Una Ragazza on Eat: Eating (in) the Big Apple

One of the most intimidating questions to ask somebody new to New York is, "What's your favorite restaurant in the city?"


Restaurants -- a leading vice among every other New Yorker

I was first quizzed about my culinary preferences less than one month after moving here, in front of a large, expectant crowd in an Upper-West-Side Italian restaurant, which honestly would have been my choice for that lofty title, if not for the fact that I decided sophistication would call for me to name another restaurant other than the one in which we were dining right that moment.


A Singaporean's priorities -- food triumphs over books on Una Ragazza's shelves

Since then, my knowledge of the local culinary scene has thankfully improved and I now possess a pensive response to the Question. "It depends," I'd reply and then challenge the Question with five questions, "What do I feel up for at this moment? Who am I eating out with? What type of food do I want? What neighborhood are we talking about? What time of the year, and what time of the day, is this?"


Downtown, Midtown, Uptown, or Stuy Town?

You see, the Question begs a complex response that cannot be justified by the naming of a single establishment. There are, after all, 18,696 restaurants in New York. (By comparison, London and Paris have 5,570 and about 8,000, respectively.)

These, in turn, fit into more than 100 genres of dining. For example, for cuisine by nationality under the "P" listing alone, you have Pakistani, Persian, Peruvian, Polish, Polynesian, Portuguese, and Puerto Rican. The "P" listing by restaurant feature would include people watching, pre-theater menu, private parties, private rooms, and prix fixe menu.

Which brings us to the enormous array of resources designed to help us city-dwellers cope with this overwhelming number and intimidating task of finding a spot to eat out. To start with, there are the restaurant-review Web sites that every respectable New Yorker has bookmarked – MenuPages, Yelp and Citysearch – as well as some niche players like Chowhound and Menuism. A glowing review by the city's newspapers and magazines – namely Timeout, New York Times, New York Magazine and Village Voice – also wield plenty of power in ensuring a packed weekday seating. Gaining steady popularity in the blogosphere are players such as Gothamist, Serious Eats and Pocket Change.

Then there are Zagat and Michelin – the prestigious guides that people would pay for, and that chefs are known to potentially kill themselves over. And for those who like an element of surprise – but not too much – a mobile app named Urbanspoon allows users to play a slot machine jackpot game to find a restaurant based on the desired location (in all five New York City boroughs and even nationwide, in case you find Manhattan's options insufficient), cuisine and price range.


An NYC food lover's little helpers

Once the decision has been made, a whole host of other players await to help us get that napkin around our necks. Online reservations services like OpenTable do a great job of helping diners find an available table at a given date and time; it also tries to turn even the most clueless guy into a potential Romeo by prompting a private party, limousine ride or floral delivery.

Unfortunately, there are more than a few New York restaurants for which reservations must be made weeks – if not months – in advance. I recall having to call one such establishment exactly one month before my desired dinner date; the reservation phone line opened at 10 a.m. and by the time I got through, it was a quarter past 10. A young lady answered the phone with a cheery greeting.

"Thank you for calling Babbo, how can I help you?"

"Hi, I'd like a reservation for four at 7 p.m. on August 7, please."

"I'm sorry but we do not have a table for four at 7. We can sit you at 9 or 9:30."

"That won't work. We have a show to catch that night. How about 7 p.m. the next day?"

"We are only taking reservations for August 7. You'll have to call back tomorrow, I'm afraid."

As I hung up the phone, I thought about the person who had been the first to get through to the reservation line that morning, and who'd probably snatched my 7 p.m. table. She must have felt like she's snagged a subway seat during rush hours. On the 4 express train. Next to a cute-looking banker in a suit.

As for those who must eat at the fanciest spots yet have no patience (or secretary) to listen to elevator music for 20 minutes at 10 in the morning, there is PrimeTime Tables which sells elusive restaurant reservations – basically, the opportunity to have dinner – for about $45 per reservation. Its rival TableXchange was the thriving eBay of restaurant reservations until the 2008 financial crisis brought its largely Wall Street clientele to its knees. At least for now.

The drama doesn't necessarily end after the reservation is secured. Some New York restaurants are notorious for making guests – even those with a reservation – wait for 45 minutes or more. Matters become worse if the entire party is not present when a table is freed up, in which case that table of guests will not get seated until everyone has arrived.


Good enough to wait -- a regular scene outside numerous restaurants in the city

As for the actual dining experience, it is often interesting to observe the service staff. With over 19,000 eating establishments in New York, one might wonder where the supply of employees come from. Well, where there are starving actors auditioning in off-off Broadway musicals and plays, as well as improvs and readings, there will be restaurant wait staff. The problem with every other waiter or waitress being an "actor" is that they often feel too important to actually bring you your food or fill your water glass. Not a good thing when you're out with Un Ragazzo, my forever hungry partner and a perpetually thirsty guy. One evening, we found ourselves waiting around for our empty water glasses to be filled on five different occasions in the span of 90 minutes.


It's more than just food: getting ready to enter a Village restaurant for a pitch-black dining experience

And as if by clockwork, service usually improves in the last few minutes before the check is brought. Now, Singaporeans complain about the compulsory service charge imposed on all restaurant bills. We argue that it should be abolished to follow countries that allow voluntary tipping. Well, the absence of mandatory tipping does not make it voluntary here in New York. Tipping is pretty much implicit. Unless you want to risk getting chased after by a broom like my sister. It didn't matter that the service was horrible and that her friends and she waited a very long time for their food. Everybody eating out has to cough up that 15 to 20 percent tip. Sometimes, New Yorkers even knowingly go to restaurants with abusive service, such as a certain bistro where you get your burger thrown at you. (I guess you can say we have different priorities.)

For those who have changed their minds about eating out in New York in the last five minutes, fear not for your taste buds – I estimate that more than half the restaurants (yes, even some Michelin-rated ones) have takeout menus. So if you don't mind eating on plastic ware or washing a few dishes, you could be enjoying a Zagat-approved meal with your own bottle of Perrier, in the comfort of your own home in front of your 50-inch plasma HDTV.

Just don't forget to tip the delivery guy.


A seasoned delivery bike with customized snow-protection handles

(Some pictures taken from the Internet)