Places we ate while down in the city …
| Overall |  | ||
| Food | | Service | |
| Ambience |  | Prices |  |
Located across the street from the Hotel Belleclaire (for which it does room service), this is quick, good breakfast at its finest. It’s open 24 hours — we only ate breakfast there (twice). The service is brisk but very fast and very efficient. The food (I had scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast) and coffee and fresh-squeeze OJ were excellent. The lunch and dinner menus looked similarly comforting.
| Overall | | ||
| Food | | Service | |
| Ambience | | Prices | |
A rather chi-chi eatery (with inside and outside seating) on the Upper West Side, a few blocks west of the Natural History Museum, Isabella’s food is exquisite (I had a nummy ducky ragout, and we both had amazing desserts). A very enjoyable meal — that we definitely paid for, as the menu’s on the pricy side.
Frankie & Johnnie’s Steakhouse
| Overall | | ||
| Food | | Service | |
| Ambience | | Prices | |
It’s a steakhouse. It’s a steakhouse that’s been in the Theater District since 1926 (when it was a speakeasy). And though the menu’s changed (according to the 1939 sample on the wall), it’s a place that’s clearly (and justifiably) comfortable with what it serves (lots of seafood appetizers, some good salads, lots of steaks, and several kinds of potatoes). The staff has been there, apparently, forever. We had a T-bone for two, which our waiter carved for us. Exquisite. Excellent wine list, too. It won’t win any awards for elegant decor (the dining room is boxy and cramped), but that’s not why you go to some place like this. You go for slabs of meat and potatoes. And they serve it up well.
(We went to the 45th Street restaurant; there’s also one on West 37th, and up in Rye.)
Pizza place at LaGuardia, Concourse B
| Overall | | ||
| Food | | Service | |
| Ambience | | Prices | |
For whatever reason, we never grabbed any pizza while in town. I’m not a huge NY-style pizza guy, but I was happy there was a good non-Domino’s pizza place at LaGuardia for a our supper. Good (and large) pizza by the clice, good strombolis, good garlic knots, fun staff. A nice way to wrap up the trip — if only I could remember its name!