Two brazilians eating their way through NYC – Part 1

Hey everyone! My wife and I spent 10 days in NYC a few weeks ago. It was our first time in the city, and since we’re from São Paulo (another huge food city), one of our main goals was to eat our way through NYC and experience as much of the food scene as possible.

We stayed on the UWS, so our first stop was Zabar’s. And unfortunately for us, the place really is as good as everyone says it is — which is a little heartbreaking when you live thousands of miles away.

We got the classic nova, and everything was fresh and really well-seasoned, especially the salmon. But the real star was the bagel. Coming from Brazil, we honestly didn’t expect to love bagels this much. We had always heard they were dense and heavy, but the Zabar’s bagel completely blew us away. We liked it so much that we went back for the sturgeon bagel.

Another place we liked enough to visit twice was Los Tacos No. 1. Those tortillas are seriously something else. We tried the carne asada, adobada, and a pollo asado quesadilla. The quality of the ingredients was what impressed us the most. The adobada was pretty spicy, so keep that in mind if you’re not used to spicy food. We tried both the Times Square and Grand Central locations and preferred Times Square — the seasoning felt more balanced and everything seemed better executed.

We also managed to snag reservations at Keens and Golden Diner, both of which we had heard were notoriously difficult to get into. Surprisingly, neither was particularly crowded.

At Keens, we went with the classics: bacon, T-bone, fries, and creamed spinach. The bacon and fries were honestly disappointing — not bad, but not worth the price. The steak, however, was fantastic: extremely tender and perfectly cooked, although a bit mild for our Brazilian palates. The creamed spinach was the real MVP, though. Incredibly flavorful and with the perfect texture. Definitely a highlight.

Golden Diner was a little pricey, but the bacon was great, the chicken Caesar salad was solid, and the pancakes were absolutely everything people say they are. Ridiculously good, especially with all that syrup they’re basically drowning in. The texture was also just perfect. If the lines are still crazy, I’d say the pancakes are absolutely worth the wait.

I’ll stop here before this turns into a novel. If anyone is interested, I can do a Part 2 with some more of our NYC food adventures.

Thanks, NYC!

PART 2 IS OUT!