It’s WIAW time with Jenn, and I want to share the places we ate in the city this past weekend. You can also check out my post from my last trip in October for other restaurants!
Friday
After the 6+ hour drive (unpictured Chobani and almonds on the turnpike!), we wanted a snack before our 9:30 dinner reservation. We stumbled upon this place near our hotel:
Called Dig Inn Seasonal Market, it offers smoothies, and vegetarian and vegan friendly soups and hot meals – similar to Whole Foods hot bar, you choose proteins, salads (like my lentil, edamame, and raisin salad), grain/greens… whatever your heart desires! I love the mix-and-match aspect. I’d definitely go to this place for a quick lunch or dinner, or even post-workout refueling.
Dinner: The Mermaid Inn, East Village – Bad lighting because I didn’t want to be that person using their flash in a restaurant.
This was my first time ever trying oysters or clams on the half shell, so it was a new experience! I preferred the oysters to the clams, but only tried one of each.
My favorite part of the sampler platter was the incredible raw tuna, avocado, and jalapeño mixture in the middle bowl. So incredible! For dinner, I ordered a crabcake.
One of the best I’ve had. They also brought us fortune telling fish and complimentary chocolate pudding – perfectly portioned!
Saturday
Two of us went to the NYSC for a quick workout – free passes from the hotel – then grabbed Starbucks for the other girls on the way back. Then it was time for my favorite meal of the day – BREAKFAST! Or, at 11:30, I guess it was brunch @ Le Parisien, Murray Hill.
The coffee was really good, the fritatta exceeded my expectations – with red peppers, olives, goat cheese and whipped pesto, the texture was amazingly light and the salad and fries were the prefect complement.
Since this was brunch, our Chobani visit and a stop for 5pm coffees held us over until dinner. We had reservations at the Wythe Diner location of Cafe de La Esquina (Brooklyn), and it exceeded expectations. Thanks to two bottles of Rose’ in our room before we left, this night I didn’t care about being that person using their flash inside the restaurant. Oops. 
They have their own brand of salsa, so we had to try that along with guacamole (the whole point of Mexican food, right?), and it complimented the sangria perfectly.
For dinner, even though fish tacos sounded great, I went with the chile relleno – stuffed with quinoa, manchego cheese, almonds, squash. Definitely a dish I’d like to recreate!
Sunday
Oh, the beauty of brunch – this time, at Penelope, a place I researched before our trip. We tried it on Saturday (but it was a 2 hour wait), so on Sunday we planned ahead and put our name on the list before going to get coffee. Success!
The food was so decadent, from the mango flavored OJ to the varied menu options. I made my friends snap photos of their dishes too, so I could share all of them!
Rachael ordered the Nutella stuffed brioche french toast – and let me have a bite! Just as decadent as it sounds:
Jess had the BBLT – a BLT with extra bacon!
Kait ordered the salmon wrapped poached eggs:
Even though their veggie burger got amazing reviews, I skipped the veggie burger salad and went with sweet instead – sweet blueberry waffles with blueberry compote, citrus butter, and fruit:
Can we just talk about how DELICIOUS real maple syrup tastes?
I’m usually too cheap to buy it, but you need so little because it’s so perfectly mapley and sweet – will someone please smack me the next time I buy the sugar free stuff?!
Speaking of sugar, I stopped at Crumbs Bakeshop before we left to bring home two cupcakes… for Adam, of course!
Left – “The Good Guy”: Vanilla cake with rainbow sprinkles baked in, filled with vanilla buttercream frosting and topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting covered with rainbow sprinkles and white chocolate drizzle. Right – Cannoli cupcake!
I feel like so many gourmet cupcakes are so darn dry, but these ones were perfectly dense, almost creamy in texture. Totally worth the calories!
If you’ve been to NYC, what are some of YOUR favorite spots? I feel like it’s hard to go wrong!
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