A photo guide to some of New York City’s best food

NYC is known for its viral foods. From the rainbow bagel, to the cookie shot, to the giant Willy Wonka-looking milkshake, I have tried them all.

And what’s more, I tried them all on my first trip to NYC ever. You could say I ate my way through the city.

With the help of Yelp and some serious trip planning, I hit a wide variety of places, and have the pictures to prove it.

Hopefully my honest reviews can get you drooling, so you know exactly where to go (or where not go to) next time you head to the Big Apple.

The rainbow bagel

I had to try this first. The rainbow bagel went viral in a video posted by Business Insider in late 2015, which showed how The Bagel Store in Brooklyn makes these colorful creations.

Millions of views later, I couldn’t wait to try it. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed by what I tasted. The bagel was kind of dry and dense, and the “funfetti” cream cheese was definitely off.

There was none of the rich, sugary goodness that I would expect from cream cheese. Not to mention that it was almost $8! For a bagel. I give it a 3/10

Lombardi’s Pizza in SoHo

Right outside of Little Italy, this pizza place is credited as the first pizzeria in America.

They use coal ovens to cook their pies, which ‘fun-fact’ they’re the only ones allowed to do this because they’ve been grandfathered as an exception to building codes that no longer allow coal-fired ovens in NYC.

They had unusual toppings, but boy, was it good. The crust was cooked just right, and the pizza was huge! It covered the entire table. We ate right off the pan! 10/10

Schmackary’s in midtown Manhattan

For a late night snack, we stopped by Schmackary’s, which is a cookie lover’s heaven. I got chocolate chip, funfetti, and snickerdoodle.

Be warned: these cookies have a lot of sugar! They were some of the best cookies I’ve ever had, but they were almost too much. 7/10 – only because I ate two in a row and they just about put me in a coma.

99 Cent Pizza in Times Square

What a deal. I wasn’t expecting much, but this pizza was really decent for the price.

My value lunch was two slices of pizza and a water for $2.95. The only downside was I experienced my first every restaurant with standing tables only. Being over 6 feet tall, I didn’t like having to reach down so far for my pizza – 7/10.

The hustling center

You can’t go to New York City and not experience the Grand Central Station terminal, so on my tour we stopped by the hustling center and I had a gyro amongst the bustling travelers. It was excellent! 7/10

NYC pretzels

On my all day city tour we took the ferry over to Staten Island and at the station area when we got there, they had pretzels for $1 and cinnamon pretzels for $2!

Who says you have to sell a kidney to afford New York. It was delicious and was the perfect snack while we looked around waiting for the return ferry to Manhattan. 10/10

“Oldest cheese store in America”

My family’s Italian, so you could imagine my delight when I saw the “oldest cheese store in America” in Little Italy. I got the cheese sticks, and honestly, the cheese tasted like nothing. 2/10

Chinatown

Despite my Italian heritage, I couldn’t skip over Chinatown. $1.25 for 5 fried dumplings! What a steal. They were more potsticker than dumpling, but they were delicious and the price sealed the deal. 9/10

Dirty water dogs

Before going in The Met on a perfect Saturday morning, we grabbed a hot dog from a stand right outside the front entrance.

One interesting thing was that the onions and ketchup were mixed together- meaning she scooped out the mix from a bucket and slopped it on my dog. It was a solid hot dog, but not my favorite. 6/10

‘Foods of New York Tour’ in Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village was too rich to explore on our own, so we booked a food tour to take us through 8-9 different places and to sample the food.

The first stop was Joe’s Pizza, where we sampled a pizza that was so simplistic that the sauce was just crushed tomato – nothing else, and no fancy toppings except cheese. The cheese was made through some process that ensured the grease didn’t separate to the top like you get from fast food pizza.

They told us how New York water added to the flavor, and how it’s different than deep dish pizza made from Chicago’s water, for example. The simple things in life can be good! 7/10

Next up was O & Co Olive Oil shop, where we sampled olive oils and vinegar that had been aged for 10-20 years over some bread.

Then, they gave us some popcorn that had been drizzled with truffle oils. Truffle is a delicacy and is super expensive, and I can see why. The flavor of truffle is complex and interesting. This stop on the food tour was small but exquisite. 8/10

Next we had aranchini balls from Faicco’s, which were fried Italian balls with rice and cheese inside. These were heavenly. 8/10

Not everything has to be unhealthy.  We had a quinoa salad that’s made with whatever vegetables are on hand for the day at Palma Ristorante. It was light and felt really wholesome! 8/10

Towards the middle of the tour, we went to a sit-down restaurant, and got to sample a plate of Eggplant Rollatini from Rafele Ristorante.

Let me tell you, it was hands down one of the best pieces of Italian cuisine I’ve ever had. It was completely out of this world, and you have to request it specially because it isn’t on the menu! 11/10

As we were hearing the history of the neighborhood, from seeing the building used as the exterior for the popular show Friends, to the comedy club where greats like Lily Tomlin have gotten their starts, we stopped by a little place called Milk and Cookies.

I had a chocolate chip cookie that tasted like the opposite of the sugary confections we had from Schmackary’s. This one was warm, fresh, subtle, and wholesome. It wasn’t overpowering or too sweet, which made it just right. 10/10

Murray’s Cheese Shop, which they described to us as the “Apple Store of cheese,” had a dizzying amount of cheeses and was one of the coolest store’s I’ve been in.

We sampled a variety of cheeses and got to explore around the place a bit, which was really cool. Please, if there’s one thing you take away from this, just Google “Murray’s Cheese” and look at the pictures of this place because it’s awesome. 10/10

The last stop of our food tour through Greenwich Village was to grab a cannoli from Rocco’s.

I’m not much of a fan of cannoli’s, but this one was the best I’ve ever had.  It packed in so much flavor and wasn’t bland or too rich. 9/10

Bantam Bagels

You probably haven’t heard of Bantam Bagels, but this company was on Shark Tank.

Being a fan of the show, I’m always wanting to try out the businesses that come on when I travel. These guys have essentially bagel balls that are filled with flavored cream cheeses that match what you would expect to go on that bagel. They’re pretty good but didn’t blow me away. 5/10

The cookie shot

Ah yes. I’ve seen this online for years and have always wanted to try it out. Dominique Ansel Bakery in SoHo (which also sells the Cronut, to incredibly long lines and daily sell outs) sells this “shot,” which is a cookie cup filled with Tahiti Vanilla milk and a chocolate frosting on the inside.

It was pretty tasty and a really neat idea. After this though, I officially decided I was done with cookies on my trip. 9/10

Il Corallo Trattoria

We ate at Il Corallo Trattoria, and I had never thought about it before but we didn’t really know what Trattoria meant.

Apparently, the rankings for the formality of Italian restaurants are osteria, then trattoria, then ristorante (the fanciest). So basically, you start at Olive Garden and work your way up.

This house special cheese rolatini I had was good, but the tomato sauce tasted a little too mac-n-cheese for my liking. 5/10

Nathan’s Famous hot dogs

As my trip was winding down, we found ourselves in Central Park, and I knew I had to get one of Nathan’s Famous hot dogs.

I’ve heard they’re big on the east coast, and although we have them at the grocery store in the midwest, you can’t buy them straight from the source like this. (Plus, I just wanted to feel “New York” from eating a hot dog in Central Park.)

It was probably the best hot dog I’ve ever had. The skin had a slight crunch, and you could tell the meat was quality because it had so much flavor. 9/10

Burger One

Having exhausted every single type of food I could think of, I realized I hadn’t had a burger yet.

This was the California burger, from a place called Burger One that ironically is also a mexican place that sells tacos and burritos. I didn’t think the burger was very good, especially since it was $10. 4/10

The Black Tap Milkshake

The hallmark food item that I was set out to experience in New York City was the Black Tap Milkshake. These wacky concoctions went viral on social media for their crazy toppings, including cookies and whole slices of cake.

At $15 and clocking in over 1200 calories, these monsters are meant to be shared. After waiting almost an hour and a half in line at this tiny bar in SoHo, we got to order one.

We got the Sour Pour, which was a black cherry ice cream shake with a Pixie Stick, lolly pop, whipped cream, Nerds, thick frosting and sour gummies, and rainbow airheads on top.

I felt like Augustus Gloop rolling around in Willy Wonka’s sugar world. It was so good and worth it, but definitely check out their other location in Chelsea for a possibly shorter wait. 10/10

When my trip was over, I thought to myself “Don’t cry because it’s over, be glad because it happened.”

I got to try so many unique and exciting foods as I explored a city that was new to me. I also had a great time visiting my friend, and I think she enjoyed the food we crossed off our bucket lists together.

I’m not sure I could live in New York City but it’s a really amazing place overflowing with sites to see and food to try, everywhere you go. I’ll definitely be back!