Hello from the last week of July! Summer is in full swing – are you eating your daily ice cream? – and the requests keep coming. This week I’m helping a reader who will be in town for the US Open and needs recommendations for where to dine in Manhattan and on the way back from the stadium in Flushing. Also, one reader is looking for great tamales in the village, and another wants to eat whole lobster without breaking the bank.
Send your own questions and recommendations to wheretoeat., and you can share them here. And, most importantly, stay cool!
To Arthur Ashe Stadium!
I don’t know where to eat during our weekend at the US Open. We arrive late afternoon on a Friday and stay close to West 110th and Central Park West. What suggestions do you have for us to dine nearby? Walking distance, and we are good walkers. We love good food, great design, a good atmosphere, but not overly expensive. Then we’ll be in Flushing Meadows Saturday and Sunday until about 7pm and then back to Manhattan. So anywhere in between where we can get off the train, have a culinary experience and get back on the train later is great. – Marie B.
The good news is you don’t have to walk too far for any of my Manhattan recommendations. To fortify for the trip to Queens, have brunch at Melbas, one of Harlem’s top soul food destinations. Chicken with a side of eggnog waffles (or is it the other way around?) are the specialty, but I suggest using the catfish. And for dinner you walk to the Peruvian restaurant Content on East 111th Street near Park Avenue. They serve my favorite yuca fries in New York City, and you can’t go wrong with the fluke katsu or the short ribs over shiny udon noodles (each with the Japanese influence on Peruvian cuisine). For his part, my colleague Pete Wells really enjoyed the arroz con pato pictured above.
As for your train journey back from Vlissingen, I can’t recommend the Tibetan restaurant? Phayul enough. It’s a very homely, very quiet place, and the beef stuffed tsak sha momos with chilli crisp are such a treat. Get off at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue stop to enjoy.
Homemade Masa, the old way
Any recommendations near the village for tamales? I enjoy the ones that are generous with cornmeal. — Judy
Tamal factory, everybody? There are two locations: one on Ludlow Street and a more village-adjacent storefront on East Fourth Street, near Cooper Square. As DailyExpertNews Magazine columnist Ligaya Mishan wrote in her 2017 review, it’s one of the few places in New York City that makes masa the old-fashioned (read: old) way. Her favorite tamales: mole poblano, chipotle, salsa verde, rajas con queso, and the so-New-York-it-does-it-do bacon and cheese; $5 each.
When you feel sendy
Where are the best places to eat whole lobsters in Manhattan? We are willing to spend some $$$, but not The Palm. – Pat L.
I didn’t know we had another Finer Things Club meeting! In all seriousness, a whole lobster isn’t too far out of reach for you. Bee Keens SteakhouseIn Midtown, the market price for a whole steamed lobster is currently $35 a pound — they generally top out at five pounds, or $175 — and they even let you choose your own lobster. And if you go north of Brooklyn, please watch Greenpoint Fish and Lobster Company. The market price at the restaurant is currently $49 to $59 per lobster, which the restaurant says will finally drop after last year’s entire price spike. All of its seafood is sustainably sourced, and best of all, your lobster comes with a bib!
In other news…
In his last review, Pete Wells gave the yakitori restaurant three stars? Konowhere Chef Atsushi Kono treats chicken as “not one ingredient, but many ingredients.”
Openings: Le Rockthe latest project from the team behind Frenchette, is now open at Rockefeller Center; HAGS, a queer-owned restaurant offering vegan and omnivores tasting menus, opened last week in the East Village; and after more than two years Russ & Daughters Cafe is full service again on Orchard Street.
Want to make your way through the bar hopping? the natural wine bars from lower Manhattan? T Magazine has a mini guide to doing just that.
Tejal Rao reflected on Diana Kennedy’s complicated legacy, the British-born cookbook author and researcher who “changed the way millions of people saw Mexican food, and reveled in the power in that role.” Mrs. Kennedy died on Sunday at 99 o’clock.
Gas prices and rising supply costs have led to owning and operating ice cream trucks untenable for some owners, Christina Morales reports.
Email us at wheretoeat.. Newsletters are archived here. Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram, facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.