Alcala Restaurant has been dishing out traditional Spanish fare to the United Nations community for decades, and a recent move from East 46th Street to East 44th appears to have done nothing to change it, from the old-fashioned menu to the regulars at the next table. You’ll find the same dishes the last time you [...]
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What are we to think about a place named Amaze Fusion and Lounge? Its Web site says that “Amaze’s atmosphere, which complements and attracts a fashion, music and entertainment clientele, takes you off the busy streets of Manhattan and transcends you to the middle of the Asian culture.” But that doesn’t really seem to be [...]
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It’s not every day that you want to drop $30 or $40 on lunch. But if you have the time to pamper yourself with a nice relaxed meal, check out the new Socarrat Paella Bar. It looks, feels and tastes more New York than Valencia, but Socarrat, located on Second Avenue just above 50th Street, [...]
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A life-changing stint in Philadelphia during my formative years left me with an irrepressible yearning for a truly great sandwich, coupled with enormous sadness over the difficulty of finding one. The hoagie of yore — a generously filled, crusty Italian roll doused with olive oil, vinegar and Italian spices and lined with shreds of raw [...]
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What a tragic missed opportunity. The Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, which runs along East 47th Street between First and Second Avenues, is one of the most pleasant open spaces on Manhattan’s East Side and home to one of the city’s best greenmarket. United Nations employees traverse the plaza throughout the day on the way to work [...]
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Chinese dumplings, one of the world’s great comfort foods, are steaming into the UN neighborhood. Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, a Manhattan chain with aspirations to go national, opened a branch at Lexington Avenue and 45th Street last fall, offering a slick and somewhat ethnically cleansed version of the plump little delicacies at uptown prices. In April, [...]
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BonChon Midtown is an ambitious new Korean Asian fusion restaurant just up the street from the UN campus. Or BonChon Midtown is a lively Midtown sports bar with 27 draft beers, a loud rock soundtrack and four — count ‘em! four! — giant TV screens. Take your pick. This is a clearly a restaurant with [...]
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In many a French neighborhood, there’s a corner hangout frequented more for its comfort than its kitchen. The food is good, but the ambience is the draw. Often, the place will serve as the unofficial cantine for neighbors and office workers in the vicinity. For those who live near or work at the United Nations, [...]
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Ever since a long-ago family vacation to Vienna, I’ve wondered about schnitzel. Why take something as expensive and bland as a scant slab of veal and pound it even thinner, drown it in breadcrumbs and fry it? At Schnitzel & Things, a small, stylish new restaurant and carryout on Third Avenue between 45th and 46th [...]
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Cipriani is an international restaurant and catering firm whose holdings range from Harry’s Bar in Venice to Yotto, a Japanese eatery in Abu Dhabi. The business may be best known in the UN neighborhood for its 42nd Street party palace, an ornate, cavernous space housed in a converted old-fashioned bank building that is rented out [...]
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