My grandma once remarked (in Vietnamese, of course) that in New York City, money is spent as freely as water. From dining to shopping to transportation to entertainment, it’s dangerously easy to drop some serious change exploring and reveling in everything the city has to offer. While bargains may not be the norm in these here parts, there are still some great values to be had.
Take for instance lunch at Del Posto, Chef Mario Batali and restauranteur Joseph Bastianich‘s four-star Italian restaurant. Dinner here starts at $115, but a three-course lunch complete with amuses and mignardises can be had for just $29. Now, that’s a deal that even my penny pinching Bà Ngoại would approve.
The Astronomer and I lunched here the afternoon following our feast at Eleven Madison Park. We were seated at a table fit for four in the center of the dining room. The crowd of lunching ladies and powwowing business types spoke mostly in hushed tones, adding to the formal ambiance that I found too stuffy for this time of day.
After placing our orders, a server brought over a trio of amuse bouches. There were lobster and caviar finger sandwiches, a tomato soup with bread crumbs around the rim, and small bundles of sauerkraut wrapped in speck ham. All three bites were perfectly nice, but none were particularly wow inducing.
