, Lower East Side)

Co. (Neapolitan Pizza, Chelsea)

Cocoron (Soba Noodles, Lower East Side)

DBGB (Daniel Boulud's Gastropub, East Village)

Gahm Mi Oak (Korean, Midtown)

Ippudo (Ramen, East Village)

Minetta Tavern (Steaks/Bistro, West Village)

Momofuku (Ramen, East Village)

Motorino (Pizza, East Village)

N.Y. Noodletown (and others) (Noodles!!, Chinatown - Manhattan and Brooklyn)

Skyway Malaysian Restaurant (Chinese Malaysian, Chinatown)

Spotted Pig (Gastropub, West Village)

Takashi (Japanese BBQ, West Village)

Tehuitzingo Deli and Grocery (Mexican grocery and taqueria in Midtown west)

Tomoe (Sushi, West Village)

Yasuda (Sublime Sushi, Midtown East)


Brooklyn

Fatty Cue (Southeast Asian Smokeshack, Williamsburg)

Mile End Deli (Deli, Boerum Hill)

Peter Luger (Steaks, Attitude, Brooklyn)

Yunnan Flavor Snack (and others) (Noodles!!, Chinatown - Manhattan and Brooklyn)


Queens

Chao Thai (Thai, Elmhurst)

Kabab Cafe (Egyptian, Astoria)

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings and Shanghainese, Flushing)

Sripraphai (Thai, Woodside)



the Bronx

Staten Island

The Dirty Jersey

Harold's Deli (Edison, New Jersey)

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"By the fig, the olive..." Surat Al-Teen, Mecca 95:1"

Habibi-

Looks great. I've had a couple of NYC trips lately, I'll do what I can to add to this universe of information as NYC LTH posts have been very helpful in the past.

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Local Beet

FWIW, I posted about Minetta Tavern in 3/10:

Minetta Tavern (Steaks, West Village)

And are you posting the more comprehensive or city-wide threads? I have found them pretty good resources, such as this one: here.

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blog E-Dogz

So as not to dilute the thread too much, if I missed anything on this round and you'd like to point it out, please PM me and I will add it. No offense meant to anyone who's thread I may have missed.

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"By the fig, the olive..." Surat Al-Teen, Mecca 95:1"

I would rename "Momofuku" to "Momofuku Noodle Bar" to disambiguate from Momofuku Milk Bar and Momofuku Ssam Bar and Momofuku Bar Bar.

Topic stickied.

As for edits and additions, how 'bout this: Since this is a brand new index, I say go ahead and post right here for now, and once the dust has settled a bit, I'll break off the discussion and save it as a separate thread for posterity, leaving a nice, clean index for Habibi to maintain going forward.

However, I'd like to point out that this is an index not of NYC restaurants, but of LTH posts about NYC restaurants. If there's a place you'd like to see included, the thing to do rather than suggesting that a restaurant's name be added to a list is to post about it! If something hasn't been covered, by all means, please cover it and we'll add that thread to the index. It's obvious that there's a ton of interest in NYC on the board, and I'm really excited to see what everybody has to contribute. Jump on in, and we'll make sure all new content is roped in.

Thanks again, Habibi, for taking this on!

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-Dom
www.skilletdoux.com

Habibi-

I'm delighted that you have done this. I think there is a serious opportunity to create some real synergy on New York. It's inspiring me to post pictures I've been holding onto for awhile.

Here are a couple posts that can be added to the index. I posted on full Irish breakfast, a butcher shop for boiling bacon, and soccer pubs in the North Bronx-Yonkers Irish neighborhood on McLean avenue.

I attempted to start a trendspotting Manhattan thread here. It's really about rice pudding.

And there is this post about Chicago-style hot-dogs in NY.

I see that you have mentioned a group of posts by GAF. Here is one I know about: a thread on the Arthur Avenue area of The Bronx.

If Jersey is going to be included, why not Westchester and the CT suburbs of NY? There are a few worthy places in Norwalk and Stamford that I have posted on, so these could be included. Generally, folks from those CT towns work in NYC and think of the close-in CT suburbs as part of the NY metro area.

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Man : I can't understand how a poet like you can eat that stuff.
T. S. Eliot: Ah, but you're not a poet.

i was on vacation in NYC last week. i did no food research in advance- just went with the flow. here are my dining spots. i loved the pastries at the new battery park city pastry shop of francois payard. he does a great gateau basque (semolina based moist cake). i had some good cheese danish, but didn't like the rugulach at moishes bakery, one of the last remaining (so i'm told) kosher bakeries on the lower east side. none of the restaurants i ate at would be considered destination dining. but here are the places i liked. my cousin took me to BKNY, a glammed up thai restaurant in bayside, queens. the grilled scallops with tamarind/chili paste was perfect. the eggrolls were average.
i really like greek coffee shops with booths, and ate at 2 of them. the chelsea square restaurant is open 24 hours; always good to know. and gee whiz in tribeca is a great place to eat breakfast and watch the world pass by. i had very average pierogis at veselka, but always enjoy the atmosphere there(also open 24 hours). for 2 good neighborhood dinner places (ie; no 'scenes', not too crowded or noisy), i like
industria argentina in tribeca, and trestle on 10th in chelsea. I.A. serves grilled, not fried empanadas as starters and i found them outstanding(hand cut beef in one, and very cheesey cheese/ham in the other). for dinner i had skirt steak with great sauteed spinach and mashed potatoes. trestle is contemporary american food. i had some new hampshire hard cider, a delicious pumpkin/mushroom soup, and perfectly cooked seared salmon with salsify for dinner. the only big name place i tried to go to was locanda verde, the chef being andrew carmellini. dinner reservations were impossible to get only a few days out. i've got NYC friends who really love the place. i'll try again in the future. justjoan

TRESTLE ON 10TH, 242 10th ave. at 24th st.
INDUSTRIA ARGENTINA,329 greenwich st.
MOISHES BAKERY, 115 2d ave.
GEE WHIZ, 295 greenwich st.
CHELSEA SQUARE, 368 w. 23rd st.
VESELKA,144 2d ave. at 9th st.
FRANCOIS PAYARD-on murray st. between northend, and west st.(too new to find on their website)

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"the only things money can't buy are true love and homegrown tomatoes" (guy clark)

Munching on a peerless hand made tortilla at Zaragoza the other day, I was reminded again of how essential freshly stone ground masa is to the cuisine and how fortunate we are to have more than a dozen significant mills/tortillerias in town. Then I remembered my friends and relatives in NYC and their always failing quest for decent Mexican, and I wondered what the state of masa and tortillas is in NYC 2012, recalling that for years the lament has been a remarkable lack of masa in the capital of the universe even when places such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Michigan and Iowa enjoy it as the Mexican diaspora lays down roots beyond the Mexican border states and Chicago. In 2012 I am surprised to see that, apparently, the only real fresh masa still comes from one small, still newish storefront tortilleria: Nixtamal in Queens - a place run by a couple of hipster urban pioneers with no prior experience, selling machine-made tortillas that would be bottom-rung in Chicago or LA, for $2.50 a pack (i.e., between five and ten times what machine made tortillas cost here). Anything else is appaarently made from Maseca. No matter what anyone says, that stuff sucks.

I'm not sure how this can be. Some enterprising tortilla mogul from Pilsen or Atlanta or wherever hasn't bought a warehouse in Jersey and started cranking out tortillas for NYC? Please advise.

I haven't had a non-maseca tortilla here that wasn't hand made in the restaurant itself. I don't buy tortillas in this city. Honestly, its like missing an appendage.

Haven't tried nixtamal though I am curious.

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"By the fig, the olive..." Surat Al-Teen, Mecca 95:1"

It's the NYC water. Only fit for bagels.

Found another place in Chinatown for good soup dumplings. Nice, thin but substantial skin, tasty pork filling, rich broth. And cheap! 8 for $4.95:



You'll have to venture out to Queens to beat these.

Shanghai Cafe Deluxe
100 Mott Street (between Canal and Hester) ‪
New York NY 10013
212-966-3988
Cash only ‬‎

Try the soup dumplings at RedFarm or Chinatown Brasserie by Joe Ng, they are the best in town right now. I would say better than Nan Xiang. They are pork belly and crab with yellow leeks, shiitake mushrooms, sesame oil, ginger, cooking wine, and more in the filling. They also add a tiny bit of yellow leeks and saffron to the wrappers. Incredibly fragrant and flavorful, without the oily broth you get elsewhere, and super delicate skins. Worth the extra cost for XLB fans.

Couple places to add to the NYC list:

Pisticci: A "green" Italian restaurant in an otherwise-unexceptional block near Columbia University. It has great food at widely-varying levels of fanciness. If you're feeling flush, you can splurge on steamed mussel and grilled eggplant appetizers, then have a grilled skirt steak; if you're feeling cheap, you and a date can share an amazing bowl of spaghetti pomodoro for $8 each. In the middle is a whole range of tasty pastas, my favorite of which is the Fettucine ai Funghi, which features more mushrooms than pasta. I always manage to hit this one up when I'm back in NY.

Rack and Soul: Superb barbecue with ridiculous portions, plus free refills on the sweet tea, unsweet tea, and lemonade. It does ribs, pulled pork, and fried chicken equally well, and I recommend all of its sides.

Turkuaz: Solid Turkish restaurant, with your standard grilled meats/baba ghanoush/dolma done very well, plus a few special items: The Turkuaz Begendi (Doner meat sliced thin and placed on top of an absolutely unctuous eggplant puree) is pretty awesome, and they also do an excellent Imam Bayilidi (cold stuffed eggplant appetizer) and Arnavut Cigeri (fried liver appetizer). Just a warning: The dining room is huge, but the waitstaff is not, so if you sit in the lovely area with cushioned couches and curtains you will get extremely slow service. It's worth it, though.

Here are a couple of my latest faves:

Ngam
My wife chatted with the lovely Chef Hong as we waited for our table in front of the open kitchen of this East Village Thai restaurant. Before we knew it, the chef had arranged an extravagant tasting for our party of four comprising 15 courses! Each dish was so insanely flavorful, I can't begin to remember everything we had. Maybe it was those lychee-pomegranate martinis we started with!
To me, Ngam is a radical departure from New York City's mediocre Thai food scene.

Coppelia
Situated in a remodeled coffee shop just a few blocks west of Union Square on W. 14th St., Coppelia turns out delicious Cuban and assorted pan-Latin specialties 24/7. If you're in the mood for Ropa Vieha or some chicharron Mac 'n Cheese at 4am, this is your place. Flavors are assertive, drinks are strong and desserts are the bailiwick of pastry-god Pichet Ong. After three weeks, his tres leches cake with dulce de leche icing still haunts me.

My wife and I had a really nice long weekend in NYC recently. I don't have time to write up much about individual dishes. Nevertheless, these are the highlights:

Aldea: This is George Mendes' seasonal, Portuguese-inspired restaurant.
aldearestaurant.com
31 W. 17th Street, NYC.

The NoMad: This is run by the same people who have Eleven Madison Park and is somewhat more casual. With the exception of a rather bland halibut in a very nice broth, this was an extraordinary lunch.
1170 Broadway New York, NY 10001
(212) 796-1500
http://www.thenomadhotel.com/#/dining
(Not to be confused with a different restaurant called simply Nomad in the East Village.)

The Bar Room at the Modern (inside MOMA): The Bar Room is the more causal side of the restaurant. Rustic Alsatian.
9 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019
http://www.themodernnyc.com/
(212) 333-1220

Motorino Pizza: Neo-Neapolitan pizza. Very good.
349 East 12th Street New York, NY 10003
http://motorinopizza.com/

Diner: Diner and Marlowe and Sons are next door to one another and are under the same ownership. Both are seasonal, casual, no-reservation places. We went to Diner, put our name down, went to Marlowe and Sons for some oysters and cocktails, and then went back to Diner for an excellent dinner.
85 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 486-3077
http://dinernyc.com/

Marlow and Sons
81 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 384-1441
http://marlowandsons.com/

Golden Unicorn: Bustling Dim Sum Mega Restaurant that reminded me of Phoenix in Chicago.
http://goldenunicornrestaurant.com/
18 East Broadway New York, NY 10002
(212) 941-0911

And an excellent bagel at Murray's Bagels.
http://www.murraysbagels.com
500 Avenue of the Americas # 1 New York, NY 10011
(212) 462-2830

We hit a few great places for cocktails also:

The Pegu Club
77 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10012
http://www.peguclub.com

Death + Company
433 East 6th Street Manhattan, NY 10009
(212) 388-0882
http://deathandcompany.com/

Mayahuel: Tequila and Mezcal-focused. We went here for a drink while we waited to get into Death and Co.
304 E 6th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 253-5888
http://www.mayahuelny.com

The Bar at the Andaz: This is a hotel in the Hyatt chain. The bar is quite good and features a full open kitchen and bar. By that I mean that the kitchen and bar are literally in the same room as the seats.
485 5th Avenue
New York
(212) 601-1234

The NoMad in the NoMad hotel has a capital M. It's intended to mean North of Madison Square Park.

I've corrected my original post.

I went to RedFarm a couple of weeks ago and thought the soup dumplings were good but not the best in town and were extremely overpriced. Also found the main courses at RedFarm were average. Lots of hype around the place, and my fellow foodie friends love it, but I thought it was just "good." Took a friend with me who's from China, and he was pleased by the appetizers but not by the main courses--said the mains "could be found at almost any Cantonese restaurant in NYC."

Joe Ng was there that night, btw. And they're opening another RedFarm on the UWS.

For those of you who like fresh tortillas, some friends of mine (ex-Texans) are doing tacos at the New Amsterdam Market and pressing tortillas to order for each taco.

They're called Lone Star Taco. The chef is ex-Bouchon Bakery. He's originally from San Antonio, TX.



Every Sunday at the New Amsterdam Market. They're serving breakfast tacos as well.

There are just so many restaurant choices in NYC that it's easy to miss a little gem like Danji. Sure, it resembles a lot of other places; white brick walls, tightly packed natural wood communal tables, Edison bulbs. But the food, Korean tapas, really sets it apart.

My companion and I ate, or rather, devoured:

Scallion & korean pepper pancake
Spicy pork belly sliders- scallions, cucumber julienne & gochujang
Braised short ribs w. fingerlings, cipollini & toasted pine nuts
Spicy 'K.F.C.' korean fire chicken wings- honey, garlic, four chilies
Tofu w. ginger scallion dressing (This was amazing. Think savory marshmallows, deep fried)
Bossam- braised pork, scallion, dehydrated daikon kimchi, cabbage wrap

And several splits of sake.

We were comped most of the drinks, as they asked us to move tables to accommodate a party of four, which included celebrity chef John Besh. As we were leaving, we chatted with Besh, who also effusively praised the place. Maybe they comped him some sake, too!

Danji
346 W 52nd St. (Btwn 8th & 9th Ave)
(212) 586-2880
http://www.danjinyc.com/

My favorite pizza in New York doesn't come from deep in the bowels of an old Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn; it's not made by a dour old man seasoned with layers of baking flour and marinara sauce. Nor is it made by a DOC certified, obsessive type chasing the perfect, pillowy-charred disc of yeasty Neapolitan nirvana in ovens breathing fire at 1000 degrees. It's not a New York stalwart, known from coast-to-coast, attracting Die Hard New Yokkaz and tourists alike.

My favorite pizza comes out of a non-descript joint on Ave. B and 12th Street. The crust is thin and shatters at the edges. The sauce is a bit sweet. The cheese is salty and oily. My favorite toppings are fresh cut button mushrooms and pickled jalapenos. I could probably house two of those 16-inch pies in a sitting if I tried, and I wouldn't regret it. As with any pizzeria in New York, don't order sausage. It tastes like cat food. This isn't Chicago, jo. But I think I might like this pizza better than even anything I've had in Chicago. Maybe.

Gruppo Thin Crust Pizza
186 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009
212-995-2100
http://gruppothincrust.com/

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"By the fig, the olive..." Surat Al-Teen, Mecca 95:1"

Paul SL, I also really enjoyed Danji on my last visit to New York.

I agree that the scallion pancake and bossam and can also vouch for the bulgogi sliders which were just fantastic.

I was concerned when my New York friend crowed that this was the only Michelin-starred Korean restaurant in the world (seems to be true) that the flavors might be overshadowed by elaborate plating. The plates did look pretty, but the flavors were there.

Funny, the plates were empty before I noticed the presentation! I'll be going back soon, and this time, I'll take a glance before I dig in.

Continuing my exploration of NY XLB, I managed to hit four spots over Thanksgiving, two in Queens and two in Manhattan. I apologize for the crappy pics - didn't travel with my good camera. Anyway, first stop was Queens: This was my second visit to Nan Xiang, and it continues to be my gold standard for XLB in the US . . . I prefer them to those I recently tried at Din Tai Fung on a trip to LA. The XLB at Nan Xiang feature very thin wrappers that don't stick, and offer a ton of flavor, plenty of soup and just the right amount of fat. I just love them.


Nan Xiang XLB



I then hit Joe's Shanghai immediately after Nan Xiang, and while Joe's offered good XLB, they didn't come close to measuring up to Nan Xiang. The wrappers were pretty thin, but the soup was not nearly as flavorful as that at Nan Xiang. Unfortunately, Joe's problem was mostly that I was there right after Nan Xiang because in reality, they were pretty damn good XLB, and better than what I've found in Chicago.


Joe's Shanghai XLB



In Manhattan, I visited two spots in Chinatown. I first visited Shanghai Cafe Deluxe. The XLB were really delicious and featured a lot of delicious soup, more than I've ever encountered. The only negative was in order to have all of that hot soup remain in the dumpling, they apparently believed they needed to make the wrappers a little thicker, and these were too thick in my opinion. But they didn't stick and the soup and pork were delicious, and would beat the dumpling pleats off any XLB in Chicago.


Shanghai Cafe Deluxe XLB



Second and last stop in Manhattan was Shanghai Asian Manor. The XLB wrappers here were the least pretty of the four, but they were also the thinnest. You could easily see the soup moving around inside the wrapper. But two of the wrappers broke when lifted - a little sticking. And while the flavor was good, I preferred the flavor of both the soup and pork filling at Shanghai Cafe Deluxe.


Shanghai Asian Manor XLB



Overall, three very nice (and one excellent) versions of XLB, better than any in Chicago. I just love XLB and enjoyed the opportunity to sample several of NYC's best over Thanksgiving . . . a nice respite from turkey.