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Comment by leif | Hacker News Reader

It often happens that someone outside new york talks about the amaaaazing food in their city. I used to laugh, or correct them. Nowadays I just feel pity.

Nothing compares to the food of new york city. Absolutely nothing. Don't even fucking try.

"I live within walking distance of two zagat top 10 rated restaurants." There are sixty restaurants within walking distance of my apartment and they're all better than anything in miami. Fuck, 5 of them are run by Top Chef winners. And there are 10 more that are better than those because the food network doesn't even get the top talent.

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I lived in NYC for a year, working right next to Hell's Kitchen. While the food is great, it's certainly not "incomparable". Paris has better restaurants. Tokyo has better restaurants (cheaper too in that case). Even San Francisco has comparable food standards.

You end up sounding just like so many New-Yorkers --annoying and conceited. But no, living there doesn't make you special. It's just a big city, and not the only one in the world.

I think once you're hitting the level of "one of the biggest cities in the world" there's almost guaranteed going to be really awesome cuisine. I thought Paris had really great food when I was there, I'm sure Tokyo's got delicious offerings as well (I love Japanese food, mmm).

I just moved to NYC, though, and the food options here are incomparable to anywhere else in the US I've been. (Note: I haven't been to San Francisco, and while I'm sure it has good food too, NYC's excellent transit system means I have wider access to places.)

I'm continuously surprised by how CHEAP things are, too! Yesterday I paid $1.50 for a box of strawberries, $0.75 for some cherry tomatoes, and $2 for a sizeable package of freshly chopped and peeled kiwis. (In the midwest, I'd pay almost that much just for the strawberries.) To top it off, I had the best lamb and rice meal I've ever had...for $5 from a halal food cart. (I actually spent an hour today looking for the cart again, I liked it THAT much, but it was nowhere to be found. I will look again tomorrow!!)

Of course, I still haven't found anywhere that sells a gallon of milk for less than $4, but I'm going to keep searching. I kind of enjoy exploring places and mentally marking down which place has the cheapest offering of a certain thing.

> To top it off, I had the best lamb and rice meal I've ever had...for $5 from a halal food cart. (I actually spent an hour today looking for the cart again, I liked it THAT much, but it was nowhere to be found. I will look again tomorrow!!)

If I were to guess, I'd say it was Halal Boys Platters on 53rd and 6th. Those guys are legendary.

Actually, it was over on...86th and Broadway? Might have been 82nd. After seeing this comment, I went and tried halal guys the other night, but I didn't like the texture of their rice quite as much, and I accidentally put too much hot sauce on. That was my own fault, of course, but I felt like it was more of a chemical burn than a spicy burn. It's not awful, and it's still a good deal for $6 or so, but.

The quest to find the mysteriously vanishing halal cart continues.

I heard Anthony Bourdain being interviewed in SF (on City Arts and Lectures, I think.) Somebody asked him what he thought of the food in SF, and I thought his answer was really interesting. He thought that at the very top end, New York won without question. But that the average restaurant in SF was substantially better.

Paris only has good french and moroccan food, san francisco actually doesn't have nearly as good food, so just stop.

Why are you so defensive? Are you worried you are going to find out you've just been enjoying the taste of your own smugness rather than spectacular food?

I've lived both in SF and NY, and NY significantly has more. Not saying SF has bad food, it does, but it pales in comparison to NY. Of course--that is--excluding Burritos. There's nothing smug about saying the truth.

If I hadn't just been to NY recently this comment would have sounded really conceited. For everyone wondering, if you get a chance to go to NYC just do it. Even if you think you hate big cities, do it.

And get out of my way. [1]

1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LmPBPWHJu4&noredirect=1

I'm always happy to have friends visit me here. I'm from the midwest, and most of my friends there have never been to NYC. It blows their minds, every time.

funny, it's blows my nyc friends mind to come to the midwest and eat at a real resturant. Non-argentine beef, local cheese and milk, local well yeah. Not as great as what you can get locally west coast but the beef and game are awesome in the midwest.

Ah, there are some good places in the midwest, too. But there's many more independent restaurants here, all doing different things. I don't know what a "real" restaurant is to you, but to me, the biggest city in the united states certainly has more than a few of them.

Compare this to where I grew up: the only places to eat closeby were mcdonalds, wendy's, and burger king type places. We didn't even have (and still don't have) a starbucks, and it was a ~big deal~ when chipotle and then a panera came in.

I do miss cheap gas station slushies, though. They're hard to find here in NYC.

Go into any city in the Midwest and you'll find plenty of good non chain restraints. I'm not disagreeing with the mass of restaurants in nyc. I'm saying the food tastes better closer to the source.

I'm sorry you choose to live somewhere that only had McDonald's close.

Uh, I didn't "choose" to live there, considering I was a kid. That doesn't change the fact that most of the midwest is sparsely populated and has little to no food selection. The place I lived as a kid was still a city, despite your claim that "any midwest city" has better dining than the biggest city in the nation.

We have plenty of food close to the source here in nyc, too. Try union square on a saturday, or any one of the many places that makes things from local ingredients. It's actually much more common to see that here than the midwest. Plus, there are tons of different ethnic food places that aren't even available in less diverse states.

There's also this thing called "the Atlantic ocean." Good luck getting fresh sea food where you live, if being ~close to the source~ is so important to you.

Oh, get the fuck over yourself. You ain't got the corner on good food.

No, I've been around the block. There is a legitimate and drastic difference between everywhere else (in the U.S. and Europe, at least) and this city. The only other place in the U.S. that competes is L.A., and S.F. but only for burritos (why doesn't NYC have burritos?).

I've eaten well in every major city of the east coast, and a few in the UK. NYC is a monoculture of food. A distinct culture of its own, but a monoculture nonetheless. You won't find good BBQ in NYC. Decent fried chicken is easier to find in some backwards farm town of Pennsylvania than it is in NYC. I still assert that the best burger in the world is in Harrisburg, PA, and I specifically look and test everywhere I go. Pizza comes in one form, as do Ramen noodles. Yes, there are some amazing French restaurants there, but there is no shortage of amazing French restaurants in the country. And they have no clue what they are doing with a crab.

"Pizza comes in one form"

That is not a critique, that is a statement. Pizza comes in one form, and that form is NY/Neapolitan style. The rest is some kind of bizarre cheese/tomato pie bread thing.

You have terrible taste if you can only appreciate a dish in one form. Deep Dish is different but its great. Personally I think its even better. Deep dish feels more special and like a meal, but I would only ever want to it once a month.

I like NYC pizza, at least from the major famous places. Your typical corner pizza is no better than any other corner pizza place on the east coast.

I live in Tokyo right now and I definitely eat better than I did in NYC. NYC only has Tokyo beat on prices, since both places only have mediocre Mexican food.

It's a bit of a monoculture, but one that spans more cuisines than anywhere else. There are definitely certain aesthetics that are prized over others that are arguably worthwhile, but it's cross-cutting. You can get more diversity in, say, fried chicken, in PA, but you can't get the same diversity across cuisines, combined with the same depth and quality of execution, anywhere else.

so you're the food court of food then? You've got a lot of it but you can't make fried chicken for shit?

Where in Harrisburg? I've found many burgers in NYC to be substantially better than anything I was able to find in Harrisburg, admittedly more expensive.

Good fried chicken, I would expect can be found outside of midtown/downtown Manhattan although I haven't explicitly gone looking. Good BBQ is pretty easy to find, especially compared to most places on the East Coast, obviously it doesn't compare much to SC or KC proper.

A place calle The Jackson House near the capitol complex. It is difficult to get in there, as they are only open for lunch on weekdays. By noon, the line is out the door.

Interesting, I'll have to try it. Best one I had in Harrisburg was at Parev on Pine Street, sadly it closed years ago.

wow, you've been to the US AND THE EU... impressed. I'm impressed that only SF and LA have burritos. YOU ARE A WORLD TRAVELLER. Whee, immediate -4 karma.

But seriously nyc has some good food but it doesn't have a stranglehold on great ingredients. The west coast in fact has better access and makes better use of it because it's natural to just assume that those things exists.

Some of the best food I've had is actually in local quality resturants in detroit, stl, pittsburgh, and boston, when they are showing off their natural 300 mile radius ingredients and how to use them in season.

LA has a lot of good food, SF only has good burritos.

I presume this is just trolling, but in case you actually think that, for New York, Michelin lists 7 three-star restaurants, 9 two-star, and 46 one-star. San Francisco's numbers are 2, 6, and 39. [1] So not as high, but given that the SF Metro area has a third the population of New York, we do ok.

(For those unfamiliar, Michelin stars are sort of like the Academy Awards of food. Even a 1-star restaurant is an extraordinary meal, and you should expect to pay $100-200 a person. 3-star places are reputedly the best of the best; a meal there runs $300-600 per person.)

[1] http://sf.eater.com/archives/2012/10/23/michelin_guide_2013_...

You have to be careful though, because Michelin-starred restaurants aren't where most people eat, and the correlation between the sort of high-end exotics that get the stars and the overall food-scene is going to vary from place to place... It can go either way of course.

If you're a super rich socialite, then yeah, focus on the stars, but otherwise....er, well. [No diss on Michelin-starred restaurants intended! I've eaten at such places a couple of times in my life and they were very nice.]

They also tend to like really pretentious bullshit in their restaurants. So you have to watch out.

Some of the ones in NYC that have 1 star appear to just be regular American style Chinese takeout type places. Not sure how pretentious they are (or can be).

Noted. Though I have to say that while LA does have good food, they should get out more and compare. Not the people who make the food, they obviously get out. The people who eat the food. Well they get out, but not OUT. But all in all, good food. Well and a lot of shit overpriced food. But lots of great food in really shitting looking locations. And lots of really shitty food in really great looking locations.

So my NYC experience is Buddakan, Hillstone, LAVO, DINER in Williamsburg, Foodswings in Williamsburg & Lombardi's. They're all pretty great, but I can name very very competitive restaurants for each of them in Miami (Scarpetta, J Alexander, Prime Italia, Gigi in Wynwood & choices in Brickell).

I'm not saying the food is better than NYC, you guys win on sheer volume, I'm just saying it's damn good & really easy to find (unlike the suburbs I grew up in)!

And quality, I'm sad to say. I wish those places were as good.

I can honestly tell you that New York City has absolutely zero good tacos though. The ones that exist are sad and laughable things. This alone is reason to leave the city.

Yeah, Miami can't hold a candle to NYC food. NYC is great because it's just so DENSE. Very little time required to get somewhere awesome, and what travel time you have you can spend reading or whatever.

but that's exactly what makes food taste better. Having to work for it. Thats why sunflower seeds are better than shelled, Wings better than nuggets, unwatched human children mggriddles better than processed mcgriddles.

your bbq and pizza sucks. seriously, it does. your "immigrant" food however is quite good.

> "your "immigrant" food however is quite good"

As an immigrant I'm struggling to find a way to parse that sentence that isn't at least slightly derogatory.

Isn't pizza an "immigrant" food? Or General Tso's chicken? California rolls? In the context of being in the USA, wouldn't French food be "immigrant food"?

I'm not trying to be purposely obtuse - but like the word "ethnic food" I can't see any reasonable definition that doesn't betray an unfamiliarity with what's being discussed.

I have a feeling that "immigrant food" falls into the same category as "I like ethnic food" - it's a concept that doesn't even parse if you've got even a basic familiarity with a wide range of cuisines.

Immigrant food is all of the food that isn't already americanized. To me it's a good thing. Influx of new stuff. I'm all for the new tastes. And yes all of that is and yet it's now 'murican as general cho's chicken.

OIt's all a lookout for foods I've never seen before as well as getting better and better at the giant melting pot of food we already love.

I'm not trying to be a jerk but and I know it feels bad to stay "Immigrant food" but that's what it is. New food new people. I love it.

Where are the martians. I want martian nachos.

Come back here and I will show you pizza. Clearly you missed it. Or maybe the donald was your guide: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-1-2011/me-lover-s...

No really, it was a greasy pile of shit.

- You win no favors with the trump and SP on that

- http://www.restaurantpi.com/ is good but it's not the best. Obama loves it and pissed of chicago for it though

- Seriously though, pizza is a regional thing. I'm not going to convince you that your pizza is shit no matter how crap the ingredients and the velveta topping are. You're not going to convince a CPK fan that their pizza is shit.

- The best Chicago style pizza is actually in STL. That's a challenge and a threat.

No, really, you just missed the good pizza here. The offer stands, come back here, email me, and I will treat you to good pizza.

Okay. I can't really pass that up. Let me know when you're in certain parts of the US, STL, or SEA and I'll let you know what you should look for.

Threat of good food taken.

I moved to STL earlier this year and am always looking for good restaurant recommendations.

Lol...europe blows nyc away

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