Ben's Grandma Slice

I went to the Ben's pizzeria at the corner of Macdougal and W 3rd and had a grandma slice. This large, doughy, slice with plenty of cheese, tomatoes, and garlic is not the height of gourmet-ness. Not unbelievably high quality ingredients here. But it's addictive and tasty and makes me want to go back and eat it again. That's high praise in my book.

Stars: 4/5

Magnolia's, Sweet Revenge

Magnolia's:

I tried Magnolia's on the upper west side. I'd of course heard a lot about it but hadn't actually ried it, even though I've tried a lot of other cupcakeries. Shockingly bad. Wow. The frosting tasted authentically chalky -- way too much confectioners' sugar is all I can surmise. Yudge.

Stars: 1/5

Sweet Revenge:

I recently tried this new bakery in village on Carmine. First, its cupcakes look beautiful, with carefully styled frosting and streaks of colored food gel in it. Second, they are quite tasty. I had the crimson, which had creamcheese frosting, a raspberry theme, and raspberries baked into the middle. They serve it to you in a cup, and give you a flat wooden spoon to eat it with.  Excellent.

Stars: 4/5

Andre's Hungarian Pastry Shop, Cafe Noi

Andre's:

This rustic little Hungarian coffee shop has a sense of warmth and charm that is great all by itself. It has table service, but I decided to just grab one of these plastic-wrapped pastries and go. For only $1.50, these takeout-only items are a bargain. I got one of their kugelhopf slices (also known as babka). It was a big hunk of sweet bread with a crispy crust, which teeth tear into to reveal golden sugar and raisins. Delectable.

Stars: 5/5

Cafe Noi:

This is a pretty simple coffee shop with a tasty danish. Tat's all that I had. And it was good!

Stars: 4/5

Ronnybrook, Five Points, Abraco, Square Meal, Dhaba

Bunch of quick updates.

Ronnybrook Milk Bar in Chelsea Market - fantastic breakfast food items and shakes (not too thick, delicious...try the blueberry)

Stars: 5/5

Five Points - excellent brunch. Try the churros with Mexican hot chocolate, and the mac and cheese.

Stars: 5/5

Abraco - very nice simple entrees, mainly because they use excellent olive-oiley bread. Try their french onion soup (vegetarian!)  and their focaccia sandwiches. Also, their frittatas are creamy and nice. And their coffee is delicious.

Stars: 5/5

Square meal - delicious upper east side place with very nice cheese scones to start. I had an excellent grilled cheese (they grill it in olive oil). I'm docking it a little for their relative dearth of vegetarian options.

Stars: 4/5

Dhaba - decent new Indian food joint on Lex between 27 and 28 by the makers of Chola. I had a pani puri which was a little lacking in the sugar element and a channa bhatura where the channa was a little dry.

Stars: 3/5