Time and Tide comes from the Kent Hospitality Group, which owns restaurants such as Saga and Crown Shy. The head chef, Top Chef winner Danny Garcia, overhauled the menu recently, and we got a chance to experience it. The restaurant was inspired to be a steakhouse modeled fish restaurant. I was easily able to make a reservation for 5:30 PM on a Friday night because the restaurant snipers have moved onto newer restaurants.

La Tête d’Or by Daniel is a tribute to timeless flavors and traditions with infusion of French flavors. What attracted me with this restaurant was that chef Daniel Boulud has a pretty decent track record of delivering good refined flavors. We went to Le Gratin previously, and we were very impressed by the taste of everything. As usual because he also holds some type of celebrity status, this restaurant is located in a posh area very close to Eleven Madison. I was able to book a reservation about a week out for 5:30 PM on a Friday night.

Cafe Zaffri has been opened for just a week and are going through an early preview of their menu. The executive Chef Mary Attea heads the menu by tapping into her Lebanese roots and incorporating Levantine flavors into a modern menu. Along with the Chef, owners Jennifer and Nicole Vitagliano also came from The Musket Room. We were able to make a reservation for Valentine’s Day at 5:30 PM just a few days before because it hasn’t yet been fully discovered by the populous.

Hawksmoor is a London restaurant that has a few other locations in the U.S. This is the first New York City location. In the UK, Hawksmoor is known for its food integrity, drinks, and visually appealing dining areas. They claim they have found the perfect way to cook steaks. One of the biggest appeals for me was they have a “Sunday Roast”, which is supposed to be a heavy Sunday meal. I had to make a reservation for this restaurant a few weeks in advance since the Sunday roast was only served on Sundays in the early-mid afternoons.

For Thanksgiving, we decided to try Cafe Carmellini out because their menu seemed pretty decent and had offerings that were present on their normal menu. My partner is a fan of turkey, so I already know what they were going to get. We made a reservation for 12 PM on Thanksgiving with no issues at all. When we walked in, they had us sit at the bar as they were preparing for Thanksgiving service. This restaurant is located inside the 5th Avenue Hotel.

In our quest to find all the “Baked Alaska” restaurants in NYC, this was one that I was surprised to have it priced reasonably. Looking at the menu, everything was affordable compared to the rest of Manhattan. I’ll be honest that I have never heard of this restaurant, and this came up randomly in my search. We easily made a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM on a Friday.

The Clocktower has been on my list for a while and was a former 1 Michelin Star restaurant a few years ago. I ended up circling back to this restaurant because we’re desiring to eat as many baked Alaska places as possible. It’s interesting to see how many permutations of this dessert exists. We were able to book a reservation for 2 for a Friday evening without issue. The restaurant is located inside The Edison hotel on the second floor. There are some not-so-clear winding stairs that lead up to the restaurant, or you can take the elevator. In the second floor, we arrived on time for our reservation, but there was no one to greet us nor escort us. It was a confusing entrance.

Chica & The Don is a new Latin restaurant that opened in the Flatiron district. Despite their Yelp site pointing to Flatbush, it really is located in Manhattan. When you walk in, the restaurant has a long corridor to the main dining area. They just opened 3 weeks ago, so I was interested in checking this out before the hype were to build up. We were able to make a reservation relatively easy for 5:45 PM on a Friday early evening.

Vinyl Steakhouse has been a steak place that I’ve been wanting to go for quite some time. The Flatiron area has been experiencing many new restaurant openings post pandemic, and this was one of them that was appealing. Similar to Turntable Chicken Jazz, this restaurant has a load of vinyls on display, and it plays music as requested. We were able to walk in on a Friday around 6:30 PM without reservations for 2. They seated us at the front of the restaurant.

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.