Where to eat in an ever-changing eatery landscape

I'm in the market for cheap burger and/or salmon steak options anywhere in Nolita and the West Village. In my current routine, I end up in one of those two neighborhoods immediately after I've been to the gym and I'm always raving hungry for protein.

So far I've found the $5 recession burger at Soho Diner and an inconspicuous greasy spoon at Christopher Street that does $7 burgers. Can't say they're big discoveries, though, and I still have no idea where to get an affordable salmon steak. I'm clearly still refining my after-workout meal options.

I spotted Calexito the other day on Broome, just off of Broadway, and had lunch there. Was a nice treat. (Calexito is a Mexican food cart, quite a famous one, actually, and easy to miss if you don't know to look for it in SoHo)

Ok, I just tried a new restaurant in the Lower east side and it blew me away. Meatball shop (84 Stanton). It's not expensive and everything on the menu is amazing. Our friend knows the chef so he sent out a ton of stuff and we were all drooling. The meatballs are outrageous, the vegetables even tasted like candy and they have ice cream sandwiches for dessert. And, its lively and packed and the vibe is just great. Can't recommend it more.

I recently went to Locanda Verde on Greenwich Street. The restaurant which is up for the James Beard Award this year is located in the Robert De Niro owned gorgeous Greenwich Hotel. The food is amazing and it is not expensive for such a high profile restaurant( our dinner for two which included a bottle of wine came to about$160) the only downside is that in spite of having a reservation you often have to wait a while for your table and you can't really wait at the bar for the bartenders have their own little game going where they seat people at the bar to eat and they have a different reservation list for this .. havent ever seen such a scam in any other NY restaurant...

I went to the Neptune Restaurant recently and loved the experience. They have a large tent so you can sit outside if you like. And the prices are very reasonable.

The food at Fatty Crab is pretty reasonable and they have a recession special (whiskey shot with pickle back and a PBR for 5 bucks) which is pretty awesome and super fun when you look around the restaurant and realize that you and an entire room full of self-respecting adults are drinking PBR.

@JenMac I so love Fatty Crab and I am thrilled that they opened on the UWS last year ..at least we can get reservations easily now.. the downtown one is also so packed.. speaking of new restaurants anyone checked out the sunburnt calf on the UWS ?

I've heard of the sunburnt calf: what's it all about?

So I went to Van Leeuwen in Greenpoint. I'm not sure if it's better than Blue Marble (sorry), but it is very good. I forced one of my friends to go with me and he's gone back just about every day since - and he lives all the way down in Clinton Hill. Anyway, I'm going to give it my stamp of approval - the vanilla ice cream was kind of amazing. Who knew vanilla could be so good.

@JenMac I've been to the Sunburnt Cow in the East Village - apparently they own the Sunburnt Calf on the Upper West Side - and it's pretty good. It's always packed though, as they have that happy hour thing where you can get all you want to drink for $20 and one of those bottomless brunch deals. It's also really small and dark in the bar area, so the atmosphere isn't the greatest. The food is pretty decent though - they have this massive burger that people love but I always get the Barrier Reef Benedict. Anyway not sure how similar the two places are...