My views on the hotel ? Not good. I most certainly will not be staying here again.

Initial impressions were good. Nice looking lobby with friendly staff. The room was small but cozy. Also the hotel was just north of Madisson Square, so well located (though alas too far from Central Park).

The reality. The windows to the room are single pane wooden affairs which look like they are starting to rot. There is always a cold (icy at night) breeze coming through them, and they keep out no noise. The bed was comfortable, however as a partial insomniac it was hard getting to sleep, and once woken by noise outside (about 7 a.m. on both mornings) back to sleep it was impossible to get again.

The room facilities were really poor (considering it is a nearly new hotel). There were no tea/coffee making facilities, the bathroom was very small, the shower was tempramental (see my previous edit about scalding hot water suddenly coming from the cold supply), making it unusuable, and the toilet was in such a tight corner you had to be a contorsionist to use it. There was a safe, but it was so high up I had to use a chair to check I had removed everything from it. There was a small coffee table and a pair of chairs provided, however the cponstant draft made for a chilly experience using them.

The hotel’s restaurant is none existent. For breakfast I had to hit a deli round the corner.

The staff proved to be a mixed bunch. For some things, like fixing the TV remote they were helpful, foir others such as where to get stamps from, or postage, they were clueless.

I’m not sure on whether to blame the hotel for the really really poor wireless ‘Net connection or not. It is not advertised on their website, but the reality is the service is truly poor. I did get through to the provider’s customer support and their view was to move the laptop to the reception. I should ahve just camped out in the nearest Starbucks instead.

Was recommended this place by Rob, who due to work could not make it to Manhatten this evening. It’s the top rated Italian restaurant in Little Italy in the Zagat survey :-
Il Palazzo Food rated 24 for food.

Little Italy 151 Mulberry St. (bet. Grand & Hester Sts.) New York, NY, 10013 (212) 343-7000

A “solid performer in an ever-shrinking market” describes this Mulberry Street Italian that’s one of the “best on the block”, offering cooking that’s “better than grandma’s” plus “attentive”, “thought-the-waiter-was-going-to-feed-me” service; the “beautiful”, newly glassed-in garden might explain the slightly “higher-than-average cost.”

Started with a starter portion of pasta – spaghetti tossed in a tomato, basil and garlic sauce. It was very nice though it was spaghettini (thinner).

Main course. Saltimbocca. Not sure if this is the American style of it, since most Italian restaurant dishes are interpretations, but it was not rolls of veal with proscuito and sage leaves, intead it was flat. It was, however, very very nice, and a large portion as well. I had ordered a vegetable dish, not realising it already came with vegetables. Needless to say I was barely able to touch the spinach.

For a sweet I went with Rob’s recommendation of the Tirramasu. This was excellent and well worth it.

Service was great – European in style, not the overly fussy and attentive American style I hate. Over all – well worth the taxi rides to and from Little Italy, I would strongly consider going back there next time.

If I ever meet the head of Starbucks UK I must ask him one thing. How come it costs us almost twice as much to buy their coffee and snacks in the UK as the US. Yes as per normal is looks like they have done a straight dollar->stirling conversion. Thus in the UK it would cost me £1.95 for a tall (small sixed) Cafe Americano and 95p for a biscotti. Here it just cost me $2 and 95c respectively. With the dollar being worth not much more than 50p, that meant my drink and snack cost me the grand total of about £1.50.

I always thought New Yorkers were like the people of most big cities, i.e. unfriendly, rushed and in their own world. Now I’m not sure.

Earlier I needed stamps for my postcards. The hotel were useless, couldn’t even really tell me where to get them from, so I went out looking. After a few blocks I approached a business woman having a cigarette outside a cafe. She was not only helpful, but also while trying to work out where the nearest post office was, looked in her handbag, found she had a book containing more stamps than I needed, then insisted I had them all, plus was unwilling to take anything for them.

Next I’m in the local starbucks. Ended up in friendly conversations with two of the locals. Perhaps there’s hope for Manhatten yet.

Well been in Manhatten for 3 meals now and I’ve had Japanese (sushi at Mindao), English fry up (at a deli round the corner), and now dim sum at The oriental Palace in China Town. O.K., strictly speaking I did have a chicken gumbo for lunch yesterday and I do plan on going to Carnegies Deli tomorrow for lunch, but tonight I half fancy Italian.

Not impressed with the Gershwin. The bigger rooms maybe o.k., but this one is a bit too small, and the bathroom is near unusuable. The shower works badly, with scalding hot water suddenly coming out of the cold water supply (!!) and you need to be about 7 foot tall to take advantage of it’s jets. The toilet is in a tight space, and the toilet roll holder requires a contortionist to reach it.

Just got back from lunch to dump some stuff down and put some charge in the mobile phone. there’s somethign wierd about the power supply here, I jsut don’t seem to get enough charge to help batteries. the laptop was only used without an external power source for ~10 minutes, but even now, when plugged in, the battery does not want to charge, ans after half an hout my mobile phone failed to get any huice as well. Hoping now it’s flat it might be able to draw some.
I’m rather unhappy with the fact that my room has still not been done. O.K. I didn’t ask for my sheets to be changed (the americans seem to think that by not changing the sheets regularly except when asked they will save the rain forrests or something), but I do expect the bed to be tidied and the used towels to be replaced – the old ones are still soaking from the shower.
For a near new hotel in the middle of one of the world’s busiest nad noisiest cities, it does not have double glazing in the rooms. made getting to sleep fun, and i was woken early by noise outside. Also the wireless internet connection here is a shambles. I got hold of the support guys and their solution was to try and connect in the lobby – so much for ebing able to reliably browse in my room, and I’m paying for this service.

Next time I go some where else, I’m shortly goijng to be be having it out with the manager over my room not being cleaned. Fortunately I’ve only got another night and day here.

I don’t know iof it’s a New York state thing, or common across the US, but many diners and restaurants also seem to double as bars. Chains like Chillis, Applebees and TGI Fridays have deicated bars as well as the eating areas, and it is the same with smaller restaurants too. This is a prime example of it where the place is actually a sushi restaurant, however it also doubles as a wine/sake bar.

Only had the one glass, not sure what it was called, but it was a rather nice, slightly flowery sake, fitting almost the description of what I wanted. I think the bar had about 6 decent sakes of various types available.

Tomorrow night I’m meeting up with one of Chris’s friends for a meal. I;ve litterally gone through the first two pages of the Zagat list of top restaurants in NYC, failing to get a booking. I can see us eating more locally to the hotel than anticipated, and then heading to this bar. What gets me is that all the top restaurants seem to be fully booked up on a Tuesday night.

Failed to get in to Asia de Cuba. If I had been willing to wait half an hour I would have been fine, but I decided I didn’t fancy waiting in the bar and it is rather cold out there now. Instead went to an all you can eat sushi buffet called Minado. There was a very large selection, with a large number of chefs providing fresh sushi, cold sallads and hot nibbles.
The food wasn’t bad, though there were too few ‘traditional’ nigri and maki options for my taste and too many designer rolls. The uni (sea urchin) was too brown too, some thing I know to be a bad sign. The fish I ate tested fresh though, and I do know Uni goes off very very quickly (minutes after being made). There were a few rather nice choices and the staff were friendly and curteous. Only real down sides were the jelly fish sallad being too chewy (or is this the normal texture for jelly fish), and some of the hot fish being odd textured (bit too tough). Compared to UK prices it was cheap – under $28, plus tip.

I don’t suffer too badly from jet lag, plus I’ve been here for 3.5 days now. The first night I did start to flag, and that’s been about it. This afternoon, however, I’ve felt tired from about 3 p.m. onwards. Just hoping I’m not going down with something.

Tonight I’m going to try and get in to a hip and trendy Cuban-Fusion restaurant, Asia de Cuba. I could get a table for 1 for about 6 – but that’s too early, so I’m going to hope I can walk in around 8. It’s a smart/smart casual place, so i’ll leave on the tan moleskin jeans (which look smart), put on a short and wear my casual jacket.

US Road signs are crap. I mean really crap. O.K. there are many large over head ones, and some by the side of the road, but very few give much in the way of notice and none are lit – making navigation at night fun.

Petrol is cheap to us. Ok a US gallon is 7/8ths of a real one, but it cost me $2.13 per gallon to fill up the hire car.

The Air Train from the airport to Jamaica (for the Long Island Rail Road and NYC Subway) is good, quick and at just $5 cheap. I’m not sure how much the LRR is, but the subway in to Manhatten is just $2 more. Down side is I had to change line (having to carry my case up and down stairs) and then walk 2 avenues and 7 streets to get to my hotel, Gershwins. Took time, was more tiring than I expecteed, plus the slightly twisting motion due to towing a case put a lot of strain on my left knee, which I had forgotten to put a brace on. For the way back I think I’ll take a cab to Penn St subway, then subway it back in.

The hotel is slightly further down town than I expected, but still, strictly speaking, Middle Manhatten. The room is quite small, but has character. There is a wireless network, but the signal is not that good and it is going to cost me $10 for each 24 hours. Not too bad, but I’ll miss the free service the Holiday Inn provided. It’s also only 802.11B service, not 802.11G so I can’t take advantage of my faster network card.

Not sure what I’m going to do tonight, but a late lunch is on the cards in about 15 minutes time. I have to phone a friend of Chris’s tonight too. He’s jsut changed jobs so is now working near Stony Brook, not in Manhatten, but there’s a good chance he’ll come over tomorrow evening for food.

O.K. that’s all for now.