We finally made it to The River Cafe, which was a restaurant we wanted to go for a while. This restaurant sits right next to the East River, right under the Brooklyn Bridge. We made a reservation for a table of 7 at 5 PM on a Friday night. The dinner consists of primarily 3 courses, which has a fixed price of $195. The River Cafe has 1 Michelin Star and first received it in 2010.

Woodside in Queens is an area that has a plethora of Asian eats that are uncommon in Manhattan. Many of these things here are inexpensive compared to Manhattan, and they have particular flavors that probably won’t appeal to the masses in Manhattan. We were around this area on an errand run, so it was convenient for me to look for something here on a Sunday. We were able to walk in around 12 PM without any wait whatsoever.

It’s yet another Friday, and my partner had to pick up some items around the southeast part of Central Park. This area is fairly close to the Plaza Hotel and the flagship Apple store. This restaurant was on my eyes for a while, but my partner hadn’t built their tolerance or appreciation for Italian food until recently. Fortunately, I finally had a chance to suggest this restaurant as our Friday getaway.

Bom is a restaurant located in the back room of its sibling restaurant, Oiji Mi. We had been to that before, and I thought it was pretty decent. Bom was always on my list of things to try, but at $295 per person, I was pretty hesitant and skeptical. This restaurant doesn’t even have a Michelin Star yet. Since reservations are fairly easy and Oiji Mi was pretty good, I thought I’d give this a try since we were celebrating two major milestones in our lives.

We were near this area because we stopped by Nordstroms for some shopping. This area is pretty close to the southern side of Central Park, and we’ve almost tapped out all the restaurants here (or so I thought). Luckily my partner has continued to show interest in Italian foods because I love it. I found this restaurant that wasn’t that far from where we were, and it was also offering a 3 course prix fixe restaurant week menu for $45.

The Modern is a well known 2 star Michelin restaurant that has an appealing tasting menu. Its sibling restaurant, the Bar Room", is located in the same area as the Modern restaurant, but literally is divided by tall gigantic glass panes. The Bar Room has a more casual feel, where there’s music pumping through the speakers, and it feels more bustling like the general NYC city culture. This half of the restaurant has been participating with the NYC restaurant “week” program for quite some time, and we decided to check it out.

Tempura Matsui is a Michelin 1-star restaurant in Manhattan that specializes in tempura omakase. I had previously gone to another tempura omakase at Secchu Yokota. As I said previously, I really enjoy tempura as a whole, so I am very curious how a Michelin Star tempura tasting compares to a hidden gem tasting. Fortunately, my partner went to see a Broadway show, so it gave me the ability to solo dine at this restaurant.

Taiwanese food is one of the types of cuisines that is seldomly found in Manhattan and just simply cannot compare to the San Gabriel Valley in the greater Los Angeles area in California. I asked my partner before a show if they wanted to check this out, and to my surprise they said yes! Normally they are not fond of this type of food, especially when noodles are around. This is not too far from Broadway theaters.

I’m not a fan of brunch as whole, but my partner’s friends were in town and they selected this restaurant due to their pancakes. Take note that on Sundays, they do not allow reservations, and only the completed parties can be seated. We arrived at around 10:30 AM, and we ended up waiting about 45 minutes until we were able to get in. Originally we were a group of 5, but luckily one didn’t show up, so we were able to be seated once our whole party arrived.

Tempura is one of those things in Japanese cuisine that is pretty expensive for what it is, but when you find the right batter with the right ingredients, it’s so good. In Torrance in California, it’s been over a decade since I tried specialized tempura, so I was craving it recently. Unfortunately my partner loathes tempura for some odd reason, so I opted to dine alone when they decided to watch a Broadway show.