NYC Trip Highlights

I’m from Toronto but visit NYC a few times a year. Before my latest trip, I discovered this subreddit and figured I’d share some highlights from my two most recent visits—one with family and one with friends a couple of weekends ago.

Here are my highlights and thoughts on each place 🙂

Picture 1: 4 Charles Prime Rib – I’ve been lucky enough to get in here a couple of times. I’ve always loved rating and comparing burgers, and the hype for this one was so massive that it felt impossible to live up to—and yet somehow, it did. Truly a perfect 10. Exceptional. The mac and cheese (another one of my comfort food favourites) was fantastic as well, everything you want in terms of both flavour and texture. We got the French Dip as well, but I forgot to take a picture. It was great and a lot of fun, but I don’t think I loved it as much as others seem to. Fun to try once, but I wouldn’t feel the need to order it again.

Picture 2: Carbone – Feels like everything that can be said about this place has already been said. The vodka rigatoni is indeed fantastic, and the Caesar salad and carpaccio were both two of the best versions of those dishes I've had. One thing I don’t see a lot of hype for is the tortellini, which I actually think I liked even more than the famous rigatoni. The linguine alle vongole was really good, but I would rank it 3rd of the 3 pastas I tried.

Picture 3: COQODAQ – I don’t get the hype. Yeah, the place is a vibe, but the food itself didn’t blow me away. It was good and I enjoyed my meal, but I didn't think it was anything special. The chicken nugget felt like a gimmick—the trout roe didn’t enhance the nugget, and it seemed like it was just there for the Instagramable. No chance I would pay $16 again for a just okay chicken nugget. The fried chicken bucket was fun, but I didn’t think the chicken itself was anything memorable. Tasty? Yes. Worth the ridiculous hype? Not in my opinion. I've had plenty of better fried chicken. I know people love this spot, but it just wasn’t for me.

Picture 4: Hamburger America – Just a good, simple smash burger done right. Not the best I've ever had but with smash burgers being everywhere I think this one clearly stood out as upper echelon. I wouldn’t wait in a crazy line, but we walked right in and sat at the counter with no wait. The old-school diner vibe is fun, burger worked perfectly with fries and fresh lemonade. Would happily grab this anytime I'm in the area.

Picture 5: Jonny’s Pizza – Very close to where we were staying and just wanted something quick and easy after checking into our hotel. For a quick neighbourhood slice with no wait time, I thought this was great and definitely better than the average splice. The burrata was a nice touch!

Picture 6: Nubiani – My first-ever high-end Korean BBQ experience, and wow. Completely blown away. The food, service, and overall experience were an easy 10/10. The meat was top-tier, cooked to perfection, and each of the five different cuts had its own distinct, delicious character. The meal was also elevated by the sheer variety—complimentary soup, an insane selection of sides, egg soufflé, and ice cream to wrap things up. I think this was just one of the most fun meals I've ever had. With so much variety, you could go through the entire meal without having the same bite twice.

Picture 7: Utopia Bagel – As a Canadian, Montreal bagels (St Viateur) will always have my heart, but this was hands down the best non-Montreal bagel I've ever had and better than any bagel I've ever had in Toronto. The everything bagel was delicious and the scallion cream cheese with lox were incredible together. I think this is maybe the best cream cheese I've ever had.

Picture 8: The GRILL – Another special experience from start to finish. The complimentary bread and chive butter were a great start—I initially thought we had to pick one of the three breads, so realizing we got all of them was really cool. For appetizers, we got the Pasta à la Presse, where they prepare the sauce table-side. Super cool to watch, though I wasn’t completely blown away by the dish itself—still enjoyable though and very unique flavours! The crab cake, was really good. From this point on, the meal really hit another level. We ordered the ribeye with the hash brown on the side. The steak was perfectly medium-rare, incredibly flavourful, and melted in your mouth. The garlic it came with was phenomenal, and we all agreed the onion was the best onion we’d ever had. The hash brown was perfectly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and topped with a great pepper relish. For dessert, we got the German chocolate cake (very good) and the baked Alaska—which was a 10/10 dessert in my books and I'm generally not a big desert guy.

Picture 9: Fossetta – I enjoyed my pasta—great rigatoni, and the combination of broth, sage, and duck liver worked really well and felt like something different. That said, I was a little salty about this meal because I had a reservation at Soothr, which I was really excited for, but no one else in my group wanted to go so we ended up picking something near our hotel instead. Good meal, but not what I had my heart set on.

Not pictured: 7th Street Burger and Pizza Loves Sauce – Both of these were drunken acquisitions at 2 whatever AM. I’m sure the alcohol helped, but honestly, I thought 7th Street was a fantastic smash burger. Wouldn't say Pizza Loves Sauce was anything special but nothing hits like drunk pizza so it was perfect in the moment haha.