Hand roll counter · $$
A few doors along West 28th Street, a counter from the group behind Sugarfish that serves hand rolls and almost nothing else. The set menus are the order: three rolls for $20, four for $25, five with toro and lobster for $31 and six for $36, with sake or Sapporo to drink. It is a no-tipping restaurant, and it runs 11:30am to 11pm, to 11:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, so it covers a late lunch or a first dinner off a flight.
Walk in15 West 28th Street
Bagel shop and coffee · $
Wood-fired bagels around the corner on Broadway, open 7am to 4pm every day, and the breakfast to have when $42 for eggs in the banking hall is more than you want to spend. The Salmon Classic is smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, red onion and capers; the Classic 2.0 swaps in pastrami-spiced salmon, scallion cream cheese and pickled green tomato. For something hot, the BEC is bacon, two fried eggs and white cheddar. Espresso, drip and cold brew are on the board.
Walk in1188 Broadway
Cocktail bar on the 50th floor · $$$
José Andrés's cocktail bar on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton NoMad, a few doors west along 28th Street, with 270-degree views over Manhattan from 50 floors up. Martin Brudnizki's studio, which also dressed The Fifth Avenue Hotel, designed the room, and the list is modern takes on classic cocktails with small bites. Reservations are required and open 30 days ahead, a no-show costs $35 a head, everyone must be 21 or over, and the dress code turns away athletic wear, shorts, caps and flip-flops.
Book well ahead: tables go weeks outThe Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, 25 West 28th Street
Korean pork soup counter · $$
A one-dish restaurant from Seoul, where the original has held a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand since 2018. The dish is dweji gomtang: pork shoulder simmered with radish, onion, garlic and ginger into a clear broth seasoned only with salt, poured over rice and thin slices of pork. The room is one small counter. It opens at 8am on weekdays and runs to 10pm, with weekend hours of 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 10pm, which makes a bowl of soup a real alternative to breakfast in the hotel.
Walk in13 East 30th Street
Cellar cocktail bar · $$$
A cocktail bar in the basement of the old Gerlach Hotel, the building where Nikola Tesla lived and experimented with radio waves, and the list leans on him with drinks named Radio Waves and Wonder of Physics. Most cocktails are $22, the more elaborate ones up to $34, with bites such as devilled eggs, lobster bao and a Korean fried chicken sandwich. It opens at 5pm every day, closing at midnight Sunday to Wednesday and 2am Thursday to Saturday, and seats walk-ins first come, first served.
Walk in49 West 27th Street
Korean barbecue, open until 5am · $$
Four blocks north is West 32nd Street, the heart of Koreatown, and New Wonjo, which dates from 1993, does table-grilled Korean barbecue on it. It keeps the street's hours: 10am to 5am every day, with the kitchen open until 4am. The combinations for two are the order, from pork belly, jowl and marinated pork rib at $89.95 to the Wonjo Combo of marinated Angus short rib, brisket and pork belly at $105.95, each with a choice of stew. Book on Resy for a dinner table.
Reserve ahead23 West 32nd Street
Tasting menu, three MICHELIN stars · $$$$
Daniel Humm's restaurant at the base of an Art Deco building on the corner of Madison Square Park, with three MICHELIN stars. Dinner is a six-course seasonal tasting menu at $385 a head, with a choice of dishes on some courses and the option to eat it fully plant-based; the bar serves a shorter tasting for $255 and takes walk-ins for snacks and cocktails. Reservations open on the first of each month for the whole of the next and cannot be cancelled or refunded, so book as soon as your dates are fixed.
Book well ahead: tables go weeks out11 Madison Avenue
Breakfast is not in the standard room-only rate; the hotel sells packages that include it. Café Carmellini serves it in the banking hall from 7am to 11am every day. The Fifth Avenue Breakfast, eggs any style with potatoes, bacon or sausage, roasted tomato and toast, comes with orange juice and coffee for $42; L'Express, an assortment of house pastries with cultured butter and preserves, is $34 on the same terms; two eggs with potatoes and toast are $26 on their own. At weekends a two-course brunch at $75 takes over from 11:30am, and in-room dining runs around the clock. The cheaper mornings are close: Black Seed's bagels from 7am two minutes away, or Okdongsik's pork soup from 8am on weekdays.
