Step inside this narrow storefront that feels like Palermo, Sicily: You’ll be regaled with the display of lushly topped focaccia fit for a quick lunch, small sandwiches on oblong rolls, custard-bearing pastries, and other baked goods. For breakfast, there are rice balls, cannoli, croissants, and the jelly doughnuts known as bomboloni.

Nearly a century old, John’s of Bleecker Street is one of the city’s last remaining coal-oven pizzerias, cooking pies at a fearsome 900 degrees. The result is a crisp crust topped with simple tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella — pies that have been delighting NYU students for generations. Sit at one of the wooden booths inside and carve your name thereon, and no one will complain.

Pelicana is a well-regarded Korean fried chicken chain, with a branch on 8th Street clearly aimed at NYU students. It specializes in drumsticks and wings, though whole chickens are also available, in a variety of heat levels and sauces. The outer coating is sweet and crackly, and a number of other dishes are highlighted, including onion rings, fried mac and cheese on skewers, and kimchi-strewn fries.

If you think making a whole meal of french fries isn’t a possibility, you clearly aren’t a student anymore. Pommes Frites is a fixture of food-intensive MacDougal Street. The fries are twice-cooked, Belgian style, and offer a bewildering catalog of sauces, some with an extra charge.

An obvious question often asked by NYU students is “Where do I get my parents to take me and my friends when they’re in town?” Monte’s is a good choice, a legacy Italian restaurant with lush, tomato-sauced food, founded in 1918. The dining room is comfortable and convivial, and puts you in mind of the century-old Italian roots of the neighborhood.

Lure Fishbar is another of those fancy places budget-minded students are unlikely to visit on their own — but if, say, a rich uncle or aunt is footing the bill, it could prove to be the perfect place. In high-rolling Soho just south of the campus, the kitchen gathers fish and other seafood of pristine freshness and whips up all sorts of things, most of them simple. Early evenings and for brunch on weekends the handsome dining room fills up with families, including those of NYU attendees.

Chinatown is a perpetual destination for NYU students, either via the subway or a not-far walk. They find the food inexpensive and delicious, and few places are as popular as Vanessa’s, a dumpling house with seating and self-service founded in 1999. Order at the counter and wait for your order to be called. The specialty is pot-stickers, fried with a cornucopia of meat and vegetable stuffings.

In the decades following the War in Vietnam, Chinatown developed an impressive collection of Vietnamese restaurants, of which Pho Grand was one of the first, serving as an anchor of the burgeoning neighborhood as it expanded northward and eastward. As the name suggests, the menu focuses on the beef-and-rice-noodles soup in the Saigon style, but the bill of fare also fills with over-rice dishes, curries presented with a baguette, spring rolls and summer rolls, and banh mi sandwiches.