Tweak my NYC itinerary

[Julietandhercat]

Hello, can anyone who has been to NYC or is from there please refine my itinerary? We'll be travelling there in late May.

About us:
Late 30’s, from London, I’m a very light drinker, husband is a non drinker. Eat everything except pork.

1. We enjoy grazing on small eats so that we can experience lots of different flavours and variety. The only real restaurants that we want do are for the classic NYC steak experience, which is a bucket list item for us. Please give us your recommendations for great steak places.
2. Oh, and I also want to go somewhere for happy hour oysters, which I’ve heard are divine. Please feel free to suggest places that do this 😊
3. I also love thrift stores and anything quirky

Friday – stay near hotel, Renaissance Chelsea

• Get to hotel at around 2pm (after an 8 hour flight, having woken up at 6am, so we'll take it easy)
• Freshen up and head out at 3pm-ish
• Walk around, check out shops (buffalo exchange for example)
• Walk to Flatiron building
• Anything cool to eat around the area? Any recommendations for steakhouses? Bucket list item is to eat great steak in NYC. Is Wolfgang Steakhouse Park Avenue decent? Nothing set in stone to do on this afternoon/evening so happy for suggestions, what would you do that we won’t have covered below?

Saturday – Brooklyn

• Take the F line to York Street (Brooklyn).
• Wander around Brooklyn Flea Market
• Wander around Dumbo, photo op at Washington/Front Intersection
• Head to Timeout Market and explore, food and views from rooftop
• Wander through Brooklyn Bridge Park and through promenade
• Explore Brooklyn Heights, through Cobble Hill (Court Street and Smith Street) – any interesting shops/sights/food we should get/do here?
• Either head through Park Slope to Prospect Park OR head to Red Hook area and eat/drink/views at Strong Rope (which would you choose? Or is this whole bullet too ambitious and should we skip back to Brooklyn Bridge from here?)
• Back to Brooklyn Bridge, walk across bridge (iconic NYC bucket list item)
• Head to Pier 11, get Staten Island Ferry return to check out Statue of Liberty from the water (I'd rather do this that fit in Red Hook/Prospect Park above)
• Take South Ferry back to 23rd Street, walk back to hotel
• Either call it a day and relax or chill for a bit and head out again
• Options for going out – City Winery, a comedy club or jazz bar – any suggestions?

Sunday - UWS, Central Park, Met, East River Ferry

• Head to Zabars, pick up some food for a picnic (iconic NYC bucket list item, as strange as it may sound)
• Wander through Farmers market on W 79th St & Columbus Ave, more picnic food
• Check our Grand Bazaar
• Take food loot to Central Park – picnic on Great Lawn
• Find Bow Bridge, then wander to Bethesda, more wandering if we fancy it
• Head to The Met and wander round
• Drinks and views on The Met roof
• Walk to 92nd street, hopefully seeing pretty architecture on the way (any particular street or small food spots, like bagels or slices?), and take ferry to East 34 Street (doing this to get skyline view from the water, have heard it’s good)
• Wander back to hotel, either rest for the night or relax and head out somewhere later
• Late night options: comedy at Village Underground, Jazz at Smalls or Blue Note (any other suggestions?)

Monday – Village/Chelsea/Downtown day

• Walk to Chelsea Market, wander around (any recommendations for small eats?)
• Check out Pier 57 (any recommendations for small eats?)
• Walk to Magnolia bakery, banana pudding
• Check out general Bleecker Street area and side streets (SATC house, Friends house)
• Joes Pizza for a slice
• Mooch up to Washington Square Park, eat the slice on the grass and chill for a bit
• Check out Greenmarket at Union Square (is it worth doing this considering we'll have been to a few markets already in UWS?)
• Walk down to Strand Books
• Head to Yonah Schimmels for knish
• Katz deli for something to share
• Wander through Chinatown, get something small, maybe bubble tea (any small eat recommendations here?)
• If we didn’t get round to Staten Island ferry do it now, otherwise head back to hotel (take the R or W line from Canal Street station to 28 street)
• Chill and either stay in or head out later in the evening
• Any suggestions for what to do later locally?

Tuesday – Midtown day (have a chilled day as we’re flying out in the evening)

• Walk to Grand Central Station, eat at Veselka
• Check out view at SUMMIT
• New York Library and Bryant Park
• Either eat at Los Tacos 1, or head up to Gallaghers for steak (is Gallaghers a better option that Wolfgang Park Lane?)
• What else can we do in the area? Maybe a cool cinema?
• If we have time to kill, get some small eats (any recommendations please? cart food or bagels for example) and chill in Central Park.
• 5pm – get taxi to the airport

For good steak, I always to the Capital Grille (in NYC and Denver). It’s pretty old school traditional and their steak is fabulous. I go with local friends / colleagues so we wouldn’t be going there if the steak wasn’t good. My mouth is watering just at the thought!

@HundredMilesAnHour thank you! Do they do a specific cut well, or are they just all-round good?

First, I apologize for being very naughty, but are you sure you want to be spending money in the U.S. at the present time?

Your itinerary is impressive. A few random things occur to me:
-You're not much interested in museums? NYC has multiple world-class museums, not just the Met.
-I don't happen to like knishes, but as long as you're down there, since you're clearly very food-oriented, you should stroll over to Russ & Daughters.
-To me, the open markets aren't that big a deal, and although I like Union Square and buy things there, keep in mind that they're not open every day. Saturday is their big day.
-If anyone asked me to take them to the half-dozen best restaurants in NYC, none of them would be a steakhouse.
-Veselka is not in midtown, unless they moved, unbeknownst to me. It's in the East Village.

I generally suggest that people splurge on a guidebook or two. For NYC, there are probably also books specifically on restaurants. Also, there are tons of articles online (because we're lucky to have multiple good local periodicals) about things like best steaks, best pizza, etc.

They’re all round good. Not the cheapest but the food is outstanding (and I’m picky about my steak). I tend to order the Filet Mignon with a peppercorn sauce but I’ve never had a bad steak / meal there. I don’t think I’ve ever made it to dessert but we did manage to drink them out of Dom Perignon one night. 😂

That itinerary is insane. What if you just don't feel like banana pudding on Monday? Where's the opportunity just to wander, go down an interesting looking street, see where the fancy takes you, eat somewhere you stumble across that looks really good?

@MsAmerica I appreciate the naughty question :D we've got our flights booked already so it's pretty set.

Interesting about the best restoration not being steak ones. Out of interest, would you mind sharing your favourites?

I've never had a knish before and we'll be in the area for Katz so I thought why not. With Russ and Daughters, it was on my list bit then I read it was more of an appetising shop and their bagels weren't great as they were bought in not made in house. No idea really what an appetising shop is tbh, but I read they did fillings for bagels really well, like lox, which I'd get if I had a kitchen un NYC but I don't. Have I got that wrong?

For oysters, always the Oyster Bar under Grand Central Station

Definitely Russ & Daughters over Katz (unless you’re going for pastrami). R&D has a restaurant as well as a shop (two different buildings) and is delicious…

@MJOverInvestor the only thing for it is to do Russ and Daughters and Katz and then compare. In the interest of fairness 😂

@BeaAndBen brilliant thanks for the recommendation! We'll be at Grand Central Station anyway so we'll check it out.

I could eat a banana pudding pretty much anytime.

Would you believe, this itinerary is my version of free and easy. I like being prepared so that I pick the right day to visit an area (for example when a food market is actually on or a Flea Market is actually open). Outside of that I don't think it's a super tight itinerary. It's just mapping out a day. Of course we'll wander as we please, but I like knowing the general direction of travel. Each to their own.

I’d swerve Summit - it’s a palaver and very much set up for Instagrammers. Met roof terrace is great though. Strong recommend for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The tours take about an hour and depending on which one you take will have a foodie element. www.tenement.org/

Random thoughts from me: that itinerary is making me tired just looking at it, it's a HUGE amount. Factor in jetlag, assuming you're coming from the UK?
I'd throw in Smorgasburg on one of your days for food stalls. It's at the world trade centre on Friday, Williamsburg on Saturday and Prospect Park on Sunday.
100% go to Los tacos 1 when you're at Grand Central, it's great.
If you only take the ferry as far as 34th St, you won't actually see most of the skyline, you want to go all the way down to wall street for that really.
IME, you want to get to Joe's Pizza about 30 minutes before it opens to not have a horrendous wait but that might be more of a weekend issue...
On walking around, to get a sense of how long it will take you, if you're a brisk walker you'll do an uptown/ downtown block in a minute and a crosstown block in about 2.5 minutes. I feel like you've got a lot of long walks in there!
Banana pudding is revolting. I know a lot of people love it but I do not get it.
My current favourite restaurant is Foul Witch, and then I go to Il laboratorio di gelato for dessert. V close to Katz's.

Oh I've just seen you already know you like banana pudding, missed that. Ignore me on that, so!

@MJOverInvestor thanks for the tip on SUMMIT. I was a bit worried it would be like that.

I'll add the Tenement museum to the LES part of the itinerary, thanks.

Also… https://www.smorgasburg.com/ is great for food trends. www.smorgasburg.com/vendors

Brooklyn is much more spread out than Manhattan so tbh I’d either concentrate on Williamsburg or Prospect Park…

“-Veselka is not in midtown, unless they moved, unbeknownst to me. It's in the East Village.”

There is a Veselka in Grand Central, just as the OP says. There has also been more branches over the years other than the original in the East Village.

OP- I used to love the Oyster Bar in GC but it has really gone downhill over the past few years. You could try Mothershuckers if you are going to pier 57 anyway.

@midtownmum I am a bit guilty of overplanning but this is nothing compared to how I used to do it (think print outs and maps and hour time slots). This is my version of free and easy 😀 having said that, I do like to put all possible options down in one place and then in reality we'll pick and choose what to do and what to skip on the day depending on how tired we are.

• thanks for the tip on smorgasbord, I'll see when I can work it in to the plan
• on the walking bit, if it gets too much of a faff we'll either cut something out or get an uber or use public transport. Thanks for highlighting it as a possible issue.
• ohh that gelato place sounds cool, and I'll check out the Foul Witch menu.

@PearlCity mothershuckers, got it, thanks! That gives us something to aim for food wise at Pier 57 too.

I think you are being too ambitious unless you are superfit and have a massive budget.

I had to queue for around 90 minutes just to get on the ferry to Statue of Liberty and coming back, the queue was that long we had to wait on 2 ferries coming and going in the longest queue ever before we finally got on the 3rd one. It took hours and we only stayed on the island for around 90 minutes.

If you are going to Central Park, Bryant Park will be a disappointment and Joe's Pizza is just a normal pizza you queue for half an hour for.

I would suggest being more flexible with the grab and go type food and just grab something from whatever shops you're passing. Banana pudding was pretty good though!

Juliana’s for pizza in dumbo is great

I take your point on the grab and go food - noted. I don't want to be waiting in lots of queues particularly.

On the ferry - I was also looking at paid options to see the statue of liberty from the water. A company called circle lime cruises do a $30pp sunset cruise (screenshot here). From what you've said, I think it'll be worth just paying the money and doing it that way.

@DancingNotDrowning thanks for the heads up, I'll pin it to my Google maps.

I was going to say this and Grand Central Station is absolutely amazing,the architecture and ambiance is incredible l

Capitol Grille is a chain.

For the definitive NYC steakhouse you want Gallagher’s

https://gallaghersnysteakhouse.com/