I first went to New York in January 2015; this started my love affair with the city that never sleeps. Since then I always wanted to see New York in December decked out for the holidays. Many people have it on their bucket list to experience New York in the festive season, so when my fiancée surprised me with a trip for my 30th to New York I was over the moon. My birthday is in between Christmas and New Year and so we flew out after Christmas and landed back home on New Years Day. This trip was so fantastic, hours spent walking through central park, visiting some of our favourite spots and discovering new favourites. It was an amazing time to visit New York you felt the relax after Christmas and then the collective intake of breath as the city prepared for the New Year celebrations. So here is my food adventure through The Big Apple.
We are starting, appropriately, with breakfast and to the Upper West Side. After starting our day with a stroll through Central Park we had worked up an appetite. We wandered down Columbus Avenue; the choice of places to eat was plenty. We decided to eat at Harvest Kitchen. Harvest Kitchen is a space created by neighbourhood parents, chefs, nutritionists and food lovers. A lot of the food and drink they serve is responsibly farmed as well as organic. Their coffee is an organic blend from Kobrick’s, a fifth generation New York City roastery. I decided to try the Country Breakfast; two eggs, triple cut bacon, home fries, biscuits & strawberry butter. This was a hearty breakfast and the bacon was standout, thick and well cooked. The biscuit was soft and the home fries were delicious. I would recommend you try our Harvest Kitchen in a heartbeat. The service was friendly and accommodating, it felt part of the community and the food was great. I definitely had food envy for every plate that passed me. My fiancée had the Apple Ricotta Pancake. This was a huge plate-sized pancake filled with apple slices and topped with apple-raisin compote, sour cream and cinnamon sugar. This was truly something to behold and was super light. That being said the American portions did beat us rather. If you find yourself in the Upper West Side then I urge you to try Harvest Kitchen.
From 31st October through until 5th January Bryant Park hosts an open air market. This features local crafts, artisanal food and goods from around the world. There are 180 different holiday shops. This was of course very busy, but a lot of fun to wander through and take in the offerings from different vendors and smell the different foods being prepared. I of course had to taste something. This was a difficult choice and there were many long queues. That alone tells you how good some of the offerings here are. I want to talk about WontonTiva. This stall produced handmade Hawaiian wontons. Throughout the year WontonTiva sells at Smorgasburg (the largest weekly open air food market in America). The founder of WontonTiva uses a traditional recipe and technique passed down from his grandmother Tiva. Their signature wonton is pork and scallion. We picked up 3 pork and 3 chicken and mushroom. The fillings were flavourful and brilliantly textured. The wontons were so crisp and freshly cooked to order. I urge you to try these gorgeous bites if you ever see the pink and white sign declaring WontonTiva is near. I know they also cater for events, I think these would make a great addition to a party you were having. Definitely a great bite that was well worth grabbing.
Now for my birthday meal my fiancée had booked a table at Bluebird London. This restaurant opened late 2018 in New York and is owned by the D&D group. Now I will say I expected a lot from this restaurant as we have tried a few of the restaurants in the D&D group and loved them all, in fact our wedding venue is a D&D restaurant in London. So we like and trust the brand, the restaurant is the first venture stateside for the brand and I can’t wait to try it out. The service was great from being checked in and ensuring we had a table right by the window to the extremely knowledgeable and friendly server, it seemed nothing was too much. To start we were brought some warm bread that was excellent. The butter was salted and the bread had a great crust and soft interior. We went straight for a main course with the idea to get dessert. I had the beef wellington that came with horseradish, potatoes and sauce bourguignonne. The beef wellington truly was brilliant, perfectly cooked and so delicious. The potatoes that came with it did lack flavour, I could taste everything they were cooked with, the onions etc. but could not taste potato, which was a shame. My fiancée ordered the chicken breast, which came with a sweet potato and chicken pie, smoked chestnuts and brussel sprouts. The chicken was moist but the skin was soggy and the pie that came with it really wasn’t very good. It had a taste of something you might expect to eat on a plane. We ordered a side of broccolini that was fine. All said for the price you pay for a meal here I would go elsewhere. Yes, my wellington was fantastic however that was only one component the rest all could have been better. We did not stay for dessert, instead decided to walk back through the city and find something on our way. When the bill is over $100 for 1 course with 1 drink each and a shared side, you really are going to expect it to be good. Our plates were not cleared and it was not due to portion size. I have heard very good things about the brunch and afternoon tea at Bluebird London NYC, so maybe if you want to try this place out then go for one of those times.
One of my favourite spots in all of New York is Chelsea Market. The food options here are almost endless. You can get pasta, baked goods, gelato, tacos, spices and more. We decided to visit two places, Miznon and Doughnuttery. Miznon is from Tel Aviv where it opened in 2011. Since it has opened locations in Paris, Vienna, Melbourne and in 2018 New York. Each location inspires their menu as the want to translate the flavour of each city into a pita. At Miznon they take fresh seasonal ingredients and create a new kind of Mediterranean street food. We had a lamb kebab, that came with grilled tomato and onion, tahini, tomato salsa and a green chilli pepper. The lamb was well spiced and very flavourful, the tahini added a creamy nuttiness and the salsa was fresh. A big portion that we shared to keep room for more food. If you find yourself in a city with a Miznon location then head there and try it out. The next location within Chelsea Market was Doughnttery, specialising in hot, fresh, uniquely sugared mini doughnuts. The menu here is extensive and exciting with some classic flavours and some more off the wall ideas. We went with a traditional cinnamon sugar and a speckled strawberry. The cinnamon was delicious and had a good amount of their Vietnamese cinnamon. The speckled strawberry was sugared with strawberry, lemon thyme and rainbow sprinkles. The strawberry flavour was subtle but the doughnut was soft fresh and delicious. Is there any joy greater than eating a freshly cooked doughnut? This is another location that also caters for events and I know they would be a highlight if you had an event with Doughnuttery present.
Having been on the go for a few days in New York, before that a trip to Florida and Christmas in between we needed a rest. So for a break we headed back to our hotel grabbed Panda Express and watched an episode of The Crown whilst resting our feet. Panda Express was on the corner of the block our hotel was situated on and was just what was needed. At panda express firstly you choose how many entrees you want then you pick your side and your entrees and any appetisers you may wish. The sides are noodles, fried rice, green veg, steamed brown or white rice. I picked up orange chicken with fried rice and a chicken egg roll. Panda Express claims to have the original orange chicken. This dish is made from crispy pieces of boneless chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy orange sauce. Let me tell you next time I’m in America I will be hunting out Panda Express for my next helping of orange chicken. The chicken was soft and moist and the sauce was exactly as they describe sweet slightly spicy and delicious. It’s no wonder Panda Express call this their signature dish.
Just a couple of minutes walk from our hotel was a branch of Paris Baguette. This chain describes itself as a fast-casual bakery specialising in French inspired goods. This became a favourite place to grab a quick breakfast. All you had to do was follow the smell of freshly baked pastries. The coffee was really good and everything I tried there was fantastic. Service was friendly and quick and it even helped me smile before my morning coffee. We tried many different options from Paris Baguette and I enjoyed them all – in fact I don’t think there are any bad options. We sampled a coffee pastry, a cinnamon sugar twist, a chocolate croissant as well as the pastry frank. The coffee pastry was sweet and the coffee flavour was not overpowering, the cinnamon sugar twist was a soft doughnut that was delicious and the chocolate croissant was flaky and buttery the chocolate was sweet. Now the pastry frank this was a revelation, this was a frankfurter encased in croissant dough. You have to option to have this warm or room temperature, get this hot, believe me such a good bite. This is a treat I have been charged with recreating, this shows how much we enjoyed this treat. If you are looking for a quick warm breakfast and you are near a Paris Baguette then you should try and get your hands on one of these.
In the heart of the theatre district in the great New York City is Schmackary’s. Schmackary’s serves up cookies and certainly has a wide variety. Many of the Broadway community swear by these cookies and I had been told these were unmissable. There are two locations you can pick these up from and there is often a queue. We picked up a Classic Chocolate Chip, a Funfetti, a Ginger Rogers and a Maple Bacon. These cookies were on two ends of the spectrum, either teeth-achingly sweet or tongue-dryingly salty. I am a fan of a sprinkle of salt on a cookie or salted chocolate especially. However I found the maple bacon and the chocolate chip to be over slated so that you were left with a salty taste rather than the combined flavour of the cookie. The funfetti was very sweet, I found removing the frosting helped some. The Ginger Rogers I would say was the most successful, I did think the cookie spicing was very dark in flavour, I did find the glaze on this again very sweet. This may just be my tastes or the batch that we tried. If you are American maybe this is the way you like cookies, we could blame this on my British taste buds. For my taste buds however I would maybe next time avoid the ones that list salt and frosting in the description.
If you are looking for a great date spot in New York I can highly recommend Bea. Bea is located on West 43rd Street, and gets busy. When I say busy it fills up, however the tables here have enough space between them for you to be able to have a conversation. There is a bar serving great cocktails and an enclosed atrium courtyard. There are clips of old movies projected on a wall and pictures, quotes and posters on the others. The service was great and friendly, our server was knowledgeable and able to recommend his favourites and walk us through the menu. I went for the Green Pasta, spinach tagliatelle, with shrimp in a creamy garlic sauce. This really was delicious the pasta was freshly made and not over cooked at all. The shrimp was soft and well cooked and the sauce promised garlic and it delivered. I really enjoyed it and would eat it again if I could. It was an absolute mountain of a portion that I was unable to finish as delicious. There were many options I could have had and I will definitely be back. I had a rich chocolate brownie for dessert served with salted caramel ice cream and hot fudge sauce. This was decedent and rich and so filing. I would have this again and again. Although any of the desserts on this menu would be amazing. The cheesecake my fiancée had was enormous and was so good. Bea should be on your list of places to visit and I recommend you book in advance, the queue ready for opening says it is popular.
The final place I will take you to is The Smith. This is a chain restaurant that has been in operation since 2007. This was a busy restaurant with tables close together and a constant bubble of chatter. The restaurant was decked out with balloons for the New Year, in fact you couldn’t see the ceiling for balloons. The service here was friendly and attentive and the food was very tasty. I had a grilled chicken sandwich, this was served with burrata, tomato jam and basil aioli as well as fries. This sandwich was excellent the basil aioli brought freshness and the tomato jam gave it a sweetness. The chicken was moist and well cooked. I would recommend this place if you want to grab a quick bite. If you want to catch up with friends this would be a great option to. The menu seemed to have a bit of everything if you wanted salad they had some, pasta – you bet. I would come back to this place for sure. This had a bustling feel and the food was really good. Definitely worth taking a look at the menu and considering this as a place to eat.
There is something magical in the air during the holidays in New York City. I had such a great trip experiencing everything the city has to offer and left still feeling like there is so much more to do. This city is amazing and the sights sounds and tastes are like nowhere else. We will definitely be returning to take more bites out of the Big Apple.
Want to find out about my trip to Paris? Take a look at my Paris Food Post.
I also explored Walt Disney World in June and December last year and blogged them.
