Frequent visitors to NYC, please help!

[thefirstmrsdewinter]

Can you recommend some fun, un-touristy, offbeat stuff to do? And/or somewhere to eat dinner? Tomorrow we're taking the ferry from NJ to 35th St, planning to stay for Tues night, maybe Wed night too. I've looked at TONY, the New Yorker, NYT arts section etc and we still haven't settled on anything to do when we get there.
One of us is a free spirit who thinks we'll figure it out when we get there, the other is getting twitchy. We're both frequent visitors but usually have some sort of itinerary to hang everything on.
So far I'm thinking of booking a tour of Lincoln Center. That's all I've got though!

Bike the Big Apple have good tours of Brooklyn, The Bronx and Harlem. I loved all of them.

Ariel tram to Roosevelt island is pretty cool, it's on the MTA system. We had some great food at dinosaur bbq, and also at Amy Ruth's, Both in Harlem. Had some amazing pie at 4 and 20 blackbirds in Brooklyn too.

Forgot to say even though it's totally touristy the food tours of Greenwich Village go to some great small restaurants and cafes.

Thanks, all great ideas!

City Hall station freetoursbyfoot.com/city-hall-subway-station/
Gulliver’s Gate gulliversgate.com
Smorgasburg www.smorgasburg.com
MoMath
Houdini Museum www.houdinimuseumny.com/visit/
Babycastles babycastles.com

Thanks Rice, that's an excellent collection of oddball stuff. 🙂
Putting all these suggestions in the long-term file as we often have this problem. I'm with my mum, who is very resistant to planning anything.

Zara that sounds brilliant. When I said 'untouristy' I really just meant to exclude the more obvious stuff, not because it isn't great fun but because over the years we've probably done it (I used to live nearby and my mum lives here). I'm pretty out of the loop on new visitors' stuff like restaurants and fun day-trip stuff, so that ticks those boxes.

thefirstmrsdewinter the food tours are great. We went on two and the leaders have a theatrical background they were really, really good. We did the aerial tram ride on one of the Brooklyn tours you have a great view of the UN. It's nice to interact with the leaders New Yorkers always have a good story or two to share. Cycling in NYC was pretty cool.

Arthur Avenue.

Tour of the United Nations building is great.

The Tenement Museum
The High Line
The Vessel & Hudson Yards
Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge or take the E. River Ferry
1 World Trade viewing deck
Flour Shop
Chinatown Icecream Factory

zafferana your list reads almost exactly like the itinerary of my last trip here with dh. It was about 200 degrees in the TM and they gave us fans.
I love the CICF!

Near the Tenement Museum, the Eldridge Street Synagogue is fascinating, beautiful and well worth a visit. I love just pottering around that neighbourhood. The guides are volunteers, and can be fabulous. And then stop at Katz's for the world's most expensive salt beef bagel....

I totally second Bike the Big Apple. I did the Brooklyn/Williamsburg tour with Jesse and it was fab.

Also Attaboy for cocktails (Eldridge st). Sit at the bar.

And the Gramercy tavern--great for a cosy autumn lunch (a colleague once told me, with no embarrassment l, that she used to meet her current husband there while she was two timing her then husband.)

Also the round the island boat ride.

We really enjoyed the United Nations tour as well!