Chuko has the best vegetarian ramen I've ever had. It's kind of ruined me for other types of Ramen. Favorite neighborhood spot with good people running it.

Fried chicken. Biscuits. Sausage gravy. Artisanal root beer. House-made pickles.

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.

A place for when you only have a day and your soul needs the smell of an ocean breeze and to feel sand between your toes. You can watch all the craziness of Coney Island from across the water.

Just because everyone knows about it doesn't mean it doesn't deserve more attention. Great food, great service, great movies, great drinks.