8 ms·

It often happens that someone outside new york talks about the amaaaazing food in their city. I used to laugh, or correct them. Nowadays I just feel pity. No

by leif 13y ago

It often happens that someone outside new york talks about the amaaaazing food in their city. I used to laugh, or correct them. Nowadays I just feel pity. Nothing compares to the food of new york city. Absolutely nothing. Don't even fucking try. "I live within walking distance of two zagat top 10 rated restaurants." There are sixty restaurants within walking distance of my apartment and they're all better than anything in miami. Fuck, 5 of them are run by Top Chef winners. And there are 10 more that are better than those because the food network doesn't even get the top talent.

moron4hire 13y ago
Oh, get the fuck over yourself. You ain't got the corner on good food.
- leif 13y ago
  No, I've been around the block. There is a legitimate and drastic difference between everywhere else (in the U.S. and Europe, at least) and this city. The only other place in the U.S. that competes is L.A., and S.F. but only for burritos (why doesn't NYC have burritos?).
  - grogenaut 13y ago
    wow, you've been to the US AND THE EU... impressed. I'm impressed that only SF and LA have burritos. YOU ARE A WORLD TRAVELLER. Whee, immediate -4 karma. But seriously nyc has some good food but it doesn't have a stranglehold on great ingredients. The west coast in fact has better access and makes better use of it because it's natural to just assume that those things exists. Some of the best food I've had is actually in local quality resturants in detroit, stl, pittsburgh, and boston, when they are showing off their natural 300 mile radius ingredients and how to use them in season.
    - leif 13y ago
      LA has a lot of good food, SF only has good burritos.
      - grogenaut 13y ago
        Noted. Though I have to say that while LA does have good food, they should get out more and compare. Not the people who make the food, they obviously get out. The people who eat the food. Well they get out, but not OUT. But all in all, good food. Well and a lot of shit overpriced food. But lots of great food in really shitting looking locations. And lots of really shitty food in really great looking locations.
      - wpietri 13y ago
        I presume this is just trolling, but in case you actually think that, for New York, Michelin lists 7 three-star restaurants, 9 two-star, and 46 one-star. San Francisco's numbers are 2, 6, and 39. [1] So not as high, but given that the SF Metro area has a third the population of New York, we do ok. (For those unfamiliar, Michelin stars are sort of like the Academy Awards of food. Even a 1-star restaurant is an extraordinary meal, and you should expect to pay $100-200 a person. 3-star places are reputedly the best of the best; a meal there runs $300-600 per person.) [1] http://sf.eater.com/archives/2012/10/23/michelin_guide_2013_revealed.php http://sf.eater.com/archives/2012/10/23/michelin_guide_2013_...
        grogenaut 13y ago
        They also tend to like really pretentious bullshit in their restaurants. So you have to watch out.
        oijaf888 13y ago
        Some of the ones in NYC that have 1 star appear to just be regular American style Chinese takeout type places. Not sure how pretentious they are (or can be).
        snogglethorpe 13y ago
        You have to be careful though, because Michelin-starred restaurants aren't where most people eat, and the correlation between the sort of high-end exotics that get the stars and the overall food-scene is going to vary from place to place... It can go either way of course. If you're a super rich socialite, then yeah, focus on the stars, but otherwise....er, well. [No diss on Michelin-starred restaurants intended! I've eaten at such places a couple of times in my life and they were very nice.]
  - moron4hire 13y ago
    I've eaten well in every major city of the east coast, and a few in the UK. NYC is a monoculture of food. A distinct culture of its own, but a monoculture nonetheless. You won't find good BBQ in NYC. Decent fried chicken is easier to find in some backwards farm town of Pennsylvania than it is in NYC. I still assert that the best burger in the world is in Harrisburg, PA, and I specifically look and test everywhere I go. Pizza comes in one form, as do Ramen noodles. Yes, there are some amazing French restaurants there, but there is no shortage of amazing French restaurants in the country. And they have no clue what they are doing with a crab.
    - leif 13y ago
      It's a bit of a monoculture, but one that spans more cuisines than anywhere else. There are definitely certain aesthetics that are prized over others that are arguably worthwhile, but it's cross-cutting. You can get more diversity in, say, fried chicken, in PA, but you can't get the same diversity across cuisines, combined with the same depth and quality of execution, anywhere else.
      - grogenaut 13y ago
        so you're the food court of food then? You've got a lot of it but you can't make fried chicken for shit?
    - throwaway9848 13y ago
      "Pizza comes in one form" That is not a critique, that is a statement. Pizza comes in one form, and that form is NY/Neapolitan style. The rest is some kind of bizarre cheese/tomato pie bread thing.
      - Larrikin 13y ago
        You have terrible taste if you can only appreciate a dish in one form. Deep Dish is different but its great. Personally I think its even better. Deep dish feels more special and like a meal, but I would only ever want to it once a month. I like NYC pizza, at least from the major famous places. Your typical corner pizza is no better than any other corner pizza place on the east coast. I live in Tokyo right now and I definitely eat better than I did in NYC. NYC only has Tokyo beat on prices, since both places only have mediocre Mexican food.
voltagex_ 13y ago
If I hadn't just been to NY recently this comment would have sounded really conceited. For everyone wondering, if you get a chance to go to NYC just do it. Even if you think you hate big cities, do it. And get out of my way. [1] 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LmPBPWHJu4&noredirect=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LmPBPWHJu4&noredirect=1
- Crake 13y ago
  I'm always happy to have friends visit me here. I'm from the midwest, and most of my friends there have never been to NYC. It blows their minds, every time.
  - grogenaut 13y ago
    funny, it's blows my nyc friends mind to come to the midwest and eat at a real resturant. Non-argentine beef, local cheese and milk, local well yeah. Not as great as what you can get locally west coast but the beef and game are awesome in the midwest.
    - Crake 13y ago
      Ah, there are some good places in the midwest, too. But there's many more independent restaurants here, all doing different things. I don't know what a "real" restaurant is to you, but to me, the biggest city in the united states certainly has more than a few of them. Compare this to where I grew up: the only places to eat closeby were mcdonalds, wendy's, and burger king type places. We didn't even have (and still don't have) a starbucks, and it was a ~big deal~ when chipotle and then a panera came in. I do miss cheap gas station slushies, though. They're hard to find here in NYC.
      - grogenaut 13y ago
        Go into any city in the Midwest and you'll find plenty of good non chain restraints. I'm not disagreeing with the mass of restaurants in nyc. I'm saying the food tastes better closer to the source. I'm sorry you choose to live somewhere that only had McDonald's close.
grogenaut 13y ago
your bbq and pizza sucks. seriously, it does. your "immigrant" food however is quite good.
- leif 13y ago
  Come back here and I will show you pizza. Clearly you missed it. Or maybe the donald was your guide: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-1-2011/me-lover-s-pizza-with-crazy-broad http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-1-2011/me-lover-s...
  - grogenaut 13y ago
    No really, it was a greasy pile of shit. - You win no favors with the trump and SP on that - http://www.restaurantpi.com/ http://www.restaurantpi.com/ is good but it's not the best. Obama loves it and pissed of chicago for it though - Seriously though, pizza is a regional thing. I'm not going to convince you that your pizza is shit no matter how crap the ingredients and the velveta topping are. You're not going to convince a CPK fan that their pizza is shit. - The best Chicago style pizza is actually in STL. That's a challenge and a threat.
    - leif 13y ago
      No, really, you just missed the good pizza here. The offer stands, come back here, email me, and I will treat you to good pizza.
      - grogenaut 13y ago
        Okay. I can't really pass that up. Let me know when you're in certain parts of the US, STL, or SEA and I'll let you know what you should look for. Threat of good food taken.
        wj 13y ago
        I moved to STL earlier this year and am always looking for good restaurant recommendations.
auston 13y ago
So my NYC experience is Buddakan, Hillstone, LAVO, DINER in Williamsburg, Foodswings in Williamsburg & Lombardi's. They're all pretty great, but I can name very very competitive restaurants for each of them in Miami (Scarpetta, J Alexander, Prime Italia, Gigi in Wynwood & choices in Brickell). I'm not saying the food is better than NYC, you guys win on sheer volume, I'm just saying it's damn good & really easy to find (unlike the suburbs I grew up in)!
- bdesimone 13y ago
  And quality, I'm sad to say. I wish those places were as good.
fchollet 13y ago
I lived in NYC for a year, working right next to Hell's Kitchen. While the food is great, it's certainly not "incomparable". Paris has better restaurants. Tokyo has better restaurants (cheaper too in that case). Even San Francisco has comparable food standards. You end up sounding just like so many New-Yorkers --annoying and conceited. But no, living there doesn't make you special. It's just a big city, and not the only one in the world.
- leif 13y ago
  Paris only has good french and moroccan food, san francisco actually doesn't have nearly as good food, so just stop.
  - ars_technician 13y ago
    Why are you so defensive? Are you worried you are going to find out you've just been enjoying the taste of your own smugness rather than spectacular food?
    - volaski 13y ago
      I've lived both in SF and NY, and NY significantly has more. Not saying SF has bad food, it does, but it pales in comparison to NY. Of course--that is--excluding Burritos. There's nothing smug about saying the truth.
- Crake 13y ago
  I think once you're hitting the level of "one of the biggest cities in the world" there's almost guaranteed going to be really awesome cuisine. I thought Paris had really great food when I was there, I'm sure Tokyo's got delicious offerings as well (I love Japanese food, mmm). I just moved to NYC, though, and the food options here are incomparable to anywhere else in the US I've been. (Note: I haven't been to San Francisco, and while I'm sure it has good food too, NYC's excellent transit system means I have wider access to places.) I'm continuously surprised by how CHEAP things are, too! Yesterday I paid $1.50 for a box of strawberries, $0.75 for some cherry tomatoes, and $2 for a sizeable package of freshly chopped and peeled kiwis. (In the midwest, I'd pay almost that much just for the strawberries.) To top it off, I had the best lamb and rice meal I've ever had...for $5 from a halal food cart. (I actually spent an hour today looking for the cart again, I liked it THAT much, but it was nowhere to be found. I will look again tomorrow!!) Of course, I still haven't found anywhere that sells a gallon of milk for less than $4, but I'm going to keep searching. I kind of enjoy exploring places and mentally marking down which place has the cheapest offering of a certain thing.
ulisesrmzroche 13y ago
I can honestly tell you that New York City has absolutely zero good tacos though. The ones that exist are sad and laughable things. This alone is reason to leave the city.
Crake 13y ago
Yeah, Miami can't hold a candle to NYC food. NYC is great because it's just so DENSE. Very little time required to get somewhere awesome, and what travel time you have you can spend reading or whatever.
- grogenaut 13y ago
  but that's exactly what makes food taste better. Having to work for it. Thats why sunflower seeds are better than shelled, Wings better than nuggets, unwatched human children mggriddles better than processed mcgriddles.
Expat2009 13y ago
Lol...europe blows nyc away

by leif 13y ago

moron4hire 13y ago

Oh, get the fuck over yourself. You ain't got the corner on good food.

leif 13y ago
No, I've been around the block. There is a legitimate and drastic difference between everywhere else (in the U.S. and Europe, at least) and this city. The only other place in the U.S. that competes is L.A., and S.F. but only for burritos (why doesn't NYC have burritos?).
- grogenaut 13y ago
  wow, you've been to the US AND THE EU... impressed. I'm impressed that only SF and LA have burritos. YOU ARE A WORLD TRAVELLER. Whee, immediate -4 karma. But seriously nyc has some good food but it doesn't have a stranglehold on great ingredients. The west coast in fact has better access and makes better use of it because it's natural to just assume that those things exists. Some of the best food I've had is actually in local quality resturants in detroit, stl, pittsburgh, and boston, when they are showing off their natural 300 mile radius ingredients and how to use them in season.
  - leif 13y ago
    LA has a lot of good food, SF only has good burritos.
    - grogenaut 13y ago
      Noted. Though I have to say that while LA does have good food, they should get out more and compare. Not the people who make the food, they obviously get out. The people who eat the food. Well they get out, but not OUT. But all in all, good food. Well and a lot of shit overpriced food. But lots of great food in really shitting looking locations. And lots of really shitty food in really great looking locations.
    - wpietri 13y ago
      I presume this is just trolling, but in case you actually think that, for New York, Michelin lists 7 three-star restaurants, 9 two-star, and 46 one-star. San Francisco's numbers are 2, 6, and 39. [1] So not as high, but given that the SF Metro area has a third the population of New York, we do ok. (For those unfamiliar, Michelin stars are sort of like the Academy Awards of food. Even a 1-star restaurant is an extraordinary meal, and you should expect to pay $100-200 a person. 3-star places are reputedly the best of the best; a meal there runs $300-600 per person.) [1] http://sf.eater.com/archives/2012/10/23/michelin_guide_2013_revealed.php http://sf.eater.com/archives/2012/10/23/michelin_guide_2013_...
      - grogenaut 13y ago
        They also tend to like really pretentious bullshit in their restaurants. So you have to watch out.
        oijaf888 13y ago
        Some of the ones in NYC that have 1 star appear to just be regular American style Chinese takeout type places. Not sure how pretentious they are (or can be).
      - snogglethorpe 13y ago
        You have to be careful though, because Michelin-starred restaurants aren't where most people eat, and the correlation between the sort of high-end exotics that get the stars and the overall food-scene is going to vary from place to place... It can go either way of course. If you're a super rich socialite, then yeah, focus on the stars, but otherwise....er, well. [No diss on Michelin-starred restaurants intended! I've eaten at such places a couple of times in my life and they were very nice.]
- moron4hire 13y ago
  I've eaten well in every major city of the east coast, and a few in the UK. NYC is a monoculture of food. A distinct culture of its own, but a monoculture nonetheless. You won't find good BBQ in NYC. Decent fried chicken is easier to find in some backwards farm town of Pennsylvania than it is in NYC. I still assert that the best burger in the world is in Harrisburg, PA, and I specifically look and test everywhere I go. Pizza comes in one form, as do Ramen noodles. Yes, there are some amazing French restaurants there, but there is no shortage of amazing French restaurants in the country. And they have no clue what they are doing with a crab.
  - leif 13y ago
    It's a bit of a monoculture, but one that spans more cuisines than anywhere else. There are definitely certain aesthetics that are prized over others that are arguably worthwhile, but it's cross-cutting. You can get more diversity in, say, fried chicken, in PA, but you can't get the same diversity across cuisines, combined with the same depth and quality of execution, anywhere else.
    - grogenaut 13y ago
      so you're the food court of food then? You've got a lot of it but you can't make fried chicken for shit?
  - throwaway9848 13y ago
    "Pizza comes in one form" That is not a critique, that is a statement. Pizza comes in one form, and that form is NY/Neapolitan style. The rest is some kind of bizarre cheese/tomato pie bread thing.
    - Larrikin 13y ago
      You have terrible taste if you can only appreciate a dish in one form. Deep Dish is different but its great. Personally I think its even better. Deep dish feels more special and like a meal, but I would only ever want to it once a month. I like NYC pizza, at least from the major famous places. Your typical corner pizza is no better than any other corner pizza place on the east coast. I live in Tokyo right now and I definitely eat better than I did in NYC. NYC only has Tokyo beat on prices, since both places only have mediocre Mexican food.

voltagex_ 13y ago

If I hadn't just been to NY recently this comment would have sounded really conceited. For everyone wondering, if you get a chance to go to NYC just do it. Even if you think you hate big cities, do it. And get out of my way. [1] 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LmPBPWHJu4&noredirect=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LmPBPWHJu4&noredirect=1

Crake 13y ago
I'm always happy to have friends visit me here. I'm from the midwest, and most of my friends there have never been to NYC. It blows their minds, every time.
- grogenaut 13y ago
  funny, it's blows my nyc friends mind to come to the midwest and eat at a real resturant. Non-argentine beef, local cheese and milk, local well yeah. Not as great as what you can get locally west coast but the beef and game are awesome in the midwest.
  - Crake 13y ago
    Ah, there are some good places in the midwest, too. But there's many more independent restaurants here, all doing different things. I don't know what a "real" restaurant is to you, but to me, the biggest city in the united states certainly has more than a few of them. Compare this to where I grew up: the only places to eat closeby were mcdonalds, wendy's, and burger king type places. We didn't even have (and still don't have) a starbucks, and it was a ~big deal~ when chipotle and then a panera came in. I do miss cheap gas station slushies, though. They're hard to find here in NYC.
    - grogenaut 13y ago
      Go into any city in the Midwest and you'll find plenty of good non chain restraints. I'm not disagreeing with the mass of restaurants in nyc. I'm saying the food tastes better closer to the source. I'm sorry you choose to live somewhere that only had McDonald's close.

grogenaut 13y ago

your bbq and pizza sucks. seriously, it does. your "immigrant" food however is quite good.

leif 13y ago
Come back here and I will show you pizza. Clearly you missed it. Or maybe the donald was your guide: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-1-2011/me-lover-s-pizza-with-crazy-broad http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-1-2011/me-lover-s...
- grogenaut 13y ago
  No really, it was a greasy pile of shit. - You win no favors with the trump and SP on that - http://www.restaurantpi.com/ http://www.restaurantpi.com/ is good but it's not the best. Obama loves it and pissed of chicago for it though - Seriously though, pizza is a regional thing. I'm not going to convince you that your pizza is shit no matter how crap the ingredients and the velveta topping are. You're not going to convince a CPK fan that their pizza is shit. - The best Chicago style pizza is actually in STL. That's a challenge and a threat.
  - leif 13y ago
    No, really, you just missed the good pizza here. The offer stands, come back here, email me, and I will treat you to good pizza.
    - grogenaut 13y ago
      Okay. I can't really pass that up. Let me know when you're in certain parts of the US, STL, or SEA and I'll let you know what you should look for. Threat of good food taken.
      - wj 13y ago
        I moved to STL earlier this year and am always looking for good restaurant recommendations.

auston 13y ago

So my NYC experience is Buddakan, Hillstone, LAVO, DINER in Williamsburg, Foodswings in Williamsburg & Lombardi's. They're all pretty great, but I can name very very competitive restaurants for each of them in Miami (Scarpetta, J Alexander, Prime Italia, Gigi in Wynwood & choices in Brickell). I'm not saying the food is better than NYC, you guys win on sheer volume, I'm just saying it's damn good & really easy to find (unlike the suburbs I grew up in)!

bdesimone 13y ago
And quality, I'm sad to say. I wish those places were as good.

fchollet 13y ago

I lived in NYC for a year, working right next to Hell's Kitchen. While the food is great, it's certainly not "incomparable". Paris has better restaurants. Tokyo has better restaurants (cheaper too in that case). Even San Francisco has comparable food standards. You end up sounding just like so many New-Yorkers --annoying and conceited. But no, living there doesn't make you special. It's just a big city, and not the only one in the world.

leif 13y ago
Paris only has good french and moroccan food, san francisco actually doesn't have nearly as good food, so just stop.
- ars_technician 13y ago
  Why are you so defensive? Are you worried you are going to find out you've just been enjoying the taste of your own smugness rather than spectacular food?
  - volaski 13y ago
    I've lived both in SF and NY, and NY significantly has more. Not saying SF has bad food, it does, but it pales in comparison to NY. Of course--that is--excluding Burritos. There's nothing smug about saying the truth.
Crake 13y ago
I think once you're hitting the level of "one of the biggest cities in the world" there's almost guaranteed going to be really awesome cuisine. I thought Paris had really great food when I was there, I'm sure Tokyo's got delicious offerings as well (I love Japanese food, mmm). I just moved to NYC, though, and the food options here are incomparable to anywhere else in the US I've been. (Note: I haven't been to San Francisco, and while I'm sure it has good food too, NYC's excellent transit system means I have wider access to places.) I'm continuously surprised by how CHEAP things are, too! Yesterday I paid $1.50 for a box of strawberries, $0.75 for some cherry tomatoes, and $2 for a sizeable package of freshly chopped and peeled kiwis. (In the midwest, I'd pay almost that much just for the strawberries.) To top it off, I had the best lamb and rice meal I've ever had...for $5 from a halal food cart. (I actually spent an hour today looking for the cart again, I liked it THAT much, but it was nowhere to be found. I will look again tomorrow!!) Of course, I still haven't found anywhere that sells a gallon of milk for less than $4, but I'm going to keep searching. I kind of enjoy exploring places and mentally marking down which place has the cheapest offering of a certain thing.

ulisesrmzroche 13y ago

I can honestly tell you that New York City has absolutely zero good tacos though. The ones that exist are sad and laughable things. This alone is reason to leave the city.

Crake 13y ago

Yeah, Miami can't hold a candle to NYC food. NYC is great because it's just so DENSE. Very little time required to get somewhere awesome, and what travel time you have you can spend reading or whatever.

grogenaut 13y ago
but that's exactly what makes food taste better. Having to work for it. Thats why sunflower seeds are better than shelled, Wings better than nuggets, unwatched human children mggriddles better than processed mcgriddles.

Expat2009 13y ago

Lol...europe blows nyc away