^[1]This past weekend I took a little trip to Philly to see the King Tut exhibit. As part of the trip, I got my friend, who’s sort of from Philly, to take me to Pat’s and Geno’s so I could conduct a taste test of their famous cheesesteaks. After sampling both, my friend called her cousin who lives in Philly and asked how to get to the museum from Pat’s/Geno’s. When the cousin heard where we ate, she asked, quite loudly, “How can you eat that crap?! Go eat at Jim’s!”

If someone who lives in Philly recommends Jim’s over Pat’s and Geno’s, I have to give weight to that recommendation, and I’ve since put Jim’s on the list of places to go next time I’m in the city of brotherly love. It also got me thinking about the “touristy” places in NYC that tourists think are good, just because they’re famous.

Tavern On The Green is the obvious first choice, followed closely by the Russian Tea Room (no matter which incarnation it is), then any one of the “famous original Ray’s” or variations thereof. But that’s all I could come up with. I left the chains out of my list simply because they are the same quality no matter where you go and they’re not famous for being in NYC. Can anyone else come up with some famous restaurants that don’t deserve to be famous based on their food?