Avra Estiatorio was a restaurant that we wanted to check out for a while now. Because we were going to watch Gutenberg Musical at 8 PM, this fit perfectly for the opportunity. Avra has several locations spread throughout the United States: 3 in Manhattan, 1 in Miami, and 1 in Beverly Hills. It’s a rather posh Greek seafood restaurant, and it’s very similar to all the other upper end ones, such as Limani and Milos.

Mari.ne (MariNe) Hand-Roll Bar is similar to KazuNori where it’s simply a “hand roll” bar. The hand rolls are fairly small, but quite delightful and fresh. You can order them in different flavors, and it’s sure to satisfy anyone that enjoys sushi in hand roll format. We were able to walk in at around 5:45 PM on a Monday evening, but we were told that we had to be done by 6:30 PM due to an upcoming reservation.

We had some tickets to attend one of those Fever “Candlelight” concert events that was located at a church right next to the “Court St” R-stop in Brooklyn. There was not too many options in terms of food within close vicinity. I looked at the prices for this soup dumpling place, and to my surprise, Din Soup Dumplings seemed not bad. My partner was also in a dumpling mood, so it was convenient to go check this place out.

Knock Knock is a nearby neighborhood cafe that has a mix of Cantonese-style dishes. The decor and the style of the food reminds me a bit of the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, where there are a lot of small cafe shops opening serving quick eats. My cousin had visited this a few weeks ago for breakfast, and they said they were pleasantly surprised at the coffee. That was a catalyst for us to check this place out to see how its actual food was.

Lure Fishbar is run by the same hospitality network thath also owns Bar Tulix and Mercer Kitchen, which is closed unfortunately. Whenever we were in the SOHO area, we always thought about checking this place out especially since we couldn’t walk into Balthazar. The restaurant is very seafood straight forward, and it always seems like it has a very steady crowd. The restaurant entrance is actually located down some stairs.

We decided to checkout a Persian restaurant, that is somewhat close to Central Park and within walkable distance from my work. This is a new restaurant that has been opened for around 3+ months already. In Los Angeles, they have their share of Persian, so it’d be interesting to see how does NYC fare for this cuisine. The restaurant entrance is a little discreet. The door leads to the second floor which is where the restaurant sits.

We finally made it to The River Cafe, which was a restaurant we wanted to go for a while. This restaurant sits right next to the East River, right under the Brooklyn Bridge. We made a reservation for a table of 7 at 5 PM on a Friday night. The dinner consists of primarily 3 courses, which has a fixed price of $195. The River Cafe has 1 Michelin Star and first received it in 2010.

Woodside in Queens is an area that has a plethora of Asian eats that are uncommon in Manhattan. Many of these things here are inexpensive compared to Manhattan, and they have particular flavors that probably won’t appeal to the masses in Manhattan. We were around this area on an errand run, so it was convenient for me to look for something here on a Sunday. We were able to walk in around 12 PM without any wait whatsoever.

It’s yet another Friday, and my partner had to pick up some items around the southeast part of Central Park. This area is fairly close to the Plaza Hotel and the flagship Apple store. This restaurant was on my eyes for a while, but my partner hadn’t built their tolerance or appreciation for Italian food until recently. Fortunately, I finally had a chance to suggest this restaurant as our Friday getaway.

Bom is a restaurant located in the back room of its sibling restaurant, Oiji Mi. We had been to that before, and I thought it was pretty decent. Bom was always on my list of things to try, but at $295 per person, I was pretty hesitant and skeptical. This restaurant doesn’t even have a Michelin Star yet. Since reservations are fairly easy and Oiji Mi was pretty good, I thought I’d give this a try since we were celebrating two major milestones in our lives.