I will apparently travel to another city for a concert at the slightest provocation. This time, the culprit was BINI. After discovering the 8-member Filipino girl group from videos of their Coachella performance earlier this year, I quickly became a fan. So, when I had the chance to see them at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, that was more than enough justification for me and Tim to turn it into a full 3 days in New York City. And, sure enough, the concert quickly became 3 days of spending time in Koreatown, eating at Michelin-recognized restaurants, Japanese book and toy stores, dim sum, tourist attractions, and a cable car ride over the East River.

We stayed at the Virgin Hotel with an incredible view of the Empire State Building, and we managed to pack a ton into 3 days! Here’s how I spent my weekend in NYC.

Day One: Koreatown, Our First Michelin Star Restaurant, & BINI

After arriving in New York, our first stop was the Virgin Hotel to drop off our luggage. From there, we immediately headed to one of the places I was most excited to visit: Koreatown.

First, we got lunch at an all-you-can-eat conveyor belt sushi restaurant called Kaiten Zushi. I love conveyor belt sushi restaurants. No notes!

As a huge K-pop fan and lover of Korean food and culture, I could happily spend hours exploring K-town’s shops, and that’s basically what I did! We checked out K-Popsy, K-Pop Nara, and Ellicor, but Koryo Books was probably my favorite of the bunch. I absolutely love being surrounded by shelves of albums and K-pop merchandise among tons of fellow K-pop enthusiasts. There is only one K-pop store in Pittsburgh (the city I live in), and I don’t make it out there too often, so places like this make me feel like a little kid at Christmas time. After wandering around the shops, we went to Grace Street Coffee & Desserts and shared an iced strawberry matcha while we rested for a bit at one of their tables.

Then, we were able to check into our room at the Virgin Hotel, where we discovered one of my favorite features of our stay: our view! My husband and I have a travel card that occasionally upgrades our hotel room as a perk, and we had been upgraded to a “Sky Chamber” room with a full view of the Empire State Building. Our view out the window was so awesome that even just hanging out in our room managed to be exciting, especially at night.

Before heading to dinner, we carved out a little time to check out St. Patrick’s Cathedral. And suffice to say, this was a very welcome and very drastic change of scenery from the last few hours of shopping in Koreatown. The cathedral is very impressive in person, and so beautiful, especially when you consider its location right in the middle of Manhattan.

That evening, we had a reservation at Estela, our first-ever Michelin-starred restaurant. We shared five small dishes, which was a great way to experience their menu. My favorites were the ricotta dumplings and the fried arroz negro with squid, although everything was very good. We had scallop and lobster dishes that we both liked, and I tried beef tartare for the first time ever, and quite enjoyed it! The restaurant was creative and elevated without feeling too fussy.

Then, it was time for the main event!

The entire reason this weekend happened in the first place was BINI. I went down the BINI rabbit hole after discovering them earlier this year and have become a very big fan! They have great music, choreography, visuals, and they definitely have K-pop vibes!

The concert was at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, which is an absolutely beautiful venue in its own right, and it was easily the highlight of the trip for me. The girls were amazing live and they were clearly having so much fun performing. After the concert ended, I decided that I couldn’t leave empty-handed, so I picked up a t-shirt and photocard set at the merch table. Thank you for a wonderful show, BINI.

After taking a train back to the general area of our hotel, we realized that we were starving, and decided to get some food at a Japanese izakaya called Mew. I ordered the kimchi cream udon noodles, which were SO good and the perfect comfort food to end the night, and Tim got an okonomiyaki.

After we finished eating, it was finally time to get some sleep. We had been awake for 20 hours and sleep was calling our names.

Day Two: Midtown, RiseNY, & Even More Incredible Food

Our second day was largely dedicated to Midtown sightseeing and shopping. We visited several iconic stores right in the heart of Manhattan: American Girl, Nintendo, FAO Schwarz, and the M&M store before heading somewhere considerably more niche: The Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine.

I enjoy tinned fish and eat it pretty often at home, so I knew I wanted to check this place out as soon as I found out about it. And while it’s definitely overpriced and tourist-trappy, I appreciated it for what it was. It has a fun carnival aesthetic and lots of different souvenir tins to choose from. I ended up buying four tins, including one featuring my birth year and one featuring, for some reason, the state of Maine (where I am from). I also got spicy smoked sardines and sardines packed with lemon. It feels wrong to actually open and eat these beautiful tins, but maybe I will after I feel that I’ve enjoyed them as souvenirs for long enough!

One of our biggest activities of the day was RiseNY. The experience begins with a video about the history of New York while you’re sitting inside a simulated NYC subway car. From there, you walk through a series of exhibits exploring different aspects of the city’s culture and history. There were some really cool pop culture pieces on display, including dresses worn by Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan!

The best part of this experience comes at the end. RiseNY concludes with a flying theater ride that is immediately reminiscent of Soarin’ at EPCOT. You’re lifted into the air in front of a huge screen and “fly” over New York City, complete with movement and effects. As a theme park lover, I knew that this ride would be my favorite part of the experience, and it absolutely was!

I think RiseNY is an especially good experience to add to a first-time NYC itinerary. It breaks up the shopping and restaurants and traditional sightseeing while also being educational. You’ll learn a lot about New York City and have fun while doing so. And the ride at the end is genuinely fun and makes this experience quite unique.

From there, we headed to Kinokuniya Books, a Japanese bookstore where I proceeded to spend considerably more money than I had anticipated.

This store has two floors filled with books, manga, puzzles, Studio Ghibli merchandise, stationery, and more. And, as anyone who knows me can tell you, I cannot resist cute stationery or Studio Ghibli. I would even go as far as to say that this was my favorite store we visited during the entire trip. I got birthday cards to send to my friends, a coffee table book about Studio Ghibli heroines, a couple of cute notebooks and a cute pen, and a couple other things. And after we left, Tim ran back in to get me something for Christmas that he’s keeping a secret, which I am very excited about!

And then, because I apparently couldn’t stay away, we went back to Koreatown for dinner.

Dinner that night was at Seoul Salon, a Korean restaurant featured in the Michelin Guide, and this ended up being a standout meal. I got spicy octopus with a creamy risotto. Tim got the Korean fried chicken, and we shared the tteokgalbi sliders, which featured wagyu steak, garlic mayo, and a potato bun.

The sliders were such a fun dish, Tim’s chicken was delightfully crispy and spicy, and my spicy octopus and risotto was easily one of my favorite meals in recent memory. This dinner really reinforced how much I love Korean food. I cannot recommend Seoul Salon enough.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours relaxing and looking out the window from our bed. But eventually, dessert called! We headed to Food Gallery 32 (yes, in Koreatown) and tried black sesame ice cream for the first time. It was surprisingly mild in flavor and quite palatable! We also shared an Oreo churro. Food Gallery 32 has many vendors, and I bought a Blackpink keychain from a lady on the second floor. This was a fun little outing!

Day Three: Chinatown, Roosevelt Island, and an Iced Latte

On our final morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Chinatown. There, we had an early lunch at Jing Fong. Jing Fong is a popular dim sum restaurant where the servers periodically come through the dining room pushing carts loaded with freshly prepared dishes. You can look at what’s available and choose whatever catches your eye! It’s a lot of fun to eat dim sum this way because you don’t know exactly what you’ll end up trying when you sit down. I had been here before in 2022, so I knew I wanted to bring Tim here. He loves dumplings and pork buns!

After lunch, we wandered around Chinatown for a while and spent some time exploring the Elizabeth Center, a small shopping mall filled with various little stores.

Our next destination was Roosevelt Island, but getting there was arguably more exciting than what we actually did once we arrived. Instead of taking the subway, we rode the Roosevelt Island Tramway.

The tram is part of New York’s public transportation system. But rather than traveling underground, you’re suspended above the city in a cable car! And as you go higher, you get an amazing aerial view of Manhattan and the East River.

We didn’t have an elaborate Roosevelt Island itinerary once we got there. We mostly enjoyed the waterfront and wandered around a bit before heading back. The tram ride itself made it worthwhile! Seeing the city from above was a very cool experience and it was something very different from the rest of our weekend.

Back in Manhattan, we stopped at Say Coffee, where I ordered a creme brulee iced latte and Tim got a strawberry smoothie. This was nice, because the cafe was quiet and peaceful, and a much needed slice of calm during an otherwise crowded and slightly overstimulating day! Plus, my creme brulee iced latte was super good. One of the best iced lattes I’ve had in quite a while, easily.

With our flight home approaching, we spent the last part of the afternoon sitting and people-watching in Greeley Square Park.

Three Days Well Spent

There are approximately one million different ways to spend a few days in NYC, and I am very happy with the version we chose. We had both been to NYC before, so we chose things to do that specifically appealed to us and our interests, rather than feeling like we needed to rush to see every iconic landmark.

As someone who loves Korean and Japanese food and culture, I felt very much in my element. I loved getting to spend so much time in Koreatown, eating great food and shopping for K-pop merch. And eating at a Japanese izakaya and shopping at the Japanese bookstore were clear highlights as well.

Of course, seeing BINI was the biggest highlight, and the impetus for the trip in the first place. And I also have to give RiseNY a special mention for being such a fun and unique experience that ends with a ride!

We came to see BINI. We left with four tins of sardines, a concerning amount of stuff from Kinokuniya Books, several excellent meals, and another fun New York weekend in the books! I would call that a successful trip.

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