Miss Nellie’s was one of those restaurants near the theaters that always appeared to have an interesting menu. I had this restaurant saved for a few years, so I figured we’d check this out before watching a show. We walked in without reservations for 2 around 5:30 PM without any issues. As I sat down and looked at the menu again, I noticed some of the things I was interested in, such as smoked French Dip, had mushrooms in it. This really narrowed what I would get, so I had some skepticism.

At a whim, we’re around near the Bryant Park area. We didn’t make any reservations, and we wanted to try something new. I offered the option of yakitori (or skewers) because I knew about Double Knot being part of this movement of Philly restaurants expanding to NYC. We were able to walk in to this restaurant at around 6:00 PM, when it was prime time for the Midtown after work crowd.

For a pre-Valentine’s day dinner, this was one of the few restaurants where it was incredibly easy to make a reservation just a few days in advance. Ying Tao was on my list for a while, and the menu always looked mildly interesting to me. I remember when it first opened, it was one of the few individual Chinese “tasting” in Manhattan that was prepared in a gourmand style way. I was easily able to make a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM on the Friday before Valentine’s.

We’ve heard of Lillie’s Victorian Establishment, and it’s been on a list for a while because it’s a very festive restaurant. It’s always difficult to get last minute reservations, but fortunately as we won theater lottery on a cold single-digit weather, there was not a lot of tourist or foot traffic at all in the Times Square area. I was able to make a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM very easily just a few hours in advance. As you can tell from the picture, there was a lot of snow, and the exterior was already decorated with a lot of winter ornaments.

Elephant Ear, an interesting name for a Thai restaurant, has been on my list for quite a while. In this area near the theaters, there is an ongoing rotation of Thai restaurants. We happened to catch a Broadway show, so I made a reservation for two people at 6 PM. When we went to the restaurant after our show, they mentioned that there’s a 1.5 hour limit for dining.

From the Quality Branded restaurateurs comes another restaurant in a similar vein to popular hits like Bad Roman, Don Angie, and Zou Zous. The cuisine for this restaurant is Mexican-inspired and has all the snazzy colors to indicate this could be fun. This restaurant is near the Hudson Yards area, and it was very easy to make a reservation for 2 for 6 PM on a Friday night. This restaurant is about 1 block away from the E-train exit off 34th.

Brasserie Cognac recently opened a restaurant branch right next to Central Park South. At first glance of the menu, it seemed rather basic, but I figured if a restaurant opened in this area, it should be pretty decent. On a Saturday evening, we were able to walk in without reservations and were seated immediately. My first thought looking around was that there are a decent amount of tourists. This restaurant is part of the Serafina family.

We finished watching “Punch”, a Broadway play that we won through the lottery. Because we’ve tried an abundant amount of restaurants already, it’s starting to get slim. I was finally able to start trying out some Mexican restaurants, since my partner rarely picks this. Toloache was one that was nearby, and we were able to walk in without reservations at around 5:00 PM on a Saturday evening. We were seated in the second floor near the stairs.

Oncheon is all about hot pot, Korean style. What I was curious about was how different was Japanese hot pot from Korean. It’s not that different. Both use high end quality meat, and their broths resemble their cultures. For example, Japanese hot pot tends to be light with miso or seaweed type flavors. The Korean hot pot seems to be similar to what you might find in Korean restaurants. I made a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM on a Friday night without any issues.

We saw an early afternoon theater show, and right after, we decided to check out Argentine food. Baires Grill was appealing because it is a Miami chain, and this is their only non-Miami location. We are planning on visiting Miami in the near future, so I was curious to see how this food differs than other Argentine restaurants we’ve been to. We walked in around 4 PM on a Saturday without reservations, and they seated us immediately without issues.