I Tried NYC's Most Viral Foods (Worth the Hype？) 🥯🍕

I recently went to New York City, which is filled with viral food and matcha places, so I had to try them out. Is it actually worth queuing up for these places? Honestly, it's such a weird combination. Oh! Well, let's rate these viral places together. The very first place we went to was Lelecha, a bubble tea place but that also seemed to do a lot of Japanese bakery goods and even though they had so many drinks to choose from we were there for one mission only. Oat milk matcha latte. Just to put this into context we just came off an eight hour flight. I hadn't eaten in like 16 hours but this was the best matcha I've ever had in my entire life. I don't know if it was because I was secretly really hungry but it was just so so good. Shortly after we also grabbed something to eat. You cannot come to New York and not try bagels and we went to this very famous bagel place called Apollo. They only had about five things to choose from which I love because I get overwhelmed by choice so easily and I got the salmon cream cheese bagel. This was insanely good. Interestingly, the bagel itself tastes quite different compared to a UK bagel. It's a bit thicker, heavier, maybe more like pizza dough. The fish, phenomenal. However, the portion was so big that I couldn't finish it even though I hadn't eaten in like 16 hours. In the evening, we went to a very famous rooftop bar and honestly we just came for the view but we had to order some drinks. Usually I don't like alcohol but they weren't too shabby. However we spent so much time at this place and the waiters kept asking if we wanted some food so we felt like they were gonna kick us out if we don't order something so we got a dessert to share. And we wanted to try this anyway so this looks like a lemon but it's filled with cream. It's like whipped cream with chocolate. It's really good, you should try. This was definitely not something I would ever crave at home but it was definitely really nice to try and to share with someone. It is the next day, first stop, matcha, obviously. I'm just gonna have a little bit of matcha. Could I please have an oat milk matcha latte? Ice or hot? Hot please. Thank you. And no sweetener for you? And no sweetener. Or like syrups or anything. This is insanely full. Tastes very different. It's so weird because obviously it's matcha, but it tastes so different, it has more of the word was floral, it tasted very floral so I think they put some syrup in it because we actually went to this chain a few days after and it tasted completely fine then. So not my all-time favorite place. It's too early for lunch but we need caffeine so we're gonna grab another matcha at another like viral matcha place, there are so many of those in New York. Too many never too many. I promise this is the very last matcha place I'm showing in this video but I could not skip this because this is all over social media and I think that's for a good reason. Not only do they produce their actual own matcha but the baristas were incredibly friendly and even give me some free ice cream to try. It actually does taste like matcha. And even though we were in the heart of New York City they actually really took their time to prepare the matcha. It felt like a time capsule where you could just relax and stand still. Second matcha of the day and it's only like I don't know midday or something. You can barely taste it. I can barely taste it. Oh yeah this is matcha with coffee which I never had. Americano. This is nice but I feel like their matcha is a bit more towards bitter side. Oh! Do you like it? Because I think I like coffee like this way and then matcha is just kind of like... It's so bitter. All right. I feel like I'm like drinking medicine. It's not a good thing. Okay. To be fair, mine is really strong. I think they said they put six grams in four times what I usually do maybe. Imagine wine plus coffee. Can't see it on the video though. Thank you though. It's 11.30 now, but we're hungry, so we're gonna finally get some food and we're gonna get some pizza. There's a queue and Jess says, oh it's a good queue, it's not too long. But it literally just opened, yeah. Even though there were maybe 15 people in front of us, the queue moved incredibly fast and they even handed out menus to us, so we already knew what to order once we got inside. It was so busy, they actually had no space to sit down, so we just sat outside in front of the door. We're gonna do a food review now. I got truffle and Burrata. Very high hopes, because Jess says that whenever she comes to New York, she goes to this place. It's good. Yeah, actually, like, I can taste the truffle, which is nice. Yeah. Okay, burrata. You know, I never realized it was that big, the slices. It's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so good. I'm gonna eat it up. Burrata slice. Wait, give it a rating out of 10. 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. It's now the afternoon and we were extremely dehydrated, so we needed to take a stop in a cafe. We just got a refreshment. It looks like cocktail. It does, yeah. This is like hibiscus? Hibiscus. Hibiscus tea. But it's not sweet, like it's actually really refreshing. And she got a double drink. Oh yeah. Also, I slept like four hours. I have to get a coffee. Because honestly, the last match I played was like... four times than what i would usually have in like my matcha ratio so i'm like matcha'd out and i feel like that means something like if i'm matcha'd out. but we couldn't go a day without snacks so our next stop was trader joe's. i've never been there before but it is a very well-known supermarket more on the pricier side. are we getting snacks? i'm getting my jerky. oh my god look how shiny Oh my god that's huge. I need whatever they have in my hair. Oh they have mango. I'm like obsessed with dried mango. Oh my god. Like oh that's freeze-dried unsweetened. Oh it's pumpkin sauce. Pumpkin salsa. Do you like it? Beef jerky so cute. Can I try? Yeah that's like really sweet. It tastes very fruity like not fake fruity. Yum. And then it was finally dinner time. Something with sushi. I got some poke bowls. Yummy. It actually has so much stuff on it. I also have tuna and salmon but it's like embedded in sushi rice. I kind of picked different things so I have lotus chips, edamame, sweet potato, daikon. After the pizza and like the sugary mango we needed something to cleanse our souls. Yeah literally. Okay so even though we've only been in New York for 30 hours at this point I must say New York food is so much better than British food. Not just the types of food but vegetables, fish, it just tastes so much better. I don't know if they put something in there, if they do I don't want to know. It's the next morning and the best thing about being an adult is that you can have for breakfast whatever you want including sushi. It's currently 11 so it's slightly too early to have lunch but we're quite hungry so I just picked up some sushi from a Japanese supermarket. I feel like I really need that salt because we're walking so much. Low-key the fish in the US is so much better than in the UK. We've been shopping for the past few hours and I'm actually a bit hungry now so we're gonna go to Joe and the Jews which is something I go to very frequently in Oxford but at the same time I'm such a comfort person and I'm not hungry enough for a whole meal so we're gonna get the mussel up shake. I asked for extra large and they gave me literally two so they over delivered. Actually it's such an American stereotype I just realized. I love that. Um I feel like it does taste a bit different compared to the UK, but I can't tell what. How does it taste? More cacao-y. I do agree with cacao. I like it, yeah. But even within, like, when you have it in London or Oxford or even Brighton, like, it's different. It depends on the person who makes it. I already have a brain freeze. I feel like, though, like, there's like a club in here. If they would do, like, jazz music in here, that would be so much more of a vibe. Sandwich arrived! Mmm! What's the verdict? It's kind of the same. We just dropped our shopping bags off at the hotel. Refreshed. That's why I am wearing a different shirt but same trousers. But I am hungry so we are going to grab some dinner. A steak and mash bowl please. I was really craving some carbs and some like really good like steak meat so I got the steak and mashed potato bowl. So excited and also I wanted to try this and he actually gave it like to me for free so happy about that. That's actually really good I'm so like surprised by the quality of food here. I I actually feel like the food in New York so far has been better than in the UK and it's not even more expensive. This mash bowl was exactly what I needed so I give this place a 10 out of 10 because also the portion size wasn't actually too big than the snack. I was super excited for this. Man that was difficult to open. Anyway I was so excited because I thought it would be a very healthy protein bomb and I love a good protein snack but I have some thoughts on this. The packaging definitely did not match what it said the product was like it was not red inside at all which was a bit disappointing but also when I looked at the ingredients list it was purely just sugar in there. There's barely any protein so it's not a healthy snack at all but for flavor I give it a 7 out of 10. It is the next day and for lunch we went to the Rockefeller Center. The basement is actually like a food hall so it has lots of different food places to choose from but I had my eyes on one place only. Sweetgreen, a super viral salad bowl place. They only do takeaways but honestly the cost is almost like restaurant prices. Don't get me wrong the food looked really really good and I love that you could choose your toppings but also nowadays that's not really anything new. This actually looks so good, but it was 18 dollars. For basically a fast food restaurant. Visually this looked very pleasing but not gonna lie, it was a little bit disappointing because I expected more for that price. I definitely had much better and cheaper bowls throughout the last days. For the price I kind of expected more but I did enjoy it and fully ate it up. Yeah okay guys so this is Jessica's review time. Yeah I got it from the bakery pastry from Hany's bakery. It's a pear pistachio pastry. Oh my god. I don't know how I'm gonna eat this aesthetically. Is it good? Can I try? Yeah. Oh that's actually really good. It looks pink but it's a pear. Oh it's a pear. Yeah honestly I feel like that's one of the best things we've tried so far. What do you rate it out of 10? 10 out of 10. Yes. Dinner time! We got a kimbap to share. Look how massive this is. So we're sharing. That looks so satisfying. Mmm. I love how it has just like a thin layer of rice and then massive cabbage filling. Okay. Here you are. I'm starting to speak now. Mmm, it's good. It's good? I actually never had it like that. It had sushi dog. Yeah. But it's much thinner. Yeah, that's why I don't like sushi dog. Yeah. This was the first time I ever had kimbap. Honestly if they had it in Oxford I would have this every single week. 10 out of 10. So we're in Chinatown right now. Jess has been here before and she knows like a secret kind of snack spot so we're gonna try it out. It's something that I've never had before but Jess says that it's really really good. So it's a tofu pudding and it's on top it's like black sesame just like grind milled it. Oh ---- it's coming out. It's like a very traditional thing and it's quite healthy actually. So they just use soybean and then steam it. It's so good. I love black sesame. We're in Chinatown right now. This is like what I expect it to be like you know like super traditional. I think it's way more traditional than London. It's so interesting. It's kind of sweet. Tofu actually has quite high protein as well. Honestly though, if I didn't know it was tofu, I would kind of think it would be like vanilla kind of pudding-ish without like added sugar, you know? Okay, I like it. How do you find it? I like it. I probably wouldn't have it like every day. Yeah. But it's much better than I expected it to be. Because usually I'm not a big fan of the squishy tofu because of the texture. But I think it goes really well with the sesame because it's kind of sweet. We're in Brooklyn now and it is lunchtime. This place had a massive queue when we left the place but luckily it wasn't too busy when we arrived because it was only like 11 30. I usually always have super early lunch at around 11 or 11 30 which means I always get a place when I want to eat somewhere else which is a big pro. We've made it to a bakery. I'm gonna get a chicken sandwich and And also a matcha latte there. I found it so interesting because people outside America always complain about the tipping culture in America. But honestly, in the UK, there's always an automatic tip of 12.5% at least. So you don't even get to decide whether or not you want to tip. So honestly, I didn't feel like the tipping culture here is as bad as I expected it to be. Everything we've eaten so far always came in a takeaway box. Even when we ate inside, I don't know if that's a US thing. Yes, thank you. I think that might be number six, yeah yeah he took it away. Thank you so much. And I got my matcha. It's quite good, it's actually quite strong. Honestly I feel like here it's actually better with matcha because in the UK when I ask for matcha often they just add syrup. Oh my god this looks a bit difficult to eat. This tastes like pizza, quite good. I think because of the sauce. Very messy but probably one of the best chicken sandwiches I ever had. Probably last food spot for today, our dinner. We're in a restaurant called Pura Vida, which is in Brooklyn and apparently a chain restaurant. We're actually not even that hungry. We could have shared this. It looks really good. It's like tuna, avocado, rice. Honestly, it's such a weird combination because it's like sushi rice, but then like a brown wrap. This was probably the one meal I didn't enjoy in New York. Not that the restaurant was bad, but I just didn't like the combination of sushi rice in a brown wrap. I obviously didn't want to end the evening on a bad note, so I had to get myself some snack and I was eyeing this. Since the beginning of the trip, since I first saw it in a supermarket. So we have the same brand in the UK and I love it. It's basically raspberries with chocolate around it. But these ones were freeze dried and those we don't have in the UK. Only issue is that they were incredibly expensive, like seven US dollars. But to be honest, they were really good. I ate them in one go. Guys, bye stuff. Okay, that's the end of the video. Bye.