Post-trip report – amazing experience!

Hey y'all, so my boys and I hit up NYC 2 weeks ago for the week of Labor day (because we all work now and time-off is hard to come by haha).

One of the things a lot of us were really excited for was the eating experiences we would have; I mean we're from a pretty amazing place for great food (San Diego/SoCal), but something about those quintessential NY restaurants kind of enraptured us in the build-up to the trip.

We kept rating every restaurant we went to (which is hella snobby and pretentious, ikik) but we generally enjoyed most of the restaurants we visited except for one. Below is the full list of every restaurant we hit, and its final rating according to my friends and I:

1. Le Bernardin – 10
2. Don Angie – 9.4
3. Sushi Ouji – 9.2
4. Golden Diner – 8.7
5. Best Pizza – 8.7
6. Win Son Bakery – 8.6
7. Jeju Noodle Bar (partial, we didn't really have the ramyun bc too full from 'za) – 8.3
8. Una Pizza – 8.2
9. Dame – 8.2
10. The Musket Room – 8.1
11. Wenwen – 8.1
12. Eleven Madison Park – 8
13. L'industrie – 7.8
14. Luigi's Pizza – 7.4
15. Thai Diner – 7.1
16. Coqodaq – 5.6

Now a lot of caveats here:

1. In the beginning we tried to be best-value agnostic, but towards the end we started to factor it in, then revisited our ratings, so these do have value for money taken into account. Really crazy, once you consider the fact that the singular most expensive meal on this trip for me (because of tip it beat out EMP) was LB.
2. At Best Pizza, we only had the white slice, that shit was bomb. So bomb in fact, that on the last day after eating two slices at L'industrie (and dessert, I had a pistachio tres leches), we went back to Best Pizza for another white slice that we shared between all 4 of us.
3. At Golden Diner, we only had the pancakes. That shit was also bomb and only my one friend who cannot eat too much judged it harshly for being too rich (which was really our fault, we got two pancakes a piece, probably should've stuck to one).
4. Wenwen was for lunch, so it had a reduced menu, AND WE MET ERIC HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT. That being said my Taiwanese friend really really enjoyed it (like a throwback for him), while the rest of us liked it just a bit less.
5. We skipped two restaurants I really wanted to hit, those being Katz's and Adele's, but it's not like I'm living across the universe, so I'll get them next time.

And about Coqodaq, so mid. So so so mid for the price, we all kept wishing we had gone to BBQ chicken instead. That place has to be a money-laundering front, I cannot believe Thomas Keller endorses it. So ridiculous. You cannot charge 42 dollars a person for 5 pieces of Korean fried chicken, when I can just go to my local BBQ, Bonchon, or you name it, and get an entire box of 20 wings for the same price that taste better. GTFO, and hard skip.

But to end on a more positive note, beautiful city, beautiful trip, amazing food overall. If any questions, criticism, feedback etc, pls lmk more than happy to answer/discuss!!!

P.S. My LB and EMP pics are in my posts for those restaurants on the r/MichelinStars or r/FineDining subs, so you can peep them there