Hell's Kitchen

I ate here on a special night out before I move back to Australia with my best friend/ex. The plan was to make a special evening out of the $200 that I got for selling my bed, since a week earlier I hadn’t expected to be able to sell it and had budgetted to get by without it. We started the evening by getting fantastic raffle tickets for $25 for the Drowsy Chaperone, that were front row centre. This left us with a fair bit of casherola left over for dinner, so we chose a place in Hell’s Kitchen called something like 44 1/4 x (the sister joint to the place called 44 x on 44th and 10th which is more snooty but with less gourmet food, personally I like more gourmet food and less snooty, so we went with the sister one). The food was great, and about the price you would expect for great food (like say $25 for a steak etc., they also have cheaper pasta and pizza if you don’t want to splash out). The waiters had t-shirts with couples of words on the front and back, for example over and easy, cream and sugar, latte and head… The garden out the back was nice (better than the outside seats out the front which had a nice view of a petrol/gas station), and it was nice to get away from the annoying valley girl types inside. There was a mouse in the garden, but it is new york, at least it wasn’t a rat!

Why am I always finding myself in this neighborhood? I don’t live here anymore! Oh well. This area used to have a gritty old-New York charm which is LONG GONE. It is now polished and expensive like every other part of New York. However, it’s still fun (and convenient) to eat here. There are terrific restaurants on both 9th and 10th Avenues. Every single one of them gets MUCH better after 8pm, when the pre-theater crowd is gone. So, if you just want food, get an 8pm reservation. The service will be lovely. After 10pm, this is a great celeb-watching neighborhood (much better than Soho or other trendy places) because the casts of the Broadway shows empty into the bars with their celebrity friends. The classic places to see a famous person are Joe Allen on Restaurant Row (46th between 8th and 9th) and Angus McIndoe on 44th (Angus was started by the former maitre’ d at Joe Allen), but other places are also fun after the shows. I like Marseilles at the corner of 44th and 9th, because the food is so amazing. Other food highlights: the milkshakes at Island Burger on 9th, the vegetarian plate at Rice and Beans (don’t skip the plantains) also on 9th, and brunch at 44×10 on 10th Avenue. There are three cheap reliable diners on 9th avenue. I’m partial to Galaxy (at 46th), because the smoothies are so good, but other people like Renaissance because they have homemade bread. My mom likes Westway (at 43rd), because it’s cheap and reminds her of the suburbs. It’s big and has lots of booths – like a Denny’s.

There’s not much good shopping in this neighborhood, with ONE big exception: LOVELY Italian homegoods store called DOMUS on 44th between 9th and 10th. Don’t miss it.