Manhattan Restaurant Endorsements

A friend of mine recently moved back to New York and asked me what restaurants I really liked while I was there. I almost told him to go through my old blog entries himself, but then I realized I'd be much faster going through those old entries and also would be able to judge the restaurants from memories that I didn't record in the blog. And I realized it would be nice to have such a list for myself.

Without further ado, the definite endorsements (in no particular order):
* Cafe Lalo - desserts (went three times) - upper west side
* Katz's Deli - jewish deli (went twice) - lower east side
* Ali Baba - turkish (went twice) - midtown east
* Havana-Chelsea - cuban (good Cubans and steaks, bad service (went three times)) - chelsea
* Murray's - bagels and lox (went multiple times) - chelsea
* John's Pizza - pizza (really good quality cheese) - theater district
* Gray's Papaya - hot dogs and juices (went three times) - chelsea (near 8th Av and 37th)
* Wild Ginger - thai (usually quite good, and excellent atmosphere and notably good service (went twice)) - greenwich village
* Via Brasil - brazilian (notably good service, frequently has live music) - little brazil (theater district)
* Molly's - pub with above average burgers - gramercy park
* Divane - turkish (get the signature dish) - midtown west - now closed

And here are the decent places / mild endorsements. (The better places are closer to the top.)
* Djerdan - bureks and other eastern european fare - theater district
* Banjara - indian (could be great - I didn't ordered enough) - curry hill (east village)
* Regional Thai Taste Restaurant - thai - chelsea
* Brick Lane - indian (could be great - I didn't order correctly) - curry hill (east village)
* Bright Food Shop - mexican-ish fusion brunch place (went twice) - chelsea
* Brooklyn Bagels (pretty darn good, but without Murray's lox selection) (went twice) - midtown east
* Kunjip Restaurant - korean - korea town (chelsea)
* Ipanema Restaurant - brazilian - little brazil (theater district)
* Trattoria Trecolori - italian (went twice) - theater district
* Cafe Napoli - italian - little italy (lower manhattan)
* Little Poland - polish - east village
* The Tomato Restaurant - red-sauce italian (went twice) - chelsea
* Spanish Center - spanish - greenwich village (hidden in spanish community center)
* a pakistani place - (went twice) - theater district (on 8th in the 30s or 40s)
* Momo - sushi - midtown west
* a chinese - - upper west side (90s and broadway)
* deli / bakery - (went multiple times) - chelsea (at 8th and 23rd
* Burger Joint - burgers (hidden in a hotel lobby, quite an adventure) - upper midtown
* Soul Fixins - soul food - chelsea
* Haru - sushi - various locations
* Hong Kong Noodles Sushi - - chelsea
* Chinam 28 - chinese noodles and such - upper east side
* Mancora - peruvian - east village

Finally, the following places were disappointing:
* every burrito place I tried
* Manhattan's Heroes - Cuban - chelsea
* Amazonia - juice bar - chelsea (8th in the 30s)
* bakery - - chelsea (on 8th Avenue in the teens)
* Hunan - chinese - chelsea (across from empire state building)

For more details on any of these restaurants, use your browser's search-within-page feature on the June 2004 archive and the July 2004 archive of this blog.

Edit: Updated to reflect more details about the restaurants and their general locations.