What is there to do/eat/see in New York?

Hey Duders (Especially New Yorkers),

Im from Britain (England) and will be coming over to New York at the end of August. I am staying with my best mate who lives just off Broadway, near Times Square and though we will be hanging out in the evening, on his days off and weekends I was wondering what stuff there is to do in New York. Also he works for Heineken so I dont think bars are going to be an issue.

Firstly, I am a 26 year old guy, who loves design, games, healthy living and interesting stuff (I know thats vague). I have been to the city about 5 times before and done a lot of the touristy things. This time im making an effort to find the hidden gems and try to do things outside of my confort zone.

We have booked tickets to go see The Book of Mormon, and I will try and get The Daily Show tickets once I am out there. Apart from that I am looking for great places to eat, unmissable places to see and just recommendations for whats, what in New York at that time of the year.

Statue of Liberty, Central Park, walk through The Village, pretty much the big things to see.

Oh and the Empire State Building I guess.

PIZZA. Seriously, get a slice from any non-chain. Being from England I can imagine it completely blowing your mind.

@vivek: I would recommend going to the High Line, especially during a weekday when the foot traffic may not be as bad. Its one of the most interesting urban public spaces to appear in the city for a while. (link) Chelsea Market is also a nice place to visit for lunch, again not during peak hours.

If you like museums, I would hit up the museums north of the Natural History Museum. This is the museum mile with some interesting, lesser known places to visit.

If you can get a ticket, the Ground Zero memorial. And they just opened Donald Judd's Spring street studio for public tours, an amazing space (link).

If you own a smart phone, I like this thing. It cheap and good for tourist. (link)

The city just started a bike share program, a bit pricey for tourists, but good for cruising the city.

Broadway, Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Natural History Museum, Sea Air & Space Museum, Metropolitan, Empire State, United Nations...

I guess most of those are relatively "safe" recommendations. Unfortunately I am not that familiar with the city outside the touristic side.

The good thing about your location is that you can literally choose a direction and start walking and you are going to find interesting stuff... I used that method in New York and it was great...

Pizza. All the pizza.

http://www.jacksonholeburgers.com/

Need I say more?

I was going to sarcastically suggest you eat at Guy Fieri's restaurant in Times Square, but I'd feel bad if you believed me and ate there.

Don't actually eat there.

P.S.: I know you're talking about places to eat in New York City, but if you want somewhere to eat in New York state (and are willing to drive 5 1/2 hours from NYC), go to Rochester, NY and get a "garbage plate". My personal recommendation is to get one from a place called Mark's Texas Hots.

Best part about New York is simply walking around and discovering things.

i have heard there should be a big apple to eat/see, maybe also do if you pay extra

Women

See pizza. Eat pizza. Do pizza.

Shake Shack!

In Madison Square Park. The burgers are delicious and it's located in the middle of a park so the atmosphere and scenery is nice.

Ninja.

It's a Japanese restaurant with ninja waiters! And you sit in a little ninja village! and they do ninja magic! it is a rousing good time.

Catch a Taxi, Hot Dogs, Coney Island.

Brough to you by an Australian who's never been to New York.

What is there NOT to eat is a better question? As one who has lived in New York all his life, you gotta get a slice of pizza. Nothing in the world like New York pizza. This also applies to Chinese food and bagels. As for what to do/see, check out Time Square, a Broadway show, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park. So much to see. In case you can't tell, I <3 NY (buy one of those shirts while you're at it).

The Natural History Museum and the Met are pretty awesome. I second the High Line recommendation as well. Coney Island is also great this time of year, but it's a pretty long subway ride out there.

If you're looking for something less touristy, like video-games, and don't mind trekking out to Brooklyn, there's Barcade - http://barcadebrooklyn.com/

Also, check out the outside movie screening list to see if there's anything cool playing while you're here. These things are pretty cool and are sometimes just like one big movie-watching party. http://www.nycgo.com/articles/free-outdoor-summer-movie-screenings-2013

Sushi: Bar Masa - Expensive but some of the best sushi you'll eat.

Pizza: Pulino's - Chicken liver mousse appetizer is awesome.

French: Lafayette - New place. Land meat entrees are great (duck, lamb).

Drinks:

Wine - Riposo 46. Nice small place. Great pate and flatbreads if you want to eat.

Liquor - Mehanata. Bulgarian bar with an "ice" room. Pay $20, put on a russian coat and hat and drink as much vodka as possible in 2 minutes.

Other - Lots of cool speakeasys south of central park area. Just do a web search and you'll find them.

Another poster mentioned Chelsea Market. I agree. Pick your own oysters!

Listen to this man. He speaks great truths.

Do acid, see times square, eat some pussy. Boom.

Theres too much to do in New York, thats the problem. If you like healthy, outdoorsy stuff, theres lots of beaches and stuff on Long Island for swimming and whatnot. There's also mountains and stuff for hiking a few hours north, but that might be too far away for a short visit.

haha. Okay, I actually liked that comment. Well done, starvinggamer.

Thanks guys/girls. I will take some of these into consideration especially

@bbalpert: 5 and a half hours? Jesus, how fast do you drive, it's more like 7. Also, Henrietta hots is very good.

I've never made the drive myself, I was just basing that on a Google Maps search for "NYC to Rochester" (which is probably estimating from the outer edge of NYC to the outer edge of Rochester).

I don't live In NY but I have been there a few times on holidays, what I found every single time is that there was always something on. There is always mid to high level comics in town, probably because they live there, great music in ok venues, good exhibits in the museums, and biggish events going on.

If you get desperate go to Caroline's or the cellar or the knitting factory/ new awesome music venue.and what's going on will be better than 80% of the rest of the entertainment options in the rest of the world.

I've lived in NY my whole life and work in NYC, and the biggest issue for you is there's too much to do. It's IMPOSSIBLE to see all the cool stuff the city has to offer in a few days. You literally have to go into the city everyday for a couple years to really get a feel for all the spots.

Cool places I enjoy? For pizza I enjoy L'asso pizza and Roberta's (Brooklyn). Tons of great places to catch music on the Lower East Side, and I greatly suggest checking out Brooklyn, at least the areas of Brooklyn close to the lower east side, like Williamsburg. GREAT places to eat and cool, unique places like the aforementioned Barcade. Lower Manhattan also has some beautiful areas.