NYC 3-Day Food Itinerary

Open since 1914. The Nova lox is silky and barely salty — nothing like the packaged kind. The everything bagel is baked fresh daily, seeds toasted, not raw. This is the gold standard for a bagel-and-lox in New York City. Start here.

Get a ticket at the door — you will need it to pay. Walk to the counter and ask your carver for a taste before they build the sandwich. The pastrami is hand-carved to order and has been made the same way since 1888. Do not add anything to it except mustard.

Walk south from the LES into Chinatown. Nom Wah opened in 1920 and is the oldest dim sum restaurant in New York. The egg tarts are non-negotiable; the shrimp rice noodle rolls are silky and delicate. Doyers St is a historic curved alley — worth the detour between Katz's and dinner.

Joe's Shanghai on Bowery is the Chinatown institution for soup dumplings. The pork xiao long bao are thick-skinned, broth-heavy, and served in bamboo steamers. Bite a small hole in the skin first, let the broth cool into the spoon, then eat it whole. Communal seating is standard.

Murray's is the Greenwich Village standard. The bagels are hand-rolled and boiled before baking — the traditional method that produces the chewy exterior and dense interior that defines a real New York bagel. They do not toast here. That is not an oversight.

Joe's has been the benchmark for the New York slice since 1975. Thin crust, blistered undercarriage, cheese that pulls to your elbow. This is the platonic ideal of the New York slice — the one every other city is trying to replicate. Fold it lengthwise before the first bite. This is not optional.

Walk north through SoHo between the Village slice and Chelsea Market. Dominique Ansel invented the Cronut in 2013 — laminated like a croissant, fried like a doughnut, filled with care. The hype has settled but the pastry has not changed. Still worth the stop.

The Lobster Place at Chelsea Market is a fishmonger and raw bar that does the best lobster roll in Manhattan. Cold-dressed with mayo and lemon. The market itself is worth 30 minutes of exploration before you eat — the building is a converted Nabisco factory and the vendors are worth seeing.

Junior's has been making the same cheesecake since 1950. Dense, cream-cheese-heavy, Graham cracker crust — this is the NYC cheesecake standard that every other version is measured against. The Brooklyn original on Flatbush is worth the trip over the Times Square location. Take the B or Q to DeKalb Ave.

Dom DeMarco made every pizza at Di Fara for over 50 years. His son now runs the kitchen with the same recipe. The slice is cut with scissors, finished with fresh basil snipped directly over the pie, and drizzled with olive oil. It is worth the 45-minute subway ride. Do not let anyone talk you out of making this trip.

Take the subway back to Manhattan after Di Fara. Gray's Papaya has been serving natural-casing franks and papaya drinks since 1973. Open 24 hours. The Recession Special is still one of the best value meals in the city — a bridge snack before the Peter Luger splurge.

Peter Luger has been the best steakhouse in New York since 1887. The porterhouse is dry-aged on the premises and served sizzling in its own butter. There is no menu — you are having the steak. Cash only. Make a reservation weeks in advance. This is the splurge meal of the trip and the right note to end on.