Chica & The Don is a new Latin restaurant that opened in the Flatiron district. Despite their Yelp site pointing to Flatbush, it really is located in Manhattan. When you walk in, the restaurant has a long corridor to the main dining area. They just opened 3 weeks ago, so I was interested in checking this out before the hype were to build up. We were able to make a reservation relatively easy for 5:45 PM on a Friday early evening.

I just have this affinity for noodles. Their sibling location, Okiboru House of Tsukemen, was one of the best I’ve had in the city when it comes to dipping ramen. This restaurant recently opened up marketing itself for udon. Like their tsukemen location, this one offers udon for dipping. Unlike traditional udon, these noodles are much wider and flatter. I was able to walk in by myself at 8 PM on a Tuesday evening, and I immediately was seated.

This Smith & Mills location is in the small inner plaza where the Rockafeller rink is. It caught my attention because the Tribeca location apparently had received some high regard, so I thought it’d be worth a shot to check out this location. Although the food options are small, some of it looked pretty tasty. This restaurant is fairly close to Naro. We had a reservation for 3 for 5 PM, and the place was not full at all. I thought this was to be a restaurant, but it seems like the atmosphere is definitely more of a bar.

Class on 38th was something that seemed interesting at first glance when I was browsing the “Hot and New” sections of Yelp. The menu looked like tapas with a price point that wasn’t too expensive. I went here with a business partner, who was in town and looking for something to try. I made a reservation a few weeks back without any issues for 6 PM on a Thursday. When I walked in, they allowed me to sit early to wait for my guest to arrive.

This restaurant has been on my radar for years, and we finally got a chance to try this. What was appealing to me was the price and options that they had. Not only was it steak frites, but you had the opportunity to try different types of steaks if you really wanted. We had an early afternoon theater showing, and this location was within minutes. We were able to walk in around 5:00 PM on a Sunday without reservations, though they told us that we had to finish our food within 2.5 hours.

We were craving for an early Italian dinner before seeing a Broadway show. Osteria Delbianco actually has two locations: one on 49th and another closer to Bryant Park. Both locations are really easy to get to. We were able to walk in without reservations at around 5 PM on a Friday early evening. The one appeal to me about this restaurant was that it seemed like a local Italian restaurant, and these typically can be hit or miss. The prices seemed reasonable, so we decided to try.

Clinton Street Baking Company is a very popular and well known destination for breakfast for decades. Word of mouth has mentioned that their pancakes and breakfast items have been delightful to eat. My party woke up early to park in line before the restaurant opening at 9 AM on a Saturday morning. It was definitely a struggle for me and my partner to arrive here from where we live, considering how annoying the subway schedules are on weekends. Right when they open, we were about the 6th small party in line, so we were able to be seated pretty easily.

My partner had another theater show to go to, so I was tasked for looking something near the Theater District. We were watching some random TV show, and they showed lasagna. I don’t remember the context, but my partner wanted that. As we’re still exploring the Hell’s Kitchen area, I ended up finding this restaurant that we were able to walk in since the reservation system doesn’t work at all.

This restaurant is a fairly close walk east of Rockafeller Center. I stumbled onto this restaurant as I was looking for something new and solo-friendly for a Saturday. It turns out that this restaurant has a Friday/Saturday prime rib prix-fixe menu, which has my attention. For $65 per person, you get 3 courses: a caesar salad, prime rib with french fries, and a choice of dessert. That doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me. We were able to make a reservation for 5 PM on a Friday night with no hassle.

We haven’t really explored much from the middle of Central Park and up. My partner’s friends live in East Harlem, which according to Google maps, begins East 96th and goes north. They chose this neighborhood Thai restaurant, Chu Ros Thai, that they adore and highly recommend. We basically took the local 6 train northbound from the N/W junction, which took about 20 minutes to go up. For a party of 4, we were able to walk in without reservations at around 4 PM on a Saturday evening.