Hell's Kitchen: Great Eats

It's also called Clinton, or West Midtown). There a million different, affordable places to eat from Japanese, to Thai and Israeli, Italian and even burgers and fastfood. Since moving here, I have grown to love the mom-and-pop atmosphere, and the converted tenements, the block parties across the street, even the occasional spotting of a prostitute (the neighborhood association is working to get rid of this). It really is a one of NY's great neighborhoods, with a wonderful community feeling.

My brother, who lives in Northern Jersey, comes up almost every week, and finds more restaurants for me and my husband to try. His best pick yet: Real Thai Food (also called Pam's Real Thai).

More picks:
1. Ta Cocina Mexican Food -- taste real nachos, as they were meant to be.
2. Island Burger -- they don't have fries, but there's a good reason for that.
3. Halo Berlin -- The Wurst Restaurant
4. Zanzibar -- mod bar, trendy and a great place to gab with friends.

Quick Tips:

Expect average costs of 8 to 12 dollar entrees for dinner. Depending on what you get, the price could be much more, but it's possible to stay budget friendly.

Restaurants start closing at about 10:00/11:00 so don't just show up around then to get some substenance.

You may have noticed that Hell's Kitchen is near many Broadway shows and other theater productions -- in fact, many restaurants have pre-fixe dinners for just this purpose and they make sure that you get to your show on time.

Best Way To Get Around:

Hell's Kitchen is sort of between 34th and 59th from 8th Avenue to the edge of the water. I'm only covering the 9th Ave portion. You can reach Hell's Kitchen by the 1/2/3/9 red trains (50th Street & Broadway), C/E blue trains (50th & 8th Ave), and N/R yellow trains (49th & 7th Ave).

Ta Cocina bills itself as a taqueria and restaurant Mexicano, and it's seriously one of the best places I've been to for Mexican snack food in the city. By snack food, I mean burritos, tacos, quesadillas (which they call sincronizadas), and the like.

There are actually two Ta Cocinas a couple doors down from each other. The address and phone number I've listed is for the take out place, which is a tiny hole-in-the-wall place decorated with brick red tiles and bright chiles, where you can walk in, give your order, and walk away with the best nachos and the most authentic tacos and enchiladas ever in a couple minutes.

They have a great assembly line going and serve up fresh veggies and sauces and grill up their tortillas right in front of you in a matter of minutes. And for all you vegetarians out there, they only use vegetable oil so you don't have to worry about eating lard by accident.

The restaurant Ta Cocina caters to more upscale folk with its dimly lit atmosphere, its walls decorated with Mexican art and pictures of Frieda Kahlo, and its beautiful tables (glass covering bean boxes). From Monday to Thursday, you can get 2 for 1 margaritas (usually $8 a piece) and can choose from many different flavors. The food is priced more expensively than the take out place, probably around $12 for an entree.

A note about the nachos: The best I have ever had. They put down a layer of refried beans, put the nachos on top, and smother them with cheese and put them under a broiler. Then they put on their wonderful salsa and guacomole, and some sour cream and jalapeno peppers -- mmm mmm mmm!

Ruby et Violette is a cookie shop tucked away in a little space on 50th Street, near to 10th Ave. They specialize in chocolate chunk cookies and mostly do a brisk delivery and gift basket gig, but if you walk into their shop, they have a small counter with plates full of their cookie variations. The smell, as you might imagine, is heavenly -- the chocolate, vanilla and butter mixture is unmistakable. We tried the marshmellow and peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. At $1.25 a cookie (about 2-3 inches in diameter), they were expensive, but oh so worth it -- we savored every single delicious bit.

Check out their website at www.rubyetviolette.com.

Walk into Hallo Berlin, and you've walked into one of Germany's beer halls (ok, ok, I've never been to one, but Hallo sure feels authentic to me). The long picnic tables in the back are covered by picnic umbrellas (this is indoors, mind you). The burly waiter guys who seem to know all about beer and wurst. There's such a variety of beer and wurst offered that Hallo Berlin is a unique experience that you'll want to revisit.

Hallo Berlin has several locations in the city, including its Juicy Food Stand at 54th and 5th and the Food, Wine and Beer Garden at 51st and 9th.

Some suggestions for beer: I like a good golden wheaty beer like the Weissbeer. A friend of mine prefers a darker one called the Optimator. These range in price from $4-$6.

Some suggestions for wurst: Hallo rates its wurst by nicknaming them after cars, but I recommend the Bauernwurst for that dark rich smoky red flavor. The bratwurst is a bit bland, and the wienerwurst is very much like a hotdog. But everything is worth a try.