I research restaurants at every price point before my mom visits NYC - here are the 15 places we've gone so far

Kathleen Elkins/Business Insider

We did a lot of eating ... but we also did our fair share of exploring.

Last June, my food-loving mom flew in from North Carolina to spend a weekend in New York City with me.

She was in charge of picking activities; I was in charge of picking food.

June's itinerary must have passed the test because she recently headed back north, for Mother's Day weekend.

I went back to the drawing board, researching restaurants at various price points for us to explore - like before, I wanted to balance out pricier "splurge" spots with affordable places. And of course, I wanted these place to have really good food.

After two calorically packed weekends, we've now checked off 15 New York City restaurants and cafes.

We've savored oats at a tiny oatmeal bar in Greenwich Village and sampled foie gras at a world-renowned restaurant on the Upper East Side. Read on to see what we ate in between.