NYC budget ideas

[hippiechicken]

Can anyone recommend budget cutting ideas for my upcoming trip to NYC?
I would love restaurants ideas, especially.

 

[Teacher510]

Restaurants in Theatre District: Ollie's on 42nd St, John's on 44th, Joshua Tree on 46th. Restaurant.com has certificates which can save you $$ at other participating restaurants. Sign up and wait for discount codes by e-mail. Joshua Tree is usually available through them.

 

[hippiechicken]

I'll definitely look into restaurant.com.
Thank you.

 

[Ava]

Don't eat at chain restaurants in Times Square (Olive Garden, TGIFridays, Bubba Gump, etc.) They are all over priced. If you really want Olive Garden (or have coupons) there is one on 6th Avenue & 22nd St that is cheaper than the one in Times Square.

If you are in the theater district, walk over to 8th or 9th Avenue to look for a restaurant. There are many restaurants on those avenues with better food and more reasonable prices than what you will find in Times Square itself.

I also like www.menupages.com - you can search by neighborhood, type of cuisine & price, and they have a copy of the menu & reviews.

 

[bamor]

Menupages is great!
Make the NYC forum on trip advisor your friend.
As far as restaurant.com, have a look at Havana Central on 46th St. Right now the certs are 80% off.
If in Little Italy, Soho check out L'asso for a happy hour specials with two slices of margherita pizza and a beer for $6.00.
Lots of great places to eat in Chinatown, be sure to check out the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.


Both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Am Museum of Natural History are suggested donation only.
Walk through Central Park and Bryant Park (both have websites/see what is going on while you are there)
Take the subway to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is free admission on Sat am from 10-12.
Walk the Brooklyn Bridge back into Manhattan.
The Staten Island Ferry is free and a great way to take a boat ride past the Statue of Liberty.

www.hopstop.com is very helpful in figuring out walking, subway and bus directions.

There are great hotel deals for NYC, see www.travelzoo.com.

 

[eacatwork]

+1 on the Staten Island Ferry...my BFF and I did this at the beginning of May and did not realize what a great view you get of the Statue of Liberty.

 

[derocas]

Restaurant.com has a code promotion ending today! If you PM me I'll give you the code for an additional 80% off

 

[MineMail]

When you get to Staten Island, you can take a bus to the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. It's a wonderful place with small art/children's museum buildings and botanical gardens, including the Chinese Scholars Garden, which is phenomenal.

Within walking distance is "RH Tugs" that sits right on the waterfront and has great views and good food. It's reasonably priced. There are also a bunch of restaurants right by the ferry in the neighborhood of Saint George.

If you're in midtown Manhattan, try the Carnegie Deli for either lunch or dinner. The sandwiches (pastrami or corned beef are my fav!) are HUGE, so you can share it among two people. Have a cream soda with it - yum.

There is a plate-sharing charge, but if you get it "to go" and walk over to Sixth Avenue (Ave of the Americas) you can dine al fresco in the skyscraper public courtyards. No plate-sharing charge that way. (That's actually a good tip for ANY of the restaurants.)

Downtown in Chinatown, try Wo-Hop Restaurant at 17 Mott Street. The "downstairs" (basement) spot has been there for years and is better (IMO) than the street-level restaurant. Many of the locals as well as the Police Plaza cops eat there regularly - try the Egg Drop Soup and BBQ Spareribs - they're the best!

Now I'm hungry, lol.

 

[clj1410]

John's on 44th is a really nice italian resturant. It has great food and is really quite cheap considering that you are in NYC!

We normally take the train in, arriving about 10.30, walk straight up to Times Square, then on to Central Park, where we eat our picnic lunch. The kids love climbing on the many rocks and then running around the cool play ground. After leaving there we head to FAO Swartz, American Girl, World of Disney and a stop at Rockerfeller. Then we head back to times square, and on to dinner at Johns before catching the train home. It is really a fun and inexpensive day out.

On some many Saturdays they have a huge street market, which last time start just off of Times Square and went all the way to Central Park.

 

[hippiechicken]

I appreciate all the advice so far. I'm studying Menu Pages and Trip Advisor right now.

I've never used Restaurant.com. Does it really work?
Has anyone eaten at or used the coupons at any of the NYC restaurants?
Thank you.

 

[rhiansmom]

I researched and researched the betterbidding.com website and bid on a hotel in the theater district and ended up at the millenium broadway hotel for $99 a night!

Before we went we had an idea of what we wanted to do and bought tickets online at a slight discount.

 

[Teacher510]

I appreciate all the advice so far. I'm studying Menu Pages and Trip Advisor right now.

I've never used Restaurant.com. Does it really work?
Has anyone eaten at or used the coupons at any of the NYC restaurants?
Thank you.

I use them in Manhattan several times a month and it's great! When the certs are 80% off like today the $25 ones are only $2. You usually have to spend around $35 and then the $25 comes off.

 

[bamor]

The only restaurant.com cert I've ever used was for Havana Central.
They have an excellent brunch on Sundays. I would not go to crazy buying these, though. This is a big city and you'd have to be certain what area they are in and if it's even an area you planned on being in otherwise you could be adding a lot of travel time to your day to save $10.00.
John's is very good for pizza in the Times Square/Theater District.
Have a look at some of the theater district restaurants with prix fix menus.
These can be a great value, Maria Pia or Akdeniz are a good start.
You can get good Chinese, Indian, Mexican etc all around the city for pretty reasonable prices.
Have a look at Angus McIndoe, they have one dinner served after 8pm that includes unlimited wine.
Vynl is also good and fairly reasonable. There are lots of places in Hells Kitchen just a short walk from Times Square.
Grandaisy Bakery sells KILLER slices of zucchini pizza, potato pizza, cauliflower pizza to go. Grab a sandwich or salad from a deli and sit in a park. Bryant Park is right behind the NY Public Library (another great place to look around).
Stay away, far away from any of the chains like Olive Garden or Friday's.
The food is mediocre and overpriced.

 

[hippiechicken]

Thank you for the NYC help. I managed to survive while there, so am posting my dining report in case anyone needs it.

pizza from Famiglia

American Girl Tea

pasta without sauce from Famiglia

pretzel knots

Museum of natural History-grilled cheese, pesto pasta, French fries (yummy!) and dessert (never eaten)

amazing pasta—baked ziti

Natsumi

avocado and cucumber sushi

Planet Hollywood--barbeque chicken pizza

Texas Tostados

Cozy’s--omelet

Au Bon Pain

Route 66-omelet

Tavern on the Green-salad

chocolate cake

Central Park kiosk

Pergola—salad and rice. This place was really good. I wish we had time to go back. They had so many choices.

Guggenheim bagel