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 able to do a walk-in on a Friday evening around 5:45 PM without reservations.
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 able to walk in around 4:30 PM on a Sunday without any reservations.
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. The host said that the “garden” was saved for just reservations, which we were fine with.
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. We were seated in one of the private booths, which was quite comfortable and serene.
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.
What’s an Italian restaurant in Midtown that didn’t require reservations at 6 PM on a Friday evening after work? This one. It’s very close to the Rockafeller area, right across the street from a food hall. There’s a small car with a ton of flowers coming out of it. You can’t really miss it. We were able to walk in pretty easily, and we were seated towards the front. Because this restaurant is not exactly super popular, the attention and seating was quite comfortable.
This Memorial Day weekend, we’ve been enjoying our free time just idling at home and doing chores. For Monday, my partner wanted to run some errands, and we were around the Rockafeller area. Because it was still a bit early around 4 PM, it was difficult to find restaurants that had already turned over to their dinner time. Eventually, my partner pointed out this restaurant, and we decided to give it a try. It’s located in the 7th floor of the Hilton DoubleTree hotel on 5th Ave and 51st.
Olio e Più is a trattoria & enoteca restaurant run by the same group that manages Boucherie. It’s close to the West 4th station in the Village, and it usually has a very lively crowd as it gets toward evening hours. Before the pandemic, the restaurant table space was quite small and tight. Since, they’ve expanded structurally a patio that extends out of the main building, as well as little sidewalk area that is enclosed. If you desire to sit in the actual indoor areas (i.e. not the patio area or the sidewalk area), you probably have to make a reservation a few weeks in advance and book the “Standard” area in OpenTable.
We had tickets to watch Phantom of the Opera before it closes in April, and my partner was scouring for some type of restaurant week menu to eat. They landed on this restaurant which is pretty close by as it had last minute vacancy. I already had very low expectations on some of these Italian restaurants that are close to theaters especially ones that are restaurant week driven. The restaurant week menu had some overlap with the normal dishes, but the ingredients to me did not really stand out.