How To Plan A Foodie Trip To New York
New York is one of the best places in the world for foodies. It’s well known for its huge and diverse array of restaurants, cafes, patisseries, delis, food markets, breweries, tavernas, pizzerias. The list goes on. It’s not hard to have a fantastic, food-focused visit to New York, but getting the most out of the city and its eateries does require a bit of planning. If you try to bounce from one side of the city to the other in search of particular dishes and dining experiences, you’re likely to end up tired, annoyed, and hungry. Instead, sit down with a map before you hit New York, and work out a good strategy that will help you savor the city and all it has to offer.
Plan How You’ll Get Around
You can get around the major neighborhoods relatively quickly and easily on the subway or by cab, but for extra flexibility and peace of mind, it’s worth looking into car hire in New York. While city traffic might slow you down at times, a car will allow you to reach some of the more far-flung residential neighborhoods, many of which have hidden dining gems like family-owned restaurants and local delis to die for. What’s more, with a car, you can grab as much bread, groceries, donuts, and so on as you want without having to worry about juggling bags on the train.
Break Up The City Into Neighborhoods
It will help you to plan if you think of New York as a collection of boroughs and neighborhoods rather than as a single place. Each neighborhood has its own rhythms, typical opening hours, food cultures, and so on. So, if you can, it’s a good idea to take the city neighborhood by neighborhood rather than dashing back and forth across borough boundaries. Ideally, take each area slowly. Settle in and savor the flavors of each area over several hours, or even a whole day if you have time.
Start by picking the neighborhoods you want to eat in, not the individual restaurants. If you’re not sure where to start, Williamsburg, Astoria, Jackson Heights, Harlem, and Sunset Park all have rich and varied food scenes. Research the food scene in each area, and plot out the eateries you want to visit area-by-area. This geographical approach will save you from building an impossible wish list that sends you zigzagging across the city at breakneck pace. Sure, you might only eat at four or five places per day, but you’ll get to thoroughly enjoy each one of those places without the stress of a hectic schedule breathing down your neck.
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is one of the easiest places to build a food day. You can start in Williamsburg with coffee and pastries, wander through to Greenpoint for something savory, and then head south to Sunset Park for dumplings or noodles. The distances are manageable, and the variety is huge. You’ll also get to see parts of the city that feel like real neighborhoods rather than tourist zones.
Queens
Queens takes a bit more planning, but the payoff is worth it. Astoria is packed with casual spots, bakeries, and long-established restaurants. Jackson Heights, just a short drive away, has some of the best South Asian and Latin American food in all of New York. Flushing is further east and feels like a different world again, with sprawling food courts and busy markets.
Remember, Queens is quite spread out. Trying to do Queens in a day on the train could get stressful, so it might be a good idea to hire a car for a Queens day.
The Bronx
The Bronx has a wide range of restaurants and cafes, many of which have been run by the same families for generations. Arthur Avenue is still one of the best places in the city for Italian-American groceries and old-school restaurants. You can spend hours moving between bakeries, cheese shops, and coffee spots without ever needing to go far. If you want something newer, Mott Haven has a growing cluster of restaurants that sit close enough together to work as an evening crawl.
Manhattan
Manhattan works best as a food destination when you stay out of Midtown. Harlem has a strong food scene that ranges from soul food to West African kitchens, and Chinatown remains one of the cheapest and most interesting places to eat in the city, especially if you like noodles, dumplings, and seafood. The Lower East Side is full of bakeries and casual places that will fill the gaps between bigger meals.
Consider Your Timing
One thing that often trips people up when planning a food-based trip to New York is timing. For example, popular bakeries often sell out early in the day, some restaurants close between lunch and dinner, and other eateries don’t open until much later in the evening. If you’re not prepared for the unique rhythms of each area’s food scene, you could find yourself at a loose end at times. A loose structure will help you a lot. For example, plan for pastries and coffee in the morning, markets and food halls in the early afternoon, cafes and casual dining spots for lunch, and restaurants for late dinners.
Make Reservations
New York’s food scene is rightly famous, which means that the city’s restaurants tend to fill up fast. While you’re never going to go hungry in New York (there’s always at least a food stand that you can eat from!), you can save yourself a lot of disappointment by booking your must-visit spots in advance. Remember to leave plenty of time between your bookings so that you’re not watching the clock while you eat.
Picking Your Base
Where you stay will make a difference to how you experience the city’s food. Hotels in Long Island City, Downtown Brooklyn, or Harlem are all within easy reach of foodie neighborhoods without having to fight the Midtown traffic. On the other hand, staying right in the middle of Manhattan looks convenient on paper, but it often adds time to your trips, as traffic can be frustratingly slow.
Enjoy Your Trip!
The best food-focused New York trips are less about ticking off famous restaurants and more about exploring the atmospheres and cultures of each foodie neighborhood. When you give yourself the time and the freedom to do that, you’ll have a much more leisurely, relaxed, and delicious time!