Budget for food in NYC

[kamik86]

My husband wants to go to comic con in 2012. We are setting up a budget of how much tickets, hotel, the bus or train to get there etc are...

What we have no idea on however is food. How much would you budget for 4 days 3nights in NYC?

We probably aren't going to want to do huge fancy dinners as hubby will want to spend most of his time well... at comic con. But I would want more then mcdonalds.


Oh and has anyone been to the Holiday Inn Express Time Square? its close to the location and we are thinking about staying there since its reasonable for a night, a place we have heard of before, and it has good enough reviews online that we don't think it will be a flea bag place... but would like to know opinions of those here too.

 

[katie26]

It really depends on what you want to eat. You can go pretty cheap or pretty pricey in NYC - $3 for a bagel and coffee, $10 on a eggs-hashbrowns-and-toast diner breakfast or $20 for a fancy brunch with mimosas.

For lunch, you can pick up some really bad pizza for $1 a slice, a standard NY slice for $2.50-ish, a couple of hot dogs and a soda for less than $5... or you could visit Shake Shack and spend around $15.

For dinners, if you like the whole three course meal with a glass of wine thing, you'll probably be spending around $50 or $60/pp at a lot of the more moderately priced restaurants around the city. There are tons of places both more and less expensive - two people could feast in Chinatown on $25 or each have a plate of pasta and a glass of wine at Babbo for $75.

Don't forget to budget in a Metrocard... I think Comic Con is at the Javits Center, right? If so - the area around there is pretty much a culinary no man's land. You'll be much better served hopping on the subway for a ten minute ride downtown.

 

[java]

Food can be all over the place- if you are light eaters- can get by on a coffee and a bagel for breakfast from a cart can run you around $5 a person? lunch again I would go street cart! Yes I know sounds crazy but there are some killer carts in NYC and they are the best priced.
this is dated but as you get closer to comicon time you can check out the latest
http://www.budgettravel.com/feature/a-tour-of-new-yorks-best-street-food,4122/?wpisrc=newsletter

My son went this year and had a BLAST! Bought a gas mask It was full of freaks and he loved it!

Dinner- yikes. Well if you go ethnic restaurants you will get more bang for your buck generally. Village tends to be cheaper than say midtown.

Oh Bathazar is a great place very NY imho looking at the menu you can see prices
http://balthazarny.com/menus.php
Joes Shanghai is another of our cheapo favorites in Chinatown
Reasonable and Delicious!
http://www.joeshanghairestaurants.com/englishmenu.html

Another midtown place that we like is Becco they have a pasta special that is only $18 at lunch

http://becco-nyc.com/menus/

So I am guessing at least $150 a day? If you go light and don't drink maybe $100 for 2.

OH AND DON'T EAT AT COMICON! it's a huge rip off. The boys went outside and bought hot dogs from a cart instead of the highly inflated prices in the Javits Center

 

[JessicaR]

My husband wants to go to comic con in 2012. We are setting up a budget of how much tickets, hotel, the bus or train to get there etc are...

What we have no idea on however is food. How much would you budget for 4 days 3nights in NYC?

We probably aren't going to want to do huge fancy dinners as hubby will want to spend most of his time well... at comic con. But I would want more then mcdonalds.
Oh and has anyone been to the Holiday Inn Express Time Square? its close to the location and we are thinking about staying there since its reasonable for a night, a place we have heard of before, and it has good enough reviews online that we don't think it will be a flea bag place... but would like to know opinions of those here too.

Amazingly you can eat well in NYC for little.

http://www.labonnesoupe.com/

http://nymag.com/restaurants/cheapeats/2011/cheap-list/

http://www.heartlandbrewery.com/

The Holiday Inn Times Square Express -

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...City_Times_Square-New_York_City_New_York.html

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Ms Diz]

It isn't hard to eat cheap in NY. As someone said, there are deli's with good selections at fair prices. But don't forget my favorites: the hot dog stands!

 

[kamik86]

Since everyone is mentioning hot dog stands do they tend to have just hot dogs (I don't eat them), pizza, hot sausage and alot of other vendor type foods are ok, even burgers, just not hot dogs.

As for dinners neither one of us really drink much so I'm not going to really worry about budgeting for alcohol. It sounds like 150 a day will more then cover us though.

As for the metro card thanks for mentioning it. I looked and a 7 day pass is 30 so we could easily both get them and be fine... we aren't really on a super tight budget just that I like to know about how much things cost before I get somewhere and I have only been to NYC once and that was on the outskirts (Ellis Island mostly)

 

[java]

Hot dog carts are just the most common that you see in midtown. The link I posted above will tell you about the more exciting carts and where to find them!
JamaicaMeCrazy is one of my favorites but I don't know if they are still around.

The gyro street guys. mmmmmm
You have to search before you head out online for locations of where they will be.
It's in October right?

 

[ebtbmom]

If you don't mind me asking in your thread, what is your husband planning on doing at Comic Con. Ever since DS saw it on Geek Love he's been dying to go (but he's too young for speed dating ). I just can't quite tell what it is and what you do. Are there speakers, activities, contests? Is it something to ammuse a teenager. He is very into video games, Pokemon, stuff like that.

 

[gm]

The best street food we had was at 53rd at 6th? The famous street cart chicken n rice mmmm. Only $5. They are so famous that many take pictures with them.

 

[kamik86]

If you don't mind me asking in your thread, what is your husband planning on doing at Comic Con. Ever since DS saw it on Geek Love he's been dying to go (but he's too young for speed dating ). I just can't quite tell what it is and what you do. Are there speakers, activities, contests? Is it something to ammuse a teenager. He is very into video games, Pokemon, stuff like that.

Ok this is just my base understanding (I play video games and read comics but I am not as fanatical as my husband. I would be ok with like 3 of the comics from the new 52 for instance... my husband is currently keeping up with 20 of them.)

There are speakers and panels that you can attend, booths for different things like collectibles and comics (we don't have a comic book store so DH is looking forward to getting to look and maybe find some old issues of stuff, he can get them online but just kind of wants to browse those), there are people from TV shows as well as some of the writers/illustrators of many of the books so you can get your comics signed if you bring them.

That is what I know so far. We just started looking into this last night and I didn't want to let him start looking into what was there too much before I knew if it was feasible.... I think it will be though since we are close enough to NY that we can take amtrack for $80 for both of us and found a hotel that isn't too badly priced (for NYC anyway) that is walking distance We figure we will go down for 4 nights (we don't want to have to have stuff with us from checkout on the last day) budget 600 or so for food for the 5 days 4 nights and we should be all set... So tonight I will probably hear much more about what is actually there.

 

[java]

If you don't mind me asking in your thread, what is your husband planning on doing at Comic Con. Ever since DS saw it on Geek Love he's been dying to go (but he's too young for speed dating ). I just can't quite tell what it is and what you do. Are there speakers, activities, contests? Is it something to ammuse a teenager. He is very into video games, Pokemon, stuff like that.

My 17 year old went with 2 of his best friends. They had a blast! They spent one day and only saw about half of what was there. There are speakers, video game booths to play some games. Gear being sold. Tons of Comic books. They didn't do speed dating. Or so they say

 

[kamik86]

My 17 year old went with 2 of his best friends. They had a blast! They spent one day and only saw about half of what was there. There are speakers, video game booths to play some games. Gear being sold. Tons of Comic books. They didn't do speed dating. Or so they say

Yeah I doubt any speed dating will happen with DH. I mean all his friends are already jealous that his wife plays video games and reads comics.

 

[Wishing on a star]

What we have no idea on however is food. How much would you budget for 4 days 3nights in NYC?

We probably aren't going to want to do huge fancy dinners as hubby will want to spend most of his time well... at comic con. But I would want more then mcdonalds.

We finally flew up and visited NYC with our son, last May.
And, on a budget, yes, we did do some McDonalds.
We broke the bank with a top floor room with a view at the Intercontinental.

If you are looking on Tripadvisor, you will see that there are MANY places to eat in the Times Square areas. In fact, you will not find the $100.00 NYC upscale gourmet restaurants in this area. Places are a bit higher than back at home.... (You will find the the NYC snobs on Tripadvisor will all but gasp and gag if you mention food in the Times Square area. But, just ignore that.)

Shake Shack... yes, we give it a
You might want to ask them to leave your burger on the grill for a few extra seconds, as they serve prime beef, med-rare.

If you all do breakfast.... and you want more than bagels and coffee, Juniors! Really good hot breakfast. Another

If you are in the area of the Cranberry Deli (a few blocks from Times Square, towards Rockefeller.... You should check this out. It looks like a tiny New York deli, but inside, they have tons of things, from hot buffet foods, to really nice wraps, etc.. My husband had a chicken wrap in a spinich tortilla wrap which was good. Most of the buffet items were really good. Everything off the buffets is sold by weight. They had an excellent fresh cut and peeled fruit medley, with fresh Mango, Kiwi, Strawberries, etc... it was SO good... that with a pastry/croissant and juice and milk and hot coffee was the BEST breakfast the next morning!

Yes, especially on a budget, sometimes we did a quick McDonalds.
And, in NYC, for a visitor, it can seem hard to know what to do to get regular food, hot food and hot veggies, etc... (plenty of the standard hotdogs, bagels, etc...) So, I thought I would throw a few options out there that we had done.

Happy Planning!

 

[Imzadi]

The gyro street guys. mmmmmm
You have to search before you head out online for locations of where they will be.
It's in October right?

Actually, my favorite gyro guy is PERMANENTLY on 6th Ave at 47th St. South west corner. He knows me by sight, now. I go so much. The lamb is spiced just right and the sauce is great. $5 for a gyro in a pita. $6 with rice plate.

He also does a great bbq chicken & rice.

He might not be there on Saturdays, so you have to go up one block to 6 Ave & 48th St. The sauce isn't as good, but he gives lots of meat and it is yummy. $5.

If you want some salad, McDonalds 6 Ave & 45 St. Or their is a Wendy's right across the street, down the stairs. They each have salads & their "value meals."

There is a great gourmet sandwich shop on 6th Ave at 47th St. North east corner. I forget the name of it. It starts with a P. But, they make fresh, really healthy sandwiches for about $6-$8.

The best street food we had was at 53rd at 6th? The famous street cart chicken n rice mmmm. Only $5. They are so famous that many take pictures with them.

That's by the Museum of Modern Art. There is one guy there that does great grilled hot dogs.


Au Bain Pain makes fabulous soups. There are several around the city. They have soup & sandwich combos or soup & salad combos. Their New England clam chowder is to die for. Their corn chowder is really good, too. I tried to replicate their pumpkin soup as I was there inhaling it all the time.