By the time you read this, someone near you—at a dinner party, on the subway, in the group chat—will have mentioned how insane the prices at New York restaurants have become. It is, at this point, less an observation than a tic, the dining equivalent of complaining about the G train (those aughts L complaints seem so quaint now, especially as that speedy train whisks you under the East River…with full bars on your phone).
Which is why it’s worth pointing out, gently, that the city has quietly been running an annual antidote to this exact complaint since 1992: NYC Restaurant Week. And it’s back, through August 16, with more than 600 restaurants offering prix-fixe lunch and dinner at $30, $45, or $60. Not a coupon in sight.
Restaurant Week Hack: 42BELOW
This year, the smart money isn’t chasing a single trophy reservation downtown, or waiting in line to try that pop-up samosa—it’s heading to 42BELOW. That’s the stretch of Midtown running from 42nd Street into the low 30s, which has stealthily become one of the more interesting places to eat in Manhattan. A corridor that used to mean “bad office,” increasingly means “dinner.” And for a few weeks: “affordable dinner.”
Start at Ai Fiori, tucked inside The Langham Hotel, where the feeling is French and Italian Riviera by way of Fifth Avenue: A Michelin-recognized spot built for people who might marvel over a beautifully dressed branzino. But the delectable pastas are just as good (and our choice).
A few blocks over, Atlantis Prime—barely a year old—has already worked out its Restaurant Week crowd favorites: the New York Strip, unsurprisingly, and the calamari, which guests tend to order alongside their steak, or as an appetizer. Irresistible. Crunchy. Chewy. Perfection.
For actual altitude, there’s Gaonnuri, 39 floors above Koreatown, where the skyline does some seducing before the barbecue even arrives—a room built for closing deals or celebrating relationships, depending on who’s dining. At street level, HanGawi remains one of the city’s true anomalies: a shoes-off, entirely vegetarian establishment serving a temple-cuisine menu of handmade dumplings and seasonal vegetables that makes no concessions to anyone craving meat. It has been doing this, unbothered, for decades.
Inside the Grayson Hotel, Harta is playing a looser, warmer game: a New American brasserie with a Mediterranean accent. During Restaurant Week, that means tomato-braised meatballs over polenta so creamy it borders on architecturally unsound; Atlantic salmon with braised chickpeas and chermoula yogurt; and a New York cheesecake that closes the show with market berries and a graham cracker crust so refined it that “cracker” feels demeaning.
La Pecora Bianca, overlooking Bryant Park, offers the kind of housemade pasta that photographs well and eats better—in a room with just enough buzz to make a Tuesday feel like an occasion. Tired of a knife and fork? Mari.ne Handroll, from Michelin-starred chef Sungchul Shim, has turned Korean-Japanese hand rolls into their own small event. And the cocktails are banging, in case carefully prepared and sumptuous raw fish combinations don’t convince you.
Over at The Parlour Room, the move is Truffle Arancini to start, Peach & Blueberry Crumble with brown butter gelato to finish. Enjoy them in a room sophisticated enough to justify both a pre-theater stop or a full evening. Togyushi, meanwhile, has quietly become one of Midtown’s best-kept secrets: a wagyu-only prix fixe, with the Sukiyaki and Wagyu Cutlet leading the pack, and a new udon course so plump and perfect that you’ll spread news of it like gossip. And Yoon Haeundae Galbi brings a Busan institution—dating to 1964—to Koreatown tables, tableside grilling included, in case Broadway theater is not your thing, but you’d still enjoy a small performance.
Ten restaurants, one very walkable stretch of Manhattan, and a discount that expires in three weeks: Which table are you booking? Skyline views and Korean barbecue, or handrolls and a banging cocktail? Either way, take your complaints about prices, about anything, to wait until September. Or the West Village.
NYC Restaurant Week runs through August 16. Reserve online.
