Where should I eat out on a Friday night in NYC?
Plus, everywhere I ate the past two weeks.
I’ve had some version of the same conversation with almost every one of my NYC-based friends over the past two weeks: it’s the weekend, I want to go out, but everything costs a million dollars and also it’s impossible to get a reservation anywhere.
Especially in the middle of winter, it’s tempting to just stay home, braise a hunk of meat in a dutch oven, and transition from one pair of pajamas to the next. But going out is kind of the point of spending half your income on housing to live in this city—I’m not the only one in my friend group who’s said the ability to choose from dozens of hyper-regional cuisines from around the globeis one of the few things stopping me from moving to a cute little house in the country.
Last night, while previewing the new Printfresh spring/summer collections (spoiler alert: I wanted every single thing), the topic came up again. And there’s a fairly simple solution as far as I’m concerned. If you want to go out on the weekend and you’re not willing to A) spend all your M-F free time chasing RESY notify and/or B) throw down $200-400 on a probably-mediocre meal, don’t go out in Manhattan.
The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn’s less-trafficked neighborhoods are where I’ve found much of the best food I’ve eaten in recent memory. A day spent eating your way through Flushing or popping in and out of bakeries on Arthur Avenue is always going to be a day well-spent. Brighton Beach and its Russian, Georgian, and Uzbek restaurants are still there (and less crowded) in the winter. You could spend years eating around Jackson Heights, Woodside, Sunnyside, and Elmhurst and never have to eat at the same spot twice. And Staten Island, just a boat ride away, has red sauce Italian but also Sri Lankan, Armenian, and Caribbean food worth arranging your weekend plans around.
So when I was tasked with picking a Friday night restaurant for a catch-up with friends last week, I decided on Jackson Heights, opened my Google maps, and zoomed way in. Then I scrolled around until I found someplace interesting that I’d never been to before.
We landed on Izakaya Fuku, a restaurant so perfect (to me) that I almost don’t want to tell you about it. The walls of this postage stamp of a restaurant are covered in printed-out posters and vintage ads, the place is lit mostly by fairy lights, and you’ll sit on overturned beer crates. The double-sided menu covers everything from sashimi and DIY handroll sets to very good creamy, roe-covered pastas and perfect karaage. Sapporo is on draft. They don’t take reservations, and it’s cash or Venmo only. Afterwards you can go downstairs to Sweetory, a basement-level dessert spot, for bingsu and jazzed up toasts. You can eat and drink until you’re bursting and ready to retire to someone’s apartment to ride out the rest of the night (or if you’re old like me, until you’re ready to go to bed).
And the thing is: even if Izakaya Fuku had been packed when we arrived, there are at least 15 other very good restaurants within a 10-minute walk. Unlike going out in most of Manhattan, where you’ll be charged $50pp if you miss your ironclad reservation, a night out in the outer boroughs can come with a looser plan, or no plan at all.
Here’s everywhere I ate in last week’s video:
Breakfast by Salt’s Cure (Carroll Gardens)
99 Favor Taste (Sunset Park)
And since I skipped a week, the week before that!
Disney:
Le Petit Cafe (Disney’s Riviera Resort)
Hollywood Scoops (Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
Ronto Roasters (Galaxy’s Edge)
Monsieur Paul (Epcot)
Aloha Isle (Magic Kingdom)
Be Our Guest (Magic Kingdom)
NYC