NYC's 11 Best Pre-Theater Dinner Spots In Midtown

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One of the best-loved, and most-established, restaurants of the city's Nordic food scene, Aquavit is a Michelin-starred, extremely elegant restaurant just a few blocks north of the Theater District. The menu builds on traditional Swedish ingredients like berries, mushrooms, game meats and seafood, and practices traditional techniques like preserving and pickling. Executive Chef Emma Bengtsson grew up in Sweden, so she really knows the outs and ins of creating truly authentic cuisine.

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The best part about pre-theater menus? You don't have to explain to the waitstaff why you might be eating earlier (or faster) than normal. The menu at db Bistro Moderne -- the more casual, contemporary French bistro by Chef Daniel Bouloud -- is available from 5 to 6:30 pm, and features three courses for $50, including vegetable terrine, with shaved fennel salad, leeks, zucchini, and yellow squash; cavatelli, with fava beans, kale, a veal shank ragout, and mascarpone cheese; and salmon rillettes with pickled shallots, crème fraiche, and frisee salad.

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The Druze are an Arabic-speaking group who generally hail from Israel. And Gazala Place, in Hell's Kitchen, is one of only two Druze restaurants in the city. Headed by owner and chef Gazala Halabi, both specialize in bourekas. These round savory pastries come stuffed with meat, cheese, veggies, and other assorted goodies. You can also get hummus topped with lamb, tahini, lebanee (handmade goat cheese), falafel, tabouli salad, chicken kebab and date cookies.

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Perfect for a big group, Gotham West Market is where to go when someone wants charcuterie and cocktails, while someone else is craving made-to-order sushi, and still another demands a burrito, followed by a tamale. And everyone wants to finish with a cup from Blue Bottle Coffee and maybe a scoop or two from Ample Hills. This market is sure to please you and everyone else: some excellent restaurants and vendors make their home here, just a few minutes west of the Theater District. Think food court, but way way way nicer—and much cooler.

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From 5 to 6 pm, the modern American restaurant helmed by Geoffrey Zakarian and harking back to "classic club rooms of midcentury America" offers a three-course, pre-theater menu for $54. Choices include artichoke soup with charred leek, peekytoe crab, and truffle melba toast; striped bass with crispy skin, russet potato gnocchi, rutabaga, choucroute  and a pomegranate-pancetta emulsion; a 12-ounce New York strip steak ($10 supplement); and a chocolate steam cake with smoked vanilla ice cream, graham crackers, and a cinnamon marshmallow.

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Totto Ramen serves some of the city's best ramen. It's modeled on traditional lunch counters in Japan, so you can watch the chefs furiously chopping, stirring, seasoning, and stirring the delicious ramen (some even use blow torches!). Lines can be long, and reservations aren't accepted. We recommend getting there super-early, putting your name on the clipboard attached to the door, and then wandering around the neighborhood for a while, building up both appetite and anticipation. We particularly like the Totto miso ramen, with ground pork, a hardboiled egg, and char siu pork atop paitan soup).