If your goal is to try new things in this new year, we’re hoping to inspire you by featuring some cool restaurants from around New York.  We love going out on the weekends and trying places we’ve never been to before, and so today we want to write about two new spots we visited recently.  Both are in midtown Manhattan, in very accessible locations, but they’re definitely not your typical tourist restaurants.  We found some interesting and unique food at each place, so read on to see our recommendations (just know they we will show some images of meat here).

First, we recently got to try Molyvos, a Greek restaurant that’s been in the city for over 25 years but recently moved to a new location, on 43rd Street near some of the Broadway theaters.  There’s plenty of pre-show restaurants that can be very mediocre (trust us, we’ve been to some), but Molyvos has really interesting options, including some meat-free dishes.  We decided to start our meal there with a three spread sampler, which you can mix and match for yourself.  We chose the melitzanosalata, made with eggplant, tomato, yogurt and herbs (in front); the skordalia, with potatoes, almonds and garlic (in the back right); and the Tirokafteri, made from feta and roasted red peppers (in the back left).

Miriam then tried the stuffed red bell peppers, which are filled with rice, veggies, and manouri cheese, then covered in a tomato sauce.

And Cyril decided to explore the whole fish section of their menu, where you can choose the type and weight of your fish based on what the restaurant has available that day.  Here’s the grilled lavraki in a lemon and olive oil sauce …

… plus a side of lemon garlic fingerling potatoes.

Then for dessert we shared this milopita, made with apples, raisins and walnuts in phyllo pastry, topped with cinnamon ice cream and caramel.

A little further south, around Union Square, we also got a chance to check out Friend of a Farmer, which focuses on seasonal and farm-to-table meals.  They’ve also got a pretty cool space, in a two-story townhouse filled with antiques to look like a rambling Victorian home.  We started our meal with their complimentary cornbread, topped with an apple compote.

Then we split the arugula salad, made with apples, raisins, watermelon radish, and shaved fennel, with a side of lemon mustard dressing …

… plus the harvest crostini, topped with whipped feta, roasted butternut squash, honey, herbs, and a fig chutney.

Friend of a Farmer is especially famous for their generously-sized pot pies – they’ve got one with chicken, plus a shepherd’s pie, but Miriam went for the vegan version, which is stuffed with several different kinds of vegetables.

And Cyril had the orecchiette pasta, with sausage, fennel, kale, butternut squash, and shallots, all in an olive oil and Parmesan cheese sauce.

These two spots were very different from each other, and we’re glad we got to sample from both.  Molyvos was a great place to go before seeing a Broadway show:  we got to try some interesting dips that we’d never had before, and Miriam had a tasty and substantial vegetarian entree while Cyril tried a pretty impressive fish.  And at Friend of a Farmer we sunk our teeth into a hearty vegan pot pie plus pasta, salad, cornbread and crostini, all made with some really good seasonal veggies.  Both of these restaurants are really convenient to get to, considering they’re smack in the middle of Manhattan, and they’re interesting and creative, which is not always what you encounter when you try to find somewhere to eat in tourist-heavy areas of the city.  We’d recommend either of these spots if you’re looking for somewhere good that’s also easy to get to, and we enjoyed getting our hands on some Greek food and some farm-to-table comfort dishes.