West & East Villages with SoHo in Between

 We didn't spend a ton of time in East Village.  We went to Katz's Deli on the Lower East side and then walked over to the Little Cupcake Bakery which is right as you enter SoHo.  The iconic Deli is 100% the long wait.  It is the best pastrami out there.  Yum!

The Bakeshop didn't quite live up to expectations.  We got their cookie dough cake (fairly bland), Carrot Cake (not enough spice), a double chocolate cake (Little Man and I really liked this one), and a type of Chantilly cake (Little Lady and dad loved this one the best).

On a different day we did a walking food tour of West Village that my friend recommended to us.  It was a lot of fun! We started with desserts at Rocco's.  They're famous for their cannolis, but our favorite was actually the lemon meringue pie.

From there we crossed the street to Murray's Cheese for some absolutely phenomenal mac and cheese.  Little Lady is our mac and cheese connoisseur, and she felt this was one of the best things she ate on the whole trip. 

Next up was the Nona Maria pizza slice at Bleeker Street pizza.  Sadly, it was over cooked, so it wasn't the best representation of New York style pizza.

The next stop was absolutely delicious at Taco Mahal.  We got a Tikka Masala tacos. Wow! If you love Indian you will adore this place.  

Our last stop was for the viral Chicken a la Vodka sandwich at Mama Too.  The boys also picked up one of their classic square pieces of pizza and loved it.  The fresh mozzarella slices and pesto on top really put this sandwich over the top.  It lives up to the hype.  I wish it wouldn't have been our last stop, because by this point we were really full.

We did a couple of fun things in SoHo. It has a much hipper, grittier vibe to it.  We walked quite a bit in SoHo from the Jackie Robinson museum to Eileen's Cheesecake and then on a different day when we were traveling from the opposite direction to go to the Ice Cream Museum.  

The boys and Joel loved the Jackie Robinson museum.  They completed a scavenger hunt.  

Afterward we picked up some of the famous Eileen's cheesecake to have at the hotel later in the evening. It's a classic for a reason.  It was really good.

The Ice Cream Museum is another highlight of that area.  The whole family loved it.  It's definitely different than anything we've experienced before, so it was a lot of fun.

We loved our time exploring so many areas of Manhattan.