Last time I visited New York City I stayed in a fancy Times Square hotel. This time I want to stay in a modest hotel. We are going so my wife can visit her favorite Thai restaurant in Queens. Any suggestions?

Here is the restaurant if you are curious. Very authentic.

http://www.sripraphairestaurant.com

Chris, I've visited NYC a few times on business or personal trips, but have stayed in Manhattan. I don't have any personal knowledge of Queens hotels, but I checked out what seem to be interesting highly-rated hotels reasonably close to that restaurant. The Inn At Great Neck is just a few miles away from the Williston Park location and you might take a look at it.

I will look at it tonight. Thank you! I also found one called verve that looks promising.

Great, it's barely past 9:00 am here and you already have me craving Thai food.

Drive down. I will have my wife cook for you. Then we drive over to Bob's house, ring his doorbell than drive away.

Even better - ring his doorbell and stay. For a week.

On top of the cooking, I've seen pictures of his wife and his car. It's tempting!

And a week at Bob's would be good for the soul.

John's pick looks like a beautiful hotel but I will be staying at the Holiday Inn at La Guardia airport. (Make your loud airplane jokes now). It's very close to the subway line that I can take to the restaurant. I'll give the review when I get back.

...pardon?....please speak up

The hotel has met my needs. You can't hear any airplanes at all. It was very easy to drive to. It has on site parking. The hallways are a little dingy but other than that it is pretty clean. I am sort of across the way from Citi Field. The subway is around the corner. (Through an interesting neighborhood) But we never felt unsafe, these kinds of things don't bother us. The train ride to the restaurant was super easy, and then we jumped right back on and continued to Manhattan where we completed phase two of our quest. A Thai dessert bar in the St. Mark's area. It was worth the subway ride.

http://www.spotdessertbar.com

Anyhow, I'm glad my wife enjoys the simple things. She really loves riding the subway around NYC. She is having a great time. My friends wives would have taken one look at the area and the hotel and just would have said "no."

Tomorrow I am off to the Natural History Museum, Krispy Kreme donuts at Penn Station and the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. If things work out I might make it to Grimaldis Pizza under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun.

The small and simple often end up being the biggest and the best! One of our most favourite Christmas memories is all the gingerbread houses we decorated, not the more expensive gifts we've given/received over the years.

This is what we ordered tonight....we went back a second time. The cake on the left is sort of crispy and toasty and soaked in honey. Thai tea creme brûlée and hot thai tea and green tea tiramisu.

Thanks Fred. It's too bad Christmas is so stressful with buying gifts. Decorating gingerbread houses is the way to go.

Hello Lamp,

Glad you got to experience the excellent desserts at the Spot on St. Marks.
Last summer, two New York friends and I visited the same place; I remember the green tea tiramisu and those little cakes very well.

If you're looking for authentic Neapolitan pizza in mid-town Manhattan, an excellent new spot has opened on 50th Street, just west of eighth avenue.

http://donantoniopizza.com/

One of the partners in Keste, down on Bleecker Street in the Village, opened Don Antonio's, which I prefer to Keste.

Warning: if it's crowded, it gets very noisy and hard to communicate with friends if you're over 60!

Cheers for the season,
Alan

It took a year but I finally made it to Don Antonio's. The pizza was delicious. I went on a Saturday night and it is kind of a "scene". I dropped Alan's name and they gave me the worst table in the house. My wife kept having to duck every time a bus person walked by with a tray of dirty dishes. But we still had fun. We just laughed it off. My wife also ordered a ten dollar beer named "Ama". I don't drink beer but I thought it tasted pretty darn good. I think it is a Belgian white style made in Italy.

I'm just kidding about getting the bad table because of Alan, they had no idea who he was.

Not too far from Don Antonios is an awesome Thai joint named Pure Thai Cookhouse. I loved it there.

Two places we really enjoyed. Pure Thai Cookhouse and Lady M Cake Boutique.

Oh, look! They have food there that is box-jointed! Whoa!

I love the oxymoronic feel to your thread title.

You are so mean. I went back to the same Holiday Inn-La Gaurdia Airport. It is a cute little hotel. The walk to the subway is very interesting, especially if you are student of Ecuadorian culture.