Manhattan, New York City

New Yorkers eat well !!!!

Meals in most of the better restaurants consist of three courses: the appetizer (starter), an entree (the main course) and a dessert. Virtually all Manhattan restaurants, except fast-food places, serve you bread and butter just after you are seated, at no extra charge. In some fine restaurants you may be offered a complimentary appetizer, such as a small dollop of mouse or a tiny triangle of quiche.

You will always find a restaurant in Manhattan to suit your budget. At inexpensive coffee shops, diners and fast-food chains, $10-$15 will buy a filling meal. There are also hundreds of acceptable, even first-rate, restaurants where you can eat well at a moderate cost - around $25 per person for a filling and decent meal, not including drinks - in attractive surroundings.
For dinner at a trendy New American venue with a star chef, the bill could be upward of $80 to $100 per person, excluding drinks. Many top restaurants do, however, offer fixed-price (or, as they are known in Manhattan, prix-fixe) meals. This is normally a much cheaper way of enjoying a good meal than choosing dishes from the a la carte menu. Lunch is also less expensive than dinner in such places and, because of the profusion of business diners, lunch is also the business period of the day.

Despite the tales of $200 business lunches, there are ways to stretch a meal budget in Manhattan.
Order fewer courses than you would normally. American portions are huge, and an appetizer is often big enough for a light main course. You could share one with your companion or choose two appetizers and no main course.
Ask your waiter if there is a prix-fixe menu. Many of the more expensive restaurants offer this at lunch and dinner-in the early evening it may often be called the pre-theater menu. Or try a prix-fixe lunch buffet. These are popular in Indian restaurants and other places and are very reasonably priced meals.
Other option for quick, tasty, and restorative meal are the less expensive Chinese, Thai, and Mexican restaurants, and some Jewish delis. Italian pizzerias and French bistros, as well as the small eateries that serve fish and chips, hamburgers, or sandwiches and desserts also offer good value.
If you simply want to see inside the restaurants every visitor has heard about, just go to have a drink and soak up the atmosphere. Many restaurants post their menus or will let you see them before you are seated, good for checking prices in advice. During Restaurant Week (usually in January and July), you can dine in some of the city's restaurants for a fraction of the usual cost - visit www.nycgo/restaurantweek

New York City attracts top chefs from around the world, all of whom are determined to make their mark and win over the local diners and the New York Times' influential restaurant reviewer.

A meal in a top restaurant will not come cheaply, but it can be worth the splurge. Booking a table can be difficult, and reservations should be made as early as two months in advance. Some reservations can be made online through Opentable (www.opentable.com)

Along the best names and singnature venues are Thomas Keller (Per Se), Daniel Bouley (Daniel), Jean-Georges Vongerichten (Jean-Georges), Gordon Ramsay (London NYC), Mario Batali (Babbo), Alain Ducasse (Adour), Nobu Matsuhisa (Nobu New York), and Gray Kunz (Cafe Gray).

Few cities can match the diversity of Manhattan's restaurants. Reflecting the city's melting pot of nationalities, foods range from the "hautest" of French and continental cuisine to the freshest sushi outside of Tokyo.
Caribbean, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Greek, Indian - all are well represented, and every block seems to have an Italian restaurant. The quality of the city's top restaurants is unsurpassed and their chefs are superstars, as well-known and revered as movie idols. Yet, because so many nationalities are represented in its culinary culture, only a few foods are native to the city itself.

While New York dining may span all nations, a few special dishes are closely associated with the city!

Manhattan clam chowder, this is a rich blend of potatoes, onions, tomatoes, oyster crakers crumbs and clams.

New York Strip Steak, served with creamed spinach, fries or bash-browns, this tender steak is hard to beat.

A typical Manhattan deli seves, enjoyed by all, overstuffed corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, dill pickles, matzo, ball soup, herrings, blintzes, and bagels served with cream cheese and smoked salmon. The bagel, once, synonymous with New York, has become a universal American food, but a true New York bagel is nothing like the bready imitations found in the hinterlands. It is shaped by hand, and the dough is cooked briefly in boiling water before being baked, resulting in a unique firm and chewy texture. A relative, and another New York specialty,
is the bialy, a flat, chewy flour-dusted roll with a center indentation filed with toasted onions.

Street Food

Street food is a favourite choice in a fast-moving city. Sabrett hot dogs and over-size soft pretzels are classic New York choices, along with some surprisingly good food cart specialties, from falafel to soup to barbecue to Texas chile, all ready to eat on the run. In winter, vendors all over town offer hot roasted chestnuts.