Upland is located a block away from my office, but I hadn't been there for almost the first year since I started working at my current job. Even though it's a huge restaurant, they've successfully managed to maintain a great overall feeling of unpretentiousness and "personable"ness. All of the dishes are extremely tasty, plating is beautiful, and the staff is extremely friendly. Overall, it's a great experience that makes you want to return for more.

A few items to try are the heirloom tomatoes, Norwich Meadows baby carrots, busiate with Maine lobster, and the cacio e pepe. 

Rintintin is a cute little neighborhood spot in Nolita that serves Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food. There's always a really good-looking crowd here, but it never feels sceney. Depending on where you're seated, the tables might feel too close to one another, but I've never had an unpleasant experience dining here. While none of the items on the menu sound too unique, every single thing I've tried here has tasted exquisite.  

Grey Dog looks like a sweaty Irish pub from the outside, which is why I avoided it for a really long time. Then, one day, while on the prowl for a casual place to eat a somewhat healthy dinner, me and my friend decided to give Grey Dog a try. And I'm so happy we did. 

When you walk in, one of the waiters asks you how big your party is, and depending on availability, places a flag or a piece of cloth on a table to reserve it for your group. Then, you wait in line to place your order and pay, and once that's done, you can go and sit down. While the self-service component doesn't sound like the ideal experience, it actually is quite nice at the end when you don't have to worry about paying and can hang out and enjoy your bottle of wine. 

A few items I'd recommend trying are the potato-kale salad, tuna salad, hummus, and the broccoli. Sometimes, they also have a green soup that tastes incredible, but I'm not sure if it's always on the menu.

Wildair is a newish restaurant that's quite small and popular. I went here before going home for the winter holidays, and there was absolutely no wiggle room in the entire restaurant. Even though every single dish I tried was unbelievably delicious and unique-tasting, I was highly bothered by the photographers who were there, as I found out later by a photo of myself taken that night and circulated online, to generate marketing material. If it weren't for the flashes in my eyes all night long, I would have had a near perfect experience. I would highly recommend trying the little gem lettuces, cauliflower, white shrimp, black cod, and the poached tuna. 

I'd been to El Vez during my Philly years and loved it. It goes without saying that since guac & chips and margaritas are perhaps my favorite non-Turkish food combo, I walked into El Vez with a positive bias. I'm happy to say that El Vez did not disappoint. I, of course, had a bucketful of guac & chips, the crab & shrimp ceviche, grilled fish tacos, and swallowed it all down with a few classical margaritas. All in all, fun night (we were celebrating my friend's birthday) and I left full, but not disgusting. All in all, pretty good experience. 

Dudley's is another cute neighborhood location that has a low-key menu with delicious items. I'd recommend trying the butternut squash, as well as the Brussel sprouts and burrata. 

Fiat Cafe is a tiny SoHo restaurant that's somewhat of a hidden gem because of the limited number of chairs available, as well as the cash-only policy. It's known for its extensive pasta menu, which made it very difficult for me to hold myself back and remind myself of my gluten intolerance. My friend had one of their pastas (I think it was a version of cacio e pepe with some cheese and bacon), while I tried the salmon carpaccio. This would be a cute date spot, especially in the winter, or a one-on-one dinner with a parent who's a pasta enthusiast, just like my dad. 

This is a laid-back spot in Williamsburg that's great for brunch, but could probably get over-crowded really easily on the weekends. I went here for an early breakfast around 9:30 on a Sunday morning and there were maybe just one or two more tables. From what I can remember, the food was quite tasty, but nothing outstanding or too memorable. Overall, cute spot and may be a good option if you're trying to avoid the lines at some of the other trendier spots.

Boulud Sud is one of Chef Daniel Boulud's many restaurants in the city. I met chef Boulud when he came for a talk that I helped organized where I work, and he invited me and my friend to dine there. So, of course, we took him up on his offer and picked Boulud Sud to dine on a Wednesday evening. 

Even though we picked only a few items off the menu, we were sent almost everything else as chef's compliments. It goes without saying that everything was absolutely delicious and the service was amazing, but I'm just going to list a few of my recommendations here for reference: Mediterranean mezze, octopus a la plancha, Lebanese sea bass, olive oil poached king salmon, broccoli rabe, olive oil cracked potatoes, grapefruit givre, and chocolate hazelnut torte. 

Tribeca's my favorite neighborhood in the city and I've walked past this spot multiple times before trying it for the first time. It's such a tiny spot that it's almost hard to fit 15 people inside. The service is a little slow and even though everything tasted good at the time, nothing was too memorable, but I might go back here for drinks at night. If you ever do decide to go here, I'd suggest you visit the bathroom as you're in for a little surprise. 

I tried Txikito when my friend's mom was visiting her in the city and wanted to take us out to dinner. They're Spanish and her mom is a great cook and follows the food scene in the city very closely, and she wanted to try Txikito because they just published a recipe book that looks amazing. We were in good hands while ordering and tried pretty much everything on the menu. I would recommend the croketas, piperrak, esparragos, laminas de setas, rusa, gambas plantxa, and the pil pil. 

Lovely Day is an incredible restaurant that would go unnoticed if you didn't know it was there because it has almost no signage outside and nothing that screams for attention. It's tiny and the inside looks like a low-key diner, but overall provides a pleasant experience. I would especially recommend the pineapple fried rice and the carrot cake, but the other items on the menu lack seasoning. 

Also, note that if you're planning on paying with card, they only accept AmEx. 

If you've watched Friends enough times, this photo will be very familiar, as it was used as the exterior of the building that Monica, Rachel, Chandler & Joey live in. It also happens to be home to The Little Owl, a cute little Italian eatery. All of the items on the menu are quite small & shareable. Everything is delicious, but nothing is incredibly memorable. The space inside is definitely not big enough to accommodate all the tables & chairs that were placed, which makes it feel quite cramped in there, but there's a sweet waiting area placed above the dining area, and accessible by steps, which makes the waiting experience slightly more entertaining.

Meadowsweet is located in a sweet spot and is very spacious inside. Lighting is generally-speaking dim inside, but we sat a table that had spotlights above it, as well as its own speakers, so that we could lower and increase the volume as desired. The artwork on the walls is also quite tastefully curated, and staff is extremely knowledgeable, personable, and classy without sounding pretentious. Everything we ordered was delicious, but I would especially recommend the papardelle & chanterelles with black truffle pate & chanterelles, and the Scottish salmon with lentils, mustard greens, chanterelles, and black garlic. I will definitely return here.

I stumbled into Ivan Ramen while exhaustedly searching for a hearty meal on the Lower East Side. It's a narrow and deep restaurant with comfortable bar seating (which is where I ended up sitting), and a cute outdoor area, which I assume needs to be reserved ahead of time. I ordered the vegetarian ramen with tofu noodles to avoid gluten, and it was absolutely delicious. I can't wait to return here and try some other items off their menu.