Gluttony – When in New York, EAT!
We were traveling on a budget. I specifically budgeted only about $100/day for food which for two people in New York was NOT much. But I am thrilled to say that I kept to the budget and we didn’t starve. We learned quickly that the food at our hotel far surpassed much of what we could get in Times Square. While we were not budgeting to eat at high end restaurants, that meant sticking to what we knew (Applebees, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle). And what we figured out is that the cost to eat at these places we knew cost about the same as what we could spend on BETTER food at our hotel. Applebees was a mistake. Chipotle was on our first day and was convenient to our location. Chick-fil-A is tried at true. Decent fast food but cheap? Not in New York. A simple #1 Meal on their menu was about $15 in New York…for a plain chicken sandwich, waffle fries and a medium diet coke. OUCH!
So while we ate the “usual” for our meals, we opted to splurge on the sweets because the bakeries in New York? YUM!!! Our favorite was Angelina Bakery that was literally across the street from our hotel. So while cost wise it was more than what we’d pay at home for baked goods, it was still less expensive than buying a full fledged breakfast every day and it was plenty of food to get us going. PLUS, it was delicious.
Angelina Bakery, NYC
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Michaela loves cheesecake. The very first time I took her to New York she was 9 years old. We were traveling with my parents and we were eating at the restaurant next to the ice rink a Rockefeller Center. We had just eaten this delicious albeit very expensive meal and we topped it off with a New York cheesecake that stood about 4″ high. There were four of us and we were going to share. The cheesecake was delivered to our table just as our eyes caught view of a skater on the rink. My parents and I watched this skater for a few minutes and when we turned back to have some of the cake, it was gone. Michaela had eaten it all. Her little cheesecake crusted lips curved into a smile as I asked “Where did the cheesecake go?” And thus begun her love affair with New York cheesecake. When we were planning our return trip she said that she wanted to try as much cheesecake as we could. I did some research and based on where we were staying and our timeframe, the best places for cheesecake were Magnolia Bakery and Juniors. Both were definitely VERY good. We actually ate a meal at Juniors because I had read they weren’t bad and I agree. They were very good. The presentation was great. The cost was tolerable and the taste was excellent. Unfortunately we were too full for dessert but thankfully they boxed up our cheesecake and it was something we could enjoy later. And WE DID!
Our favorite meal was chips and guacamole from the M Social Hotel room service. It was some of the best guacamole we had ever had! And we could eat it every day. I think we came close to doing that. Of course we couldn’t make a full meal out of just chips so we’d split a pizza too. We did eat a couple times in their restaurant that overlooked Times Square. We had their breakfast buffet when we first arrived and before we discovered Angelinas. It was good but Angelinas was better. The dinner we had there was definitely better and again, still just as much money as eating at Applebees down the street.
Room Service at the M Social Hotel.
If eating all the foods that New York has to offer, I would recommend doubling the daily budget that we had. There were definitely other places we could have eaten. But when you are being budget conscious like we were, we had to decide what was more important – expensive, yet delicious food or the experiences. While eating CAN be an experience, we wanted to do vs eat. So most of our expenses were dedicated to the activities. That being said, while we did have disappointing meals at Applebees and expensive fast food at Chick-fil-A, the rest of the food didn’t suck. We managed to eat a lovely lunch at the cafe at the Museum of Modern Art, order room service multiple times and eat all the baked goods and gelato we wanted and still stayed within our budget. I’ll chalk that up to a win!
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