Going to Staten Island for free with the Ferry and enjoying the view of the Manhattan Skyline and getting that Snap of the Statue of Liberty! Top!

I'm a huge Japanophile: if there's one other place I'd like to live, it's Tokyo. I must have been there seven or eight times, most recently just after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Anyway, EN is a gem on Hudson Street, serving real Japanese cuisine. It turns out that EN is a chain in Japan; there are a lot of branches making lovely bosky food in cosy neighbourhood locations. But their New York incarnation is grand in scale and ambition, with solid, warm interiors (not unlike if the Whitney were a Japanese restaurant, oddly) - a remarkable hybrid of this city, and the other one that I'd love to live in.

The Ear Bar has been in New York longer than any of us. In a city of vacuous fleeting trendy bars the Ear Bar (which is really called the Ear Inn but I've never called it that) is the real deal.

Fun bar to drink/dance. Great sound system and rotating roster of Dj's. Tends to get unbearably crowded on weekends so weeknights are the way to go.

Hands down the best wood fire pizza I've had in Brooklyn. Great for a date or if you're feeling fancy schmancy. (Also, don't sleep on the caesar salad here.)