Unpresidented dining

Looking at U.S. President Donald Trump's New York dining choices over the years, one would think the city's food scene exists in a time warp, stuck somewhere between the late 1970s and early 90s.

For all his wealth, Trump's taste in food has, at least from media reports, shown itself to be rather mediocre and highly concentrated on midtown Manhattan – hardly a mecca for creative food experiences. This, despite the city's most interesting restaurants usually popping up in places such as the East Village, SoHo, Williamsburg and Tribeca – places where it is still unclear Trump has been in the past few decades.

Trump's New York – the space between the two Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue and Columbus Circle – is littered mostly with fast food and overpriced power lunching spots, where dreary mains can cost more than $40.

Trump's own restaurant in his golden Fifth Avenue building, which has been panned by critics – deservedly – serves up a hodgepodge of deeply mediocre dishes and cocktails at ludicrous prices. It is, by and large, food-court dining at midtown prices.

In addition, Trump's diet, as reported by The New York Times, harkens back to an age when junk food was an acceptable dining option, even for the wealthy and educated elite. Trump, a clean freak, apparently has a penchant for McDonald's, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Trump's New York food playbook is so mediocre it's best considered an anti-dining guide for the city. Here are the places you should go instead.

Midtown meals

The Trump Grill (sometimes spelled as Grille) is an afterthought in the New York dining landscape and has hardly any patrons even during those heady days running up to the inauguration when Trump Tower was chock full of reporters, tourists and visiting dignitaries. Its food and cocktails have recently been panned by critics, sparking the ire of Trump on Twitter. Trump Grill's martini has faced particularly harsh opprobrium for its cloudy appearance, chunky ice and presentation in a wine glass.

If you find yourself in midtown with nowhere to eat, options are limited but there are still hidden gems. Soba Totto and the Sakagura are two renowned Japanese restaurants, the first serving handmade soba and the latter what is best described as Japanese tapas such as sanma onigiri, vegetable-infused rice wrapped around smoky mackerel. Upmarket from there, try Gabriel Kreuther, one of New York's best chefs, for elevated French fare on Bryant Park. Kreuther, whose Instagram feed will have you booking a ticket to New York for dinner, serves up decadent dishes such as lightly battered frog's legs with lemony butter and squab with foie gras.

Taco bowl

The infamous taco bowl at Trump Grill, once a prop in Trump's olive branch to Hispanics, has been said to be "so devoid of flavour, it rendered an insult to Mexicans every bit as profound as Trump's previous pronouncements" by Robert Sietsema at eater.com. While that may be a bit harsh, the bowl is certainly not worth the $19 (U.S.) price tag, particularly when eaten next to the other menu items which hardly complement it.

Instead of this Tex-Mex mess, why not experience some of New York's incredible and sometimes cutting-edge Mexican food? One place to start is Cosme, Mexican chef Enrique Olvera's take on upscale Mexican tapas that blends traditional flavours such as tostadas with unlikely accoutrements such as sea-urchin roe. If your heart is truly set on Tex-Mex, head over to Avenida Cantina in the East Village and have a taco salad for about $10 less and 10 times more flavour.

Pizza

Trump's mediocre taste was on full display when showing around former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. Trump took Palin to Famous Famiglia Pizza near Times Square – one of the worst pizza places in the city, reserved for desperate postdrinking greasy indulgences or for tourists who don't know any better.

Instead of this abomination, give Joe's Pizza in the West Village or Baker's Pizza in Alphabet City a try. Both offer thinner crust, better toppings and mildly better interior design. If you can get a table, Paulie Gee's in Greenpoint or Motorino in the East Village offer some of the city's best Neapolitan pizzas in slick settings.

Storied restaurant

Trump has been known to frequent 21 Club, an overpriced midtown haunt that commemorates a table for Trump's late father, who frequented the joint. Trump held a family dinner there a few weeks ago, slipping away from the press corps to enjoy a $36 hamburger. The restaurant, whose menu screams 1980s excess complete with shellfish towers and a variety of caviar, has modest reviews by critics, despite being a historic New York institution featured in movies and television for decades.

Restaurants with a storied history, particularly monied ones, tend to be mediocre affairs. Yet, there are still some that have maintained consistency and quality throughout the years. Peter Luger is arguably still New York's best steakhouse despite having opened in 1887. Luger, which is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, dry ages its beef on-site and serves it crackling at the table. A little less formal is Katz's Delicatessen in the East Village, known for their pastrami on rye and Meg Ryan's fake orgasm in When Harry Met Sally.

While Katz's may be a tourist trap, the food is still stunningly delicious and probably hasn't changed much since 1888. Few know that Grand Central Terminal has one of the city's best oyster bars, which has been recently restored but still looks like the turn of the century when it opened.

Fine dining

Trump could have found a worse place to humiliate Mitt Romney over frog's legs than Jean Georges, a glitzy French restaurant in his Columbus Circle tower. The restaurant is a New York landmark for the monied and for culinary adventurers. At more than $200, the tasting menu puts the restaurant close to the top in terms of prices but still more reasonable than some nearby gems such as Per Se and Masa.

If you don't feel like dining at a Trump-owned property but want the same grandeur, head over to Eleven Madison Park, arguably New York's best restaurant, which serves 10 glorious courses that the city's critics have raved about since 2011, when Daniel Humm took over the kitchen. But be sure to book months in advance and get ready to pay upward of $295 a person.

Another choice is the seafood-focused Le Bernardin, which single-handedly elevates the cuisine of midtown Manhattan and will probably go down as one of New York's best restaurants – ever. Le Bernardin's chef, Éric Ripert, whose signature dishes include tuna with foie gras and truffled lobster en brioche, has become a celebrity in his own right, appearing often on CNN's Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain.

While Trump is an oversized figure in New York real estate, his footprint in the city's culinary scene has proven rather small. Here's to hoping his mediocre taste in food does not spill over into the policy realm. That will leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth, not just his own.