Matsunori Handroll Bar, not to be confused with Matsunori Sushi Club, originated as a Boston handroll sushi bar. They decided to open an additional location in Long Island City, where there is an influx of Asians moving in. They do not accept reservations, so we decided to try to walk in around 6:30 PM on a Friday evening. Fortunately, we got there just before the lines, and we were able to sit at a table for 2.

Hamburger America is a luncheonette-style restaurant with counters for eating a burger. It comes from an American chef George Motz, who is offering an homage to the history of the hamburger. It’s received a number of positive reviews from food critics for some reason, and Yelpers and food bloggers alike rave about this place. I came here as a quick stop around 4:30 PM on a Thursday evening, and I could walk in and sit on the stool without any trouble.

Crane Club is located across the street from Chelsea Market. It’s being led by executive chef Melissa Rodriguez, who formerly oversaw Al Coro, which earned 2 Michelin stars at one point. This restaurant is under the Tao Hospitality Group, which oversees some upscale trendy hot spots like Hakkasan, Lava, and TAO Asian Bistro. We were able to make a reservation for the dining room very easily for 5:30 PM on a Friday night.

Nubiani was a Korean BBQ restaurant that had been on my list for quite some time. I was only reminded of it when my partner wanted to go to it because one of their friends tried to walk-in and instead had to go to Love Korean BBQ. I was easily able to make a reservation for Friday, though they only had early PM openings at 4:30. This is located right across the street from Love, inside a building on the third floor.

Time and Tide comes from the Kent Hospitality Group, which owns restaurants such as Saga and Crown Shy. The head chef, Top Chef winner Danny Garcia, overhauled the menu recently, and we got a chance to experience it. The restaurant was inspired to be a steakhouse modeled fish restaurant. I was easily able to make a reservation for 5:30 PM on a Friday night because the restaurant snipers have moved onto newer restaurants.

Becco was on our list for a while. This restaurant in the Theater District was always full around theater times, so of course, that’s naturally alluring. It was first opened in 1993 by Lidia Bastianich and her son, Joe, who you might recognize from the U.S. version of the MasterChef series. The Yelp ratings of the food seem surprisingly low compared to the Google counterpart, so that increase our curiosity.

We had a show to catch at the Lincoln Center, and the area had a lot of New American and Italian restaurants within half a mile. We’ve rarely explored anywhere north of 60th St. This area is just across the street on the lower west side of Central Park. The restaurant itself is located in a historic residential building called Hotel des Artistes. I was easily able to make a reservation the day before for a 5:15 PM on a Saturday evening.

Chef Andrew Carmellini has some pretty good restaurants (NoHo Hospitality) that we’ve been to. Some recent ones that we really enjoyed include Cafe Carmellini and Carne Mare. Locanda Verde opened a second location in the Hudson Yards area. This is his ode to urban Italian cuisine, and we wanted to try this out because the exterior seemed very nice. I made a reservation for 2 for 5:15 on a Friday evening without any issues.

I was looking for a quick and solo type of restaurant around the Hudson Square area. I decided to look into burgers, and I was debating Hamburger America and this Revelie Luncheonette. This restaurant is walk-in only and is across the street from Raoul’s. Since the burgers seem enticing and the restaurant received decent reviews, I decided to give this a try. I was able to walk in at around 5:30 PM on a Thursday and find an empty stool seat.

We went into the city to watch a broadway show, and I had to look for a restaurant in the area without worrying about reservations. I stumbled onto this Hell’s Kitchen Italian restaurant that seemed to have pretty decent menu items. We were able to walk in around 5:00 PM on a Friday evening pretty easily, and there wasn’t much foot traffic at all. We were seated next to the window and had a very casual, quick dinner.