The design and photography floor at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Union Square.

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.

Seasonal salads, sweet and savory treats, and great coffee. It's probably my most common lunch spot when I work from home and they also offer catering if I'm too nervous to cook but want it to feel homemade.

A now-iconic Chinatown eatery with a mouthwatering menu of health-conscious eats.

The Peruvian pisco sour cocktail is among my favorite aperitifs - you won't find it better than here. A lot of people know this bar which has been around for many years, what they don't know is that the dinning is actually really good. Blinis & caviar with some bubbles are the perfect way to continue after the aperitif :)