All Abroad

New York: Five Places to Eat

If there’s one thing New Yorkers know how to do, it’s eat. Their city encompasses a thousand cooking styles from as many nations, ensuring that there’ll always be something to suit the most particular of taste buds.

For the ultimate Manhattan diner experience, visit Katz’s deli at 205 East Houston Street, a traditional Jewish diner that has served the lower east side since 1988. Not only celebrated for its bulging pastrami and corned beef sandwiches, this is the eatery where Meg Ryan famously embarrassed Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally.

Catch some authentic Asian cooking in the heart of the Chinatown district at New York Noodle Town, 28 ½ the Bowery at Bayard Street. Lively, noisy and often so crowded that you end up sharing a table with complete strangers – prepare to party late into the night.

Pig out at The Doughnut Plant on 379 Grand St between Essex and Norfolk streets. Cheap, cheerful and stuffed with doughnuts of every flavor, shape and size, this temple to fried cakes has become a cult success amongst native New Yorkers and includes many media personalities and celebrities amongst its regular customers.

Hidden deep within the bowels of the cavernous Grand Central Station on 42nd Street at Park Avenue is the Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant. Specializing in a rich variety of fish dishes, this 89-year old institution is the perfect place to munch on a bowl of traditional clam chowder while watching Wall Street power brokers seal deals over 20 varieties of raw oyster.

Sample a traditional Manhattan delicacy at Gray’s Papaya, a hot dog stand on the corner of West 72nd Street and Broadway. Stand by the cart while you eat for a fun-filled conversation with the vendor, whose excellent dogs and New York wit have turned him into a city landmark over the years.