One of the most challenging things about going to the US for holiday is the jet-lag. Having to fly almost 20 hours halfway across the world into a timezone 12 hours off messes us up pretty badly and it has always taken us 3-4 days to switch our body clocks around. Which is why a good breakfast in New York City (when it's dinner time back in Singapore) was so important to us during our trip there. Having been unable to sleep through the night for the first few days, waking up at 4am and watching infomercials and repeat news broadcasts while waiting for the sun to rise, we actually looked forward to eating a proper meal again and it was important for such a meal to be more than utilitarian.
In that regard, we considered ourselves fortunate to have found a place just across the street from our hotel to be our regular breakfast joint during the time we were in New York. Untitled is a chic diner located in basement of the Whitney Museum along Madison Avenue. It is part of the chain of restaurants owned by prominent restauranteur Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group (which includes luminaries like The Modern and Gramercy Tavern, as well as the much loved Shake Shack chain).
There's nothing we loved more than some good old fashioned oatmeal, omelette, pancakes and grilled cheese sandwich for a hearty breakfast to chase away jet leg.
In particular, the pancakes were done to our liking (not too starchy or salty) and the grilled cheese sandwich was nicely browned. Suffice to say, this became our favourite breakfast restaurant during our 10 day New York trip.
On a Sunday, we decided to look for a popular Sunday brunch place on the Upper West Side, Good Enough to Eat. It was clearly good enough to queue for 45 minutes for many people, for that was what it took for most of them (and us) to stand in line in temperatures of a freezing 4 - 5 degrees Celsius that Sunday morning.
The restaurant had a very American diner feel to it, and was decked out with children's toys on the walls and cartoon cutouts hanging from the ceiling, much like a child's bedroom.
The food itself was of quite hearty portions but which we felt may not have warranted such a long wait. The french toast was not quite eggy enough and got soggy quite quickly, while the pancakes were too starchy for our tastes. But to be fair, it was a fun-enough place for a relaxing Sunday brunch, if not for the raised expectations created by having to queue outside for such a long time.
But if all fails, there's always the institution of Sarabeth's, with its various branches throughout the city. We went to one along the Upper East Side along Madison Avenue one morning for a traditional American breakfast and that was exactly what we got.
Stock-standard pancakes and omelette were reasonably good, though the service was a tad slow. Nothing much to write home about, but a useful place to come for breakfast if all else fails.
As for our daily fix of Italian espresso, we found a small cozy espresso bar (standing room only) along The Avenue of the Americas in Midtown which served quite authentic Italian espresso, which is surprisingly harder to find in New York City than one would have thought. The other cafes and restaurants where we have ordered something similar always comes out too watery and appears suspiciously more like a long black than a double espresso. The fact that the couple of times we came here during the day for our coffee fix, the bar was practically empty, demonstrates that the Italian espresso is not the way people in the city drink their coffee.
How about non-coffee drinkers? We found this delightful tea house in the West Village which served very many different varieties of tea, including some exotic herbal teas. They had tastings of a particular tea which they allowed us to try for free, and after we ordered the tea of our choice, we enjoyed it sitting at the table with a lit scented candle.
Untitled
The Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
Tel: +1 212 570 3670
www.untitledatthewhitney.com
Good Enough to Eat
483 Amsterdam Avenue at 83rd Street
Tel: +1 212 496 0163
www.goodenoughtoeat.com
Sarabeth's East
1295 Madison Avenue at 92nd Street
Tel: +1 212 410 7335
www.sarabeth.com
Zibetto Espresso Bar
6th Avenue, NW corner of 56th Street
www.zibettoespresso.com
David's Tea
275 Bleecker Street
www.davidstea.com
