Grocery/supermarkets
You can literally walk to all of the best 6 grocery options (and more) in Manhattan in under an hour.
Transit quick guide
Don’t mess with a car here unless you have to leave the 5 boroughs!
You can tap any contactless payment (credit card or phone) on MTA turnstiles/buses (within NYC) to pay fare without an MTA card. You need a ticket from a machine for any LIRR, NJT or PATH transit.
To & from Newark:
($18.70/person one-way, $33 round-trip)
(Grand central is the closest NYC stop, Bryant Park can work too)
1/hour NJ transit: $2.90 for a bus/train to/from Penn station + $8 for NJ transit/AirTrain
(if you don’t have much luggage, it’s a 20 minute walk to Penn station)
Depending on time of day for frequency, #34 bus drops you off directly in front of our house From JFK (reverse to go to JFK):
E train to Fulton and 6 train up (cheapest) E train to Lexington & 53rd and bus/6 train down (cheapest) [New-ish!] LIRR to Grand Central and bus/6 train down (fewest transfers, slightly faster) Keerthik’s quick local reccs
Everything in Manhattan gets busy 6-8pm and all day Fri-Sun. We highly recommend scheduling your trendy Manhattan dining for weekdays and early/late dinner. Weekends are a great time to go to Brooklyn!
None of these are super fancy, and all of them are take-out or walk-in friendly.
Sorted by distance from home (closest to furthest):
is a unique Albanian/Kosovan restaurant with unique dishes and a wonderful rustic aesthetic Get fresh-made pasta, sauce and protein at the Eataly near Madison Sq Park and make premium pasta at home for relatively low effort, follow up with their tiramisu, better than at many specialty bakeries. is as excellent as a dosa gets in Manhattan and is a medium walk from home on 14th street (better price and portions than every other halal truck in the city, open super late night, been there at 4am myself) Very affordable high quality pastries at . is a unique offering and setting of Korean preset “taxi driver style” platters Asian-style sponge cakes at <$1.50 apiece at . Looking for unique, cheap, walk-and-eat street food? Hit up , after 5pm. Near DUMBO? Craving some meat? Check out ! Take a stroll through Riverside park, circle around to the before walking through the north side of central park, which is much nicer and more natural than the touristy-er lawn-filled south/middle. We used to start this trip with Absolute Bagels, which sadly closed down. If you are willing to go to Journal Square, NJ (40 min trip via PATH), plenty of authentic Indian options (at almost-authentic Indian prices) a short walk from the station. If you have the stamina, go out to Flushing (end of the 7 train) for plenty of authentic + cheap chinese food. If not, Manhattan Chinatown is seriously dense with hard-to-go-wrong options.
My anti-reccs (avoid these!):
any mexican food in Manhattan any Italian entree in Little Italy. While nice to walk through, all the restaurants are tourist-traps. Desserts and groceries are great. majority of the Indian restaurants immediately near my apartment (Murray Hill aka Curry Hill aka little India) are mediocre and a bit overpriced, with the exception of offers chaat, which is an interesting street food experience (sanitized for a medium fancy american restaurant setting ofc) that is not easy to find elsewhere in the US, so may be worth a visit. Workspaces & cafes
Looking for a cafe or alternate workspace for a change of pace? Check out Keerthik’s favorites for a pick (let me know if you want to add to this list!):
NYC tips