10 Hours in NYC on a Saturday, Suggestions Please!

9. Go to the Soup Nazi's Kitchen

I day trip to NYC pretty often, and I have some suggestions:

MOMA is a great idea! You don't really have time for the Met, and MOMA is pretty close to St. Patricks, NBC, Times Square....

Forget Empire. Takes too long.

Get to Central Park if the weather is good. You can start there, wander towards Times Square, hop a train to go to SoHo, Little Italy, or the Village.

Don't bother with Canal St.

SNL tapes in Rockefeller Center, and it is live. Have no idea how to get tickets for it. Ask the Concierge at the hotel...those guys and gals have all the hook ups.

Food wise:

Get some Pizza if you can. The suggestions in this thread on that subject can't be beat.

Stay away from anything in Times Square. The food is not bad, necessarily, but its not as good as elsewhere in the city, and you get overcharged because, well you are a tourist, and it's Times Square.

Il Corallo Trattoria. Cramped space, often a line, well worth seeking out. Some great pasta dishes at a really cheap price.

Tamarind. Proposed to my wife there. Great atmosphere, doesn't disappoint. Can be pricey, but it's worth it.

If you don't mind a wait, you could try Cuba. On the weekends, they have a live Cuban Jazz band, which adds a little panache to go with the food. Food was good, drinks were better.

Most of all, have fun!

Thanks, fellas!

I really like the ideas of Little Italy or China Town. I'd like to experience stuff as different as possible while I'm there and I think those would fit the bill. I really need to get a quality map and study it for a little while. I think we've ruled out the ESB and Ellis Island, but those will give us a good excuse to go back again.

I talked to a guy with the company hosting us and he asked, "Do you want me to get you some Broadway tickets for that night...our treat?" My response was, "Uh, yes." So maybe that will be taken care of.

Bad news...my wife, whom I dearly love, discovered there is a monster Sephora (make up store) in Times Square, right by our hotel. In Vegas, she spent 4 straight hours there...it's her equivalent to the Nintendoworld mentioned earlier. If possible, I'll try to get her to visit while my beloved Kentucky Wildcats take on the Florida Gators Saturday afternoon and I can watch the game somewhere, at least the second half...who do I call to get it broadcast on the giant TV screen in Time's Square?

I'm glad to hear St. Patrick's is worthwhile, too. They have mass every hour on the hour on Sunday mornings, so we might try to catch an early one before check out time. We're not Catholic (I was earlier in life), but I hear the cathedral itself is something to marvel. I think that's on my official short list. MOMA is also inching up the polls.

Thanks for the restaurant suggestions, too. A big concern of mine is going somewhere that charges an arm and leg just because it's in NYC and being horribly disappointed.

I saw this article about walking tour MP3s recently in the NYT, sounds pretty cool if you're interested in going off the beaten track and exploring (i'm going to be in NYC for a couple of weeks in Nov, looking forward to trying some of these out).