We were craving for an early Italian dinner before seeing a Broadway show. Osteria Delbianco actually has two locations: one on 49th and another closer to Bryant Park. Both locations are really easy to get to. We were able to walk in without reservations at around 5 PM on a Friday early evening. The one appeal to me about this restaurant was that it seemed like a local Italian restaurant, and these typically can be hit or miss.

My partner had another theater show to go to, so I was tasked for looking something near the Theater District. We were watching some random TV show, and they showed lasagna. I don’t remember the context, but my partner wanted that. As we’re still exploring the Hell’s Kitchen area, I ended up finding this restaurant that we were able to walk in since the reservation system doesn’t work at all.

Bad Roman is located in the Columbus Circle mall on the third floor. The team that created this restaurant also helped create Don Angie, Quality Eats, Quality Italian, other “Quality Branded” restaurants, Zou Zou’s, and more. There was a lot of social media firepower with this restaurant because of how retro it looked in vibe and style. We were able to book a seating pretty easily for 2 at 5:30 PM.

The nice part about Manhattan is you can always find something and somewhere to eat, no matter where you are in the city. On this brisk, cold night, my partner was running errands in Soho, so I was tasked with looking up something. Of course, it takes me about 30 minutes to find something, and Osteria Morini is what we ended up on. Even though they had restaurant week menus, we decided to just order off the regular menu.

Normally during every Thanksgiving Thursday, I cook for my partner some poultry thing whether it be quail or turkey breast. This year we decided to relieve me the duties of frantically looking for materials and cooking for 6 hours for the 2 of us. Marea was closed for a few months, and we’ve always had this on our list. Because it just reopened in October, I decided to pursue the Thanksgiving tasting menu.

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.

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.

We were near Broadway and 50th to watch the Back to the Future musical, which was actually surprisingly good. After, we had wanted Thai food, but the restaurant was closed briefly. My partner didn’t use the restrooms at the theater, so I scrambled for another option that had a restroom and found this restaurant off of 54th. We were able to walk in without reservations for 2 at around 5:30 PM on a Saturday night.

We were running errands around 5th Avenue, and this restaurant was on my partner’s list. I learned that my partner picked this restaurant because it was on Sex & The City, so I had very low expectations. We stopped by around 5:30 PM on a Friday night, and we were able to walk in without reservations. The restaurant itself is at the bottom of the staircase as you walk in.

PizzArte is one of those casual Italian pizza-esque restaurants in the Midtown area. Their goal is to deliver the spirit of Naples with affordable costs. We ended up here after looking for a cheaper Italian restaurant in the area that also had lasagna since we had more expensive plans the next day. We were able to walk in without reservations on a Friday evening around 7:30 PM and were seated upstairs.