On a feasting frenzy

It's easy to eat cheaply in Manhattan. The city is chock-a-block with delis, pizzerias, sidewalk vendors and all manner of ethnic and interesting cuisine that's easy on the wallet.

Bargain buys

But Manhattan is also teeming with cutting-edge and celebrity-chef-run restaurants that once were only for the deep-pocketed and well connected.

Well, not anymore. In the past decade, and in increasing numbers, top New York chefs have opened downmarket (read: cheaper) spin-offs of their original (read: expensive) restaurants.

And since the economic downturn, some are also offering fixed-price meals and small plates to lure diners.

During a recent weekend in New York, I wanted to sample the city's dining deals, from recession specials and prix-fixe menus to offshoots by celebrity chefs.

Two food-savvy friends came along on the mission. Could these bargain buys make filling meals or would we have to fall back on pizza?

Launch pad of taste

Our first stop was dinner at Picholine, a classy French spot near Lincoln Centre that earned two Michelin stars again this year.

Chef-owner Terrance Brennan recently launched a “menu d'economie'', with three-dish “tasting flights'' for $20 (Dh73) and half-portion “tasting plates'' for $15 (Dh55). The regular three-course dinner menu costs $92 (Dh337).

Perched around café tables next to a long purple banquette, we chose six small dishes from the flights menu (a few ounces of standout Wagyu beef, crunchy tapioca chips, four foie gras lollipops) and a light-as-air sheep's milk ricotta gnocchi tasting plate to share (three gnocchi apiece).

With Brennan's cheese-centric bistro, Artisanal, in mind, we ordered a quartet off the cheese cart ($24 or Dh88), nudging our meal out of the “cheap eats'' category.

Most of Picholine's dishes were fantastic (the only real dud being the shrimp mixed with popcorn) but we did need a pizza run at the end of the night.

Pulling in the crowd

While Brennan's restaurant uses the small-plates concept to attract diners on a budget, others have just extended the fixed-price menus from January's Restaurant Week ($24 or Dh88 for lunch; $35 or Dh128 for dinner).

One of those is Fig & Olive, a Mediterranean place with locations in the Meatpacking District, the Upper East Side and Midtown.

On a Saturday night, the Meatpacking District was buzzing and over the course of the evening Fig & Olive filled up with a mishmash of diners: 20 girls at a sweet 16 party, a table of rowdy suits making toasts, someone toting a baby whose sporadic cries turned heads all night.

Dinner deals

We learnt something else about Restaurant Week specials: You might have to ask for them.

We were careful to schedule our reservation for 7.30pm because the deal is good only until 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Our three-course dinners had hearty portions, with chicken samosas and tuna carpaccio for starters, grilled lamb with couscous and branzino with figs, for the mains.

The feast ended on a high note with a pot of chocolate custard and a dish of pistachio ice-cream.

The total was just a few dollars more than at Picholine. Yet when we left Fig & Olive, we were comfortably full.

Sandwich stand

On another day, angling for a different kind of deal, I pondered my choices at the 'Wichcraft sandwich stand in Herald Square.

The dozen 'Wichcrafts around Manhattan are part of the Craft restaurant group helmed by Tom Colicchio, best known as the head judge on Bravo's Top Chef.

In 2003, the first 'Wichcraft opened with the motto “Real food, hand-crafted''; the chain uses ingredients such as hormone-free meat, house-made jelly and mayo and locally baked bread.

I paid $12 (Dh44) for my sandwich and tea, devouring the chunky chicken salad on multigrain bread (with walnuts and roasted tomatoes) later on in Madison Square Park, facing Daniel Burnham's 1902 Flatiron Building. The view compensated for my sticker shock.

Old and new

Craft is one of the many restaurants whose success has spawned lower-priced dining outlets. Some, such as 'Wichcraft and Bouchon Bakery, The French Laundry chef Thomas Keller's eatery, were launched long before the downturn and others are new such as David Chang's Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar in the East Village.

Chang's flagship restaurant, Ko, has some of the hardest-to-get tables in town, whereas Milk Bar looks and feels like a neighbourhood bakery, which sells sweets such as cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate-chip cookies ($1.75 or Dh6.41 for one) by pastry chef Christina Tosi.

Frozen delight

When my friends and I visited Milk Bar, we waited in line and scanned the menu board hanging above the counter.
“How do you think the ‘old fashioned donut' ice-cream is?'' my friend asked me.

As if on cue, the guy behind us, who a moment before had looked hipster-indifferent in his neon-green shirt, took off his jumbo headphones and said: “It's amazing. You almost think you're eating a doughnut.''

I'm not sure why eating doughnut-flavoured soft-serve is better than just eating a doughnut but we tried a free sample and liked it ($4 or Dh14 for a cup or cone).

Meanwhile, the Milk Bar line was growing longer, everyone hoping for their own slice of recession-priced heaven. Then we noticed a high white-frosted cake on the counter ($5 or Dh18 a slice).

“What kind of cake is that?'' my friend asked the cashier.
Before she could answer, a woman ahead of us, sporting a blond Mohawk and dark-rimmed glasses, spun around and gushed, “It's my favourite!''

Done! One slice, please.