While walking around we happened upon the Plaza Food Hall. The hall opened in 2010 with Todd English’s as the anchor. It has since added on to become 32,000 sq. ft of deliciousness. The shops are carefully curated. Some well know favorites and some new names pop up in the list. We started out our night getting Lady M cake slices to go.

The cake slices are not inexpensive at $7.75 a slice, but the mille crepes…totally worth it. The cake features no less than 20 paper thin handmade crepes layered with pastry cream and the top is caramelized until golden. The cake is so impossibly light with just a hint of sweetness. I love it!

Strawberry Shortcake ($7.75) is another favorite of mine. Lady M’s version is made with flour imported from Japan and it produces a vanilla sponge cake like no other. The filling is whipped cream with fresh strawberries throughout. The cake was light as air!

Chi Noodle Bar was our next stop. It was hard to decide what to get because everything sounded so good! They offer ramen, wontons, spring rolls and delicious dumplings.

The chicken dumplings were delicious, they were light and flavorful. They were not greasy at all, which you know some dumplings can be. Looking forward to going back and trying some of the other items on the menu.

Next stop Ora di Pasta, a cute little shop with a few tables inside to dine in at. We took ours out to the communal seating so that we could get a little something from a few different places.

The spaghetti with meatballs is so simple and so classic that it is a good test of an Italian restaurant. This did not disappoint with the noodles cooked perfectly al dente and the meatballs were tender and flavorful. We gobbled this up in an embarrassingly short amount of time!

We re-visited Luke’s Lobster, but decided to get something besides the lobster roll.

Ok, well not really because we did get the lobster roll, but not a whole one! We got the combo that is 1/2 crab roll, 1/2 shrimp roll and 1/2 lobster roll. I was diggin’ this trio and the spices on the shrimp roll!

No. 7 Sub is a small chain that started off in Brooklyn. Two college friends started the restaurant together in 2008 to critical acclaim by publications like Bon Appetit.

While they  have tasty subs like ‘the frito kid’ made with cold balsamic chicken, black bean hummus, lettuce, tomato and fritos or the ‘tuna toastie’ made with tuna salad, mozzarella, tomatoes, pickled red onions, thai basil and wasabi grape nuts, our dining companion went with the less than adventurous turkey with lettuce, mayo and tomato. While boring, the sub was still tasty.

The Plaza Food Hall

1 West 59th Street, New York, NY

http://www.theplazany.com/dining/foodhall/

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Following up from my previous post, I had mentioned that I had seen list in Zagat for the best food halls in NY. We already went to City Kitchen, next stop was Gotham West Market. A little out of the way if you aren’t in the area (Hell’s Kitchen), but we happened to be coming home from the water taxi!

The space is industrial and plays the music just a tad too loud for conversations to be had at a normal tone. 9 vendors have space here and all of them looked delicious, it was hard to choose!

Our first stop, Genuine Roadside.

The menu offers a sampling of burgers, pork, chicken and vegetarian options.

Poke style ahi tacos ($13) were top on our must try list. They came with spicy mayo, avocado and border slaw with sesame in crispy corn shells. This puts tacos in a whole new light – it may be hard to go back to traditional tacos after this! Really delicious – salty and creamy, I love everything that was going on in this dish.

I had been dying to try out Ivan Ramen’s Slurp Shop. Ivan Orkin is a world renowned ramen expert and his shop serves classic ramen. If you can’t make it to Hell’s Kitchen, they have a location on Clinton Street.

Here’s what I love about this place, they keep the soup separate until you’re ready to eat it so the noodles stay in tact. I ordered the Shio ramen that came with sea salt, dashi, chicken broth, pork belly chashu and rye noodles.

Tokyo Shio ($12). Don’t worry if you’re not in the mood for ramen, they also have some delicious rice bowls. And, if you happen to be there in weekend mornings, they have a tasty brunch men complete with breakfast buns, rice porridge and even a breakfast ramen.

Choza Taqueria serves up a variety of tamales, burritos, tacos, torts and ceviches.

The burritos are enormous ($8.73) and come loaded with black beans, rice and pico, along with fresh cilantro in a flour tortilla.

The chicken tacos were delicious, they came 3 to an order for $8.04 – double corn tortillas served with citrus marinated chicken and queso fresco.

And how can you forget dessert? Zagat rated Ample Hills the #1 ice cream shop in New York City.

This Brooklyn based company serves up hand crafted ice cream in flavors like ooey gooey cake batter, snap mallow pop, chocolate milk and cookies and peppermint patty.

I had the orange dreamsicle, sherbet made with orange juice, pure vanilla cream and a splash of Grand Marnier. Super delicious!

Nothing starts the day or ends the evening better than a cup of coffee. Blue Bottle has locations in SF, LA, New York and Tokyo. For the serious coffee drinker, not those that are looking for milk and sugar with a touch of coffee, Blue Bottle offers a variety of coffee options. If you’re stopping in in the morning, they also have some delicious baked goods.

Gotham West Market

600 11th Ave., New York, NY

http://gothamwestmarket.com/

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I had seen an article in Zagat on the top food halls in New York City. So on a recent trip, we decided to try and hit up as many as we could! First stop, City Kitchen. City Kitchen is located at Row NYC, a hotel in Times Square. The space has 9 vendors and we had a good sampling – we wish we had worn sweat pants, but it was all in the name of research!!

Wooly’s makes shaved snow in two sizes, 12oz for $6 and 16oz for $8. They have 5 flavors: original leche, matcha green tea, strawberry shortcake, root beer float and a flavor of the day, which happened to be melon.

After you order the flavor you add your toppings – you can pick 3 and each additional topping is $0.50. Choose from cereal to fresh fruit to mochi. And in addition, you can get that topped with sea salt leech, chocolate drizzle, whipped cream or strawberry cream.

I was so full from my savory items I had eaten I just wanted to cleanse my palate and ordered a shaved snow plain.

Check out this cool video as I watched them make it!

It was delicious, really light, an odd mouth feel when I thought about it, but cool and refreshing!

Gabriela’s Taqueria makes delicious tacos as well as other favorites such as quesadillas, empanadas and breakfast tacos.

We had the steak taco ($6) – they make the tortillas in the press so you know they’re fresh. The steak did not disappoint, well seasoned and with little else in the taco, the meat was able to be the star of the show.

I first tried Dough at the Brooklyn Flea.

They have a massive round counter with all the doughnuts on display! I was drooling while I was waiting in line.

We picked the toasted coconut, a sweet doughnut with coconut glazed that is topped with toasted coconut. I love these because they taste so light and airy!

Lunch of champions right?!

I love this little cart from Sigmund’s! If you do too, you can rent it for your next function!

I had the truffle cheddar pretzel ($3.68) which they heated up in a little toaster, so cute! Really delicious and flavorful – I happen to love pretzels! It was like a good New York bagel, crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.

And just when you thought that I didn’t eat actual lunch! I had a lobster roll from Luke’s Lobster. They have over a dozen locations, including one in Boston in case you don’t have the chance to get to NY (it’s on Exeter Street).

The lobster roll is affordably priced at $16. It is light on the mayo and served Maine style with  chilled lobster meat on a toasted split top bun. There’s a little mayo, a little lemon butter and a pinch of spice. Really nice.

There is communal seating where the vendors are and if you walk across the hall, there are tons of tables and stadium like seating (wooden steps) as other options. Restrooms are located in the hotel.

City Kitchen

700 8th Avenue at 44th Street, New York, NY

http://citykitchen.rownyc.com/

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