Tell me where to eat in LA/NY/SF

[pilonv1]

I'll be in Murica for two weeks in June, staying in Santa Monica, then Long Island (have to for work reasons ), Manhattan and finally San Francisco.Obviously I will be checking out the many Olive Gardens in each city, but would welcome any other suggestions. I vaguely remember a thread here talking bread in San Francisco, which I will try to find at some point.

Also any recommendations of areas to avoid/dumpsters to investigate would be great!

[Howard Alan Treesong]

in LA you need to go to ANIMAL

[Mandark]

Sbarro's

[tiesto]

Where on the island are you gonna be? We should hang out...

[etiolate]

Do you prefer certain types of food? There's a good Japanese place in Berkeley if you can make it that far from SF city. I've been to a nice French place in the city, but I'll have to get the name from CG.

[Snuflupagulus]

In SF, Tadich Grill and get the cioppino. If you're going to be at Fisherman's, walk a little west and eat at Buena Vista Cafe. Greatest bread pudding and claim to have "invented" the Irish Coffee. In the Mission, get a burrito at El Farolito. These are all well-known, easy places to find though maybe not adventurous. Fantastic food, tho. If you end up in the Financial District, may as well walk to Ferry Building esp. on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday for the Farmer's Market; quite a few small purveyors with great stuff (4505 Meats for a great burger). Depending on the day, rub shoulders with office drones or frou frou yuppies. Again, fantastic food.

SF is chockablock with food. East Bay is also amazing (and better value), but would require coming across the bridge.

The bread you mention was probably referring to sour dough bread (e.g., Boudin Bakery).

[etiolate]

Yeah Farmer's Market is full of good food.

[pilonv1]

in LA you need to go to ANIMAL

tell me more

Where on the island are you gonna be? We should hang out...

Westbury, which sucks because I wanted to get the touristy stuff for NY done on Saturday/Sunday which means getting the train in. Might have a monday night free but that's probably it, gf has everything planned already and I'm working two days I'm there.

In SF, Tadich Grill and get the cioppino. If you're going to be at Fisherman's, walk a little west and eat at Buena Vista Cafe. Greatest bread pudding and claim to have "invented" the Irish Coffee. In the Mission, get a burrito at El Farolito. These are all well-known, easy places to find though maybe not adventurous. Fantastic food, tho. If you end up in the Financial District, may as well walk to Ferry Building esp. on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday for the Farmer's Market; quite a few small purveyors with great stuff (4505 Meats for a great burger). Depending on the day, rub shoulders with office drones or frou frou yuppies. Again, fantastic food.

SF is chockablock with food. East Bay is also amazing (and better value), but would require coming across the bridge.

The bread you mention was probably referring to sour dough bread (e.g., Boudin Bakery).

this is great stuff. We're staying near Union Square, get in Friday afternoon, fly out Monday night.

No specific food recommendations, we're keen to try anything really. Been eying off some Mexican places in Santa Monica already. We both like Japanese but not sure if I'll be able to get to Berkley.

[G The Resurrected]

Ok for SF hit up Super Duper Burger and get a burger with an egg on it that tastes amazing. Also if you go to the Ferry Building check out Gotts Roadside its pretty good. I've not had much luck with restaurants in the city.  But I will say if you want coffee seek out Ritual Coffee its the bomb!

Oh and if you go to the east bay. Do yourself a favor and hit up this place:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/genova-delicatessen-oakland

It's the best sandwhich shop in all of the bay. Long lines are the norm, but its worth it.

Hit me up when your in town maybe we can catch a beer or dinner or something.

[CrystalGemini]

I'll be in Murica for two weeks in June, staying in Santa Monica, then Long Island (have to for work reasons ), Manhattan and finally San Francisco.Obviously I will be checking out the many Olive Gardens in each city, but would welcome any other suggestions. I vaguely remember a thread here talking bread in San Francisco, which I will try to find at some point.

Also any recommendations of areas to avoid/dumpsters to investigate would be great!

Forget Boudin.  That place is a tourist trap.  Go to Tartine in the Mission district.  It's near Dolores Park so you can grab some baked goods and sit out in the sun (HA!  Well..maybe?) and enjoy the day.  Ok so Tartine's kind of a tourist destination too but it's not so blatant as to be on the Embarcadero.

WHICH REMINDS ME.  Go to the Exploratorium.  They just moved to the Embarcadero.  But they're awesome and you can check out the Bay Lights (2 year LED light show on the Bay Bridge that you can watch from the Embarcadero) while you're there.  FYI though: Exploratorium closes at 5pm and Bay Lights do not start till 8pm so........

Do you prefer certain types of food? There's a good Japanese place in Berkeley if you can make it that far from SF city. I've been to a nice French place in the city, but I'll have to get the name from CG.

Kirala in Berkeley on Ward Street in Berkeley (there's Kirala 2 on Shattuck that only does take out) and Restaurant Ducroix on Sacramento Street in San Francisco.  Did you want to stay in certain parts of the city or just the parts easily accessible via BART and MUNI?  Are you a walker?  And by walker I mean you should easily walk up and down steep hills for at least 2+ miles.  There are good places scattered all over the city - just depends on much effort you want to put towards getting to them.

If you're staying near Union Square the "easiest" place to eat is the Westfield Mall food court on Market - it's right next to a huge Old Navy and across from a huge Gap store you can't miss it.  Powell Street BART station actually has an entrance to the mall too so easily accessible.  It's a wide range of decent affordable food that's not your normal mall food court fair.  Though if you actually want the normal mall food court fair you just cross over to the Nordstrom side.

[Eric P]

since you're in SF and NYC you should go to Mission Chinese.  It started in SF and a location opened in NYC but you'll want to get there early as it's TINY and fills up.  If you don't like spicy food, skip it.  However, if you enjoy spicy food, the thrice-cooked bacon is divine.  It's not authentic in any way, but it's a good synthesis of what Americans consider good Chinese Food.

If you have Saturdays off, you should go to Smorgsaburg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  It's one stop into Brooklyn and it is basically a huge food festival which happens every Saturday from 11 to about 5 or 6.  The earlier the better as it fills up fairly quickly.

Do you like BBQ?  If so, NYC is currently undergoing a bit of a BBQ renaissance and my favorite place actually sprung from Smorgsaburg.  It's a place called Mighty Quinn's which just opened up a physical location late last year having survived two years of Smorgsaburg with hour long lines.  The resturaunt can get kind of hectic so it's best to eat early rather than late.

Actaully, if you can swing it, eating earlier rather than later is great advice for all NYC places.  Dinner crushes start at 7:30 or 8 and can go until midnight.  Weekends especially as people come in from the outlying areas.

[Snuflupagulus]

WHICH REMINDS ME.  Go to the Exploratorium.  They just moved to the Embarcadero.  But they're awesome and you can check out the Bay Lights (2 year LED light show on the Bay Bridge that you can watch from the Embarcadero) while you're there.  FYI though: Exploratorium closes at 5pm and Bay Lights do not start till 8pm so........

Yeah, definitely this. Easy walk from Union Square. And definitely what Eric P recommended.

Oh and pilonv1: yeah there's a ton of homeless. Yes, the nooks and crannies of SF can spell of piss and poo. It will be somewhat annoying. But you're in SF, so fuck it.

Also, definitely do Alcatraz. Busy but worth it for the history and the views of SF. Buy your tickets in advance so you get prime times. And then get the hell away from Fisherman's Wharf. Avoid it so as to keep your sanity.

EDIT: Also, sorry for how expensive SF, and other parts of the bay can be. It's just...it is what it is, I guess. Then again, you're from Oz. You're probably used to expensive.

[Steve Contra]

I'll give a full list when I get back into the office. 

[Phoenix Dark]

Olive Garden. But if you want seafood, Red Lobster.

[Snuflupagulus]

Shieet. Why not go high class? Go Applebees.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

in LA you need to go to ANIMAL

tell me more

ANIMAL is the American center of the whole-animal eating experience started by St. John in London. It's crazy pig parts. It's delicious. If you don't go it's because you're scared.

http://animalrestaurant.com/menu/

[ManaByte]

If you're staying in Santa Monica King's Head Pub has the best Fish & Chips in CA, but it's a bit expensive:
http://www.yeoldekingshead.com/

Also if you like sandwiches, drive into LA and go to Philippes:
http://www.philippes.com/

[ManaByte]

Also you can't leave SoCal without having In N' Out and Original Tommy's. Make sure it's an Original Tommy's, there are a billion imitations.

Also, Slater's 50/50:
https://slaters5050.com/

[tiesto]

Hmm, in Westbury I'd recommend Azerbaijan Grill if you're into Turkish/Middle Eastern-esque cuisine... but there's not too much specifically in that town. If you head down Old Country Road maybe 10 min east of there you come to Hicksville where you have the pick of the litter for Indian food (my favorites are House of Dosas for Southern/Vegetarian Indian and New Chilli and Curry for regular Indian). A bit west on Old Country and you come to Roosevelt Field (largest shopping mall around) and every single chain restaurant you can think of if you're into that and want to get the generic suburban American dining experience . Near there is a good soul food place called LL Dent (the lady who owns it was formerly Eddie Murphy's private chef and is a total sweetheart), Vincent's Clam Bar gets consistently voted one of the best Italian places in the LI Press "Best of LI" poll but I've never been there so I can't verify. A bit further down Old Country you will be in the Garden City area (go south on Franklin Ave), there's a great Mediterranean restaurant called Wild Fig, and very close to that a quality Italian place/wine bar called Novita. And a Belgian restaurant called Waterzooi that serves mussels in tons of different sauces, also comes highly recommended.

Yes, you will need a car to get to all of these places considering you will be on LI

As far as NYC goes, Flushing (Queens) is your one stop for everything Asian food related. Brooklyn's Greenpoint area (right north of Williamsburg) has an awesome Polish restaurant called Karczma, where you get huge meat platters for very cheap and all the waitresses dress in traditional Polish garb (you can see why I like eating at this place ). In Manhattan and all around the boroughs is a great burger place called 5 Napkin Burger, iirc your fellow Aussie Fusebox (from GAF) loved it when he came to visit!

[pilonv1]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, way too many to mention individually. Already knew I wanted to hit up In N Out (none near my hotel, have to go to Culver City), last time I had it was January 1993 :'( . Everyone keeps suggesting Shake Shack too

I know Fusebox, he's a fine man and if it's ok for him then I'll try to head over there.

[chronovore]

I want to try ANIMAL.

Not like I've got a shortage of funny animal bits in Japan, but lower-case menus with whole number prices are my weak spot.

I was going to recommend Kokomo in Los Angeles, but it turns out to have shuttered last year. They were really yummy, but I hear the service dropped off when they moved out of the Farmer's Market and into Beverly Drive.  :'(

[Steve Contra]

LA:

The Aforementioned Animal and their sister restaurant, Son of a Gun
Night+Markt is the best Thai in LA right now, seriously.
Jitlada is also good Thai.
Fundamental LA is great if you're out in Brentwood/UCLA area.  Good lunch spot, great dinner spot.
Bestia if you're downtown
Marouch is an old school Lebanese restaurant that's fantastic
Taco Tables on the are a must.  Go along pico or york and find one.  If you miss this shoot yourself, especially if you opt to go to an In n Out instead.
Father's Office for good burgers.

SF:
Ichi Sushi
Emmy's Spaghetti Shack
Mission Chinese
Tartine Bakery for Dolores Park
Bi-Rite Creamery
Namu Gaji
La Taqueria is the spot for Mission Tacos (although there are better tacos)
La Ciccia up in Noe Valley is my favorite restaurant in SF.  Sardinian food.  Order the tuna heart pasta and you'll be in heaven.
NOPA for late night burgers
Lers Ros for Thai.  The Hayes valley location for taking a date, Tenderloin for the full experience
Turtle Tower for Pho in the Tenderloin
Saigon Sandwich for Bahn Mi in the Tenderloin
Outerlands if you are headed to the Sunset.  Great spot all around.
Swans Oyster Depot for old school SF.  Get here before noon or you're screwed
Una Pizza Napolitano.
If you're coming to the East Bay
Camino
Bake Sale Betty's
Zachary's Pizza
Fusebox (in the ghetto, make sure you drive)
Ippuku and Kiraku in Berkeley for Izakaya


There's some other stuff, and I'll do NY next.

[Shadow Mod]

Pizza Politana at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market. Still the best Pizza I've had yet, TD approved.

[CrystalGemini]

Zachary's Pizza
Fusebox (in the ghetto, make sure you drive)
Ippuku and Kiraku in Berkeley for Izakaya


There's some other stuff, and I'll do NY next.

Zachary's is ok.  I still prefer Amici's - especially the white clam pizza.

Heard a lot about Ippuku!  The chicken tartar sounds really good!  Seems more like a snacking place than a meal place though.

[pilonv1]

Won't I get murdered in the Tenderloin?

Most likely won't get to East Bay since it's June and the Warriors aren't playing

[CrystalGemini]

Won't I get murdered in the Tenderloin?

Most likely won't get to East Bay since it's June and the Warriors aren't playing

You really can't say Tenderloin is bad when Oakland's just a hop, skip and a jump away.  What I like about San Francisco is the diversity - there are high end boutiques right next to pawn shops and crack houses.  Actually I'm going to be converting a crack house into a modern hotel soon. 

EDIT: Don't forget to tip the street performers!

[Steve Contra]

You won't get murdered in the Tenderloin, although it's still a good place to get robbed.  SF as a whole is getting pretty douchey these days, although the food scene is amazing. 

[pilonv1]

That's good to know. Question for the Long Island people, how far from Westbury will I have to go at night to get some decent food? I've got one evening where I finish work and will need to get some dinner with the missus.

Also I presume there's no point looking at outlets or malls on Long Island and doing all of our shopping in Manhattan?

[tiesto]

That's good to know. Question for the Long Island people, how far from Westbury will I have to go at night to get some decent food? I've got one evening where I finish work and will need to get some dinner with the missus.

Also I presume there's no point looking at outlets or malls on Long Island and doing all of our shopping in Manhattan?

Probably about 10-15 min, also I just remembered, City Grille is another good place in the area. Also mall-wise you will be really close to Roosevelt Field, one of the largest in the area. More convenient than doing all your shopping in Manhattan (it's of course all the typical American mall stores - Gamestop, Macy's, Lord and Taylor, etc). Deer Park outlets (probably about 30-40 min) have a lot of great deals too.

[pilonv1]

Yeah I looked at the Tanger ones in Deer Park, and they're open until 9pm so I could check it out after work, unless that's not advised. I think Roosevelt Field isn't that far from our hotel either, so we can always check that out.

[pilonv1]

Went to Lemonade today on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, probably the best place I've been to so far. It's difficult to get to most of the places suggested in LA since we don't have a car.

[Steve Contra]

When do you get to THE BAY?

[Don Flamenco]

if you want real ramen in NYC:
http://www.ippudony.com/


get there and get in line an hour before it opens. 

[Steve Contra]

Ippudo is the shit

[pilonv1]

When do you get to THE BAY?

A week from Friday. Need to find somewhere to get some Warriors gear. Wish I was going sooner, I'm bored with LA already

[Shadow Mod]

When do you get to THE BAY?

A week from Friday. Need to find somewhere to get some Warriors gear. Wish I was going sooner, I'm bored with LA already

There should be Warriors gear in tons of places. I'm going to the Bay this sunday. See the fam.

[etiolate]

Any Target, Big 5 or Sports Authority will have Warriors gear.

[CrystalGemini]

Just go to the Westfield Mall.  It's SUPER CLOSE: http://goo.gl/maps/vTU3J.  Easiest solution.  If you get hungry the food courts are on the bottom floor that I mentioned in my earlier post.  There's even a theater if you want to watch a movie.

Be sure to go all the way to the top floor.  Look at the dome.  Respect the dome!  Beside the facade, it's the only remaining feature of the old Emporium building that stood there before - only they moved it (and by "it" I mean the whole fucking dome) up 60 feet.

[pilonv1]

Any Target, Big 5 or Sports Authority will have Warriors gear.

Including replica jerseys? Really want a white Klay #11.

And will they have one of these?!?

[chronovore]

When do you get to THE BAY?

A week from Friday. Need to find somewhere to get some Warriors gear. Wish I was going sooner, I'm bored with LA already

I lived there for 15 years. I can relate.

[pilonv1]

At the airport now. I think another day here and I would go insane. It's like A less interesting and less attractive Sydney

[Steve Contra]

Not having a car in LA

I actually love the city, but I know lots of people.

[CrystalGemini]

LA sucks.  And the fact that it's a big city with shit public transportation where everybody drives for face resulting in constant traffic all day makes it even worse.  Not a fan of that place but I have friends that live there so put up with it for them.

[etiolate]

Any Target, Big 5 or Sports Authority will have Warriors gear.

Including replica jerseys? Really want a white Klay #11.

And will they have one of these?!?

(Image removed from quote.)

Mall is your best bet then. There is also a Nike store in San Francisco, but I am not sure how much Warriors gear they carry since I don't think Nike has that contract.

There's Giants Dugout stores around Pac Bell and at Embarcidero. They might have other local team jerseys. I haven't been in one because baseball yawn. There's a lot of Sports fans in the bay area so I imagine you'll run into a store with replicas. Unfortunately, the Warriors and Sharks are probably the least popular of all the teams, but the Dubs playoff run means they likely have more presence right now.

[Phoenix Dark]

Any Target, Big 5 or Sports Authority will have Warriors gear.

Including replica jerseys? Really want a white Klay #11.

And will they have one of these?!?

(Image removed from quote.)

buying jerseys in 2013? 

[pilonv1]

NBA.com charges $35 to ship anything to Australia

[pilonv1]

omg shake shack  

[CajoleJuice]

 

[pilonv1]

Please tell me the Concretes are awesome, I'm getting one tomorrow

[CajoleJuice]

Please tell me the Concretes are awesome, I'm getting one tomorrow

I'm a fan.

[Barry Egan]

omg shake shack  

[CrystalGemini]

SO...how's it goin'?!

[pilonv1]

It was great, got back on Wednesday last week. I enjoyed SF ( Bi Rite Creamery ) but all the vagrants downtown and the general shittyness of Fishermans Wharf were annoying. The old timey arcade there was really great though.

[chronovore]

There are a lot of great places to go in SF, but Fisherman's Wharf is not one of them. It's a tourist trap, and a dirty one at that.

[pilonv1]

I know, but it was my first time to SF and we needed to hire some bikes to ride across the bridge. Would never go back there again.

[chronovore]

Did you get to go through the Golden Gate Park, Presidio, or the observatory?

[pilonv1]

Yeah we went through Presidio, over the bridge then down to Sausalito and got the Ferry back. Was incredibly foggy though, but still a great experience.

[CrystalGemini]

OH OH.  Were you able to check out the Exploratorium?!  I've been wanting to go to their new location for years!  YEARS!  I like that it's much more accessible but like chronovore said, Fisherman's Wharf is gross, crowded and noisy.  Plus they don't do free first Wednesdays anymore.