If you follow the Instagram account you know we were just in New York for about 10 days and ate our way through the city. Our coworker/friend and his girlfriend were headed out of town on vacation and put out a call for anyone who’d be willing to come watch their dog. That’s Sadie to the right—> (or if you’re on a phone ^^). We immediately jumped at the chance (being a remote employee has some rad perks) and bought our tickets months ago. Since we didn’t have to cover the costs of a place to stay we spent all of our money on eating well and doing a few touristy things. We both fell in love with New York. It’s really the best city in the world, we’re convinced.
So now, let’s quantify and qualify the food we ate by arbitrary categories!!
Meal With The Most Satisfaction
We (I) procrastinated about asking to stay with friends our first night in town so we booked what ended up being a not-so-great Airbnb in Bed-Stuy. After we got settled in we immediately went in search of food and stumbled upon Toad Style. Based on no recommendation other than the 10 minute walk Google Maps said it would take we went for it and came away so damn surprised. We got cheese fries, the oyster mushroom banh mi & jackfruit BBQ sandwich. We only snapped a pic of the cheese fries because after the first bite we knew there was no point in trying to hold off eating the rest of the meal for a pic.
Most Anticipated Meal That Lived Up To The Hype For Me
SUPERIORITY BURGER!!! I’ve been following their Instagram account for awhile and drooling over their descriptions (not their pictures, the pictures are terrible, probably purposefully, ha). This blew me away. The first time we went (yeah we went twice) Kenz wasn’t hungry so I got three things: a vegan burger, the “New Creation” (it’s griddled yuba skin…..omg), and a nightly side of romano beans with spaghetti squash buried deep. This place is incredible, so so good. Worth two trips and one of the best home-made veggie burgers I’v had.
Superiority Burger rules all
Most Unexpected
When we arrived Joel told us that if we had one meal to splurge on we should do it at this tiki bar in the East Village called Mother of Pearl (read more about them here!). We had two or three other people tell us about this joint so we decided it should indeed be our splurge meal. It was definitely like…the “best” food we ate? If that makes sense. It’s just on a different level than most of the other things we had so it feels unfair to compare. The cocktails were out of this world and the food was just nuts! The highlight of the meal at Mother of Pearl was the green mango poke. We also got their fried guacamole, BBQ bao buns, & fried bao buns. Definitely pricey but 100% worth it.
Green Mango Poke
Fried avocado
Bao buns with shiitake and jackfruit bbq
Fried bao buns in miso butter…woah
New York (sort of) Only Find
We were so lucky to be staying in Midtown Manhattan because there was so much stuff within a quick train ride or walk. The Impossible Foods burger at Momofuku Nishi was one of those things. We went for lunch around 12:30, had no wait, and got to eat really delicious burgers. It’s really, really good. It’s greasy, chewy, weird colored like meat…you could swap out every single burger at a ball park with this and no one would no the difference. If you’re in New York or LA you should get your hands on one of these.
Most Anticipated Meal That Lived Up To The Hype For Kenz
Shortly before we left for New York we were looking around for places to go, especially on Instagram. Kenzie came across The Cinnamon Snail (what an odd-name?) and quickly became obsessed. We went pretty early on in the trip (and returned twice more!). They have some impressive burgers with baked ziti & sage seitan atop or another with mac n cheese atop. Kenzie LOVED them and I’ll eat a burger topped with pasta under most any circumstances. My favorite thing there was a 5 spice & lemongrass seitan sandwich I got on the third visit. The big thing Kenz looked forward to at Cinnamon Snail was the doughnuts and I have to say (sorry, not sorry) they were the best doughnuts we had!! Dun-Well doughnuts were good but Cinnamon Snail doughnuts are just next level.
Cranberry, cinnamon twist thing, s’mores!
Weirdest Thing I Ate
The “Angelica” style cornbread at Angelica Kitchen. I’ll be honest and say I wanted to check this spot out because I’d seen both John Joseph & Isa Chandra post about going to this spot. I don’t even have a picture of this food but it was weird. We went for brunch and it was pretty solid with the exception of that cornbread. Imagine if someone cooked brown rice too much, shoved it in cornbread, baked it, then served it cold…I don’t get it? What’s up Angelica? That was weird.
Everything Else
Those are my big highlights. We also ate at Champs Diner, Beyond Sushi, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, by Chloe., Bunna Cafe and Screamer’s Pizzeria. All of those places are so freaking good as well I just don’t have great pics from them 😀
We rode the Staten Island ferry and walked around Staten Island for about 10 minutes. Are the coolest things about Staten Island the hills/greenery and Wu-Tang? Seems like maybe so. One night we met up with our friends Eleanor and Matt for our meal at Bunna and went to Pine Box Rock Shop after. Then Kenzie almost got me a subway ticket (another story, hilarious). We saw Marc Maron outside Van Leeuwen in East Village, puffing on a cigar while his partner went for ice cream. Maybe that’s my only real celebrity sighting ever? We went to a cool Brooklyn party in some friends’ backyard, walked a ton, rode a bunch of trains, and had the best time.
We both walked away in love with New York and wishing we could instantly move there. Maybe in a few years we’ll make that happen but not sure it’s the right move for us now! We love you New York!