I got weekend brunch here a couple of times, and assumed that it was the kind of place that gets posts on this board, but I was surprised to see that no one had posted about it. So I'll make the first stab.

The first time I got brunch there, I got a croque sandwich which was fine, nothing to write home about. The second time, though, I tried what they call a "breakfast pizza", which is more of an omelette in round form in a crust. Doesn't sound exciting, but they pack it with bacon, the right amount of feta cheese, and chili flakes for some heat. Pretty original, and delicious! I washed it down with a bloody Mary, which was also satisfying and good. I highly recommend this dish there.

Le Paddock is at the corner of Prospect Avenue and Reeve Place, near an entrance at the Fort Hamilton stop on the F/G line.

I just checked out Nish Nush, at the corner of Church Street and Reade. I don't know when it opened, but it seems to be new. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the felafel I ordered was. I'm normally not a huge felafel fan, but I ordered their "red hot chili", a spicy felafel. This was not light-hearted spiciness - it had a kick, but it was delicious and flavorful, stuffed in a fluffy pita with Israeli salad and some nice hummus. There are other items on the menu that look interesting, so I definitely recommend checking this place out.

Last time I ate at PPQ was in September. That could explain it.

I just got back from a great trip to San Francisco. I was the most interested in food that’s harder to get on the East Coast. On top of that list is the burrito, which is what transplanted Californians here seem to miss the most.

We stayed in the Mission District, which felt a bit like ground zero for a burrito odyssey, although we ended up only going to two places, because the second one was good enough that we weren’t interested in gambling elsewhere. The first place we went was El Matete on Bryant between 22nd and 23rd, where we got pozole and a carnitas burrito. The pozole was a bit meh, but the burrito was yummy. Roosevelt Tamale Parlor, on 24th between Bryant and York, was better. I actually wasn’t crazy about the eponymous tamales, but the burritos were delicious and they had a great piquant chipotle salsa.

The other cuisine we were excited about was Burmese, which isn’t easy to find in NYC. We first went to Mandalay, on California between 5th and 6th Avenues in the Richmond. The dishes we got were nice but not mind-blowing: a ginger salad, a tea salad, and a lamb dish (I don’t remember what). What was much better was Yamo Noodles, a proverbial hole-in-the-wall place on 18th Street just west of Mission. There’s barely any room to sit in there, and we had to get our food to go, but it was sublime, probably the best meal of our trip. We got the house noodles with pork, the tea salad, and a summer roll, which were all blissfully flavorful.

We can get donuts on the East Coast, of course, but I think that California tends to be more artisanally-donut oriented. Dynamo Donuts, on 24th Street between York and Hampshire, had unfailingly tasty donuts, including maple bacon, my favorite.

The other sweet thing we indulged a lot was ice cream, which San Francisco seems to pride itself on, although I thought that some of it was overrated. Humphrey Slocombe, at 24th and Harrison, seemed to be more interested in wacky flavors (bourbon and cornflakes) than deliciousness. Joe’s, on Geary in the Richmond, was nothing special. Bi-rite, however, on 18th Street just east of Mission Dolores Park, was great. Even the vanilla was special there. I’d also add that I got salt peanut cookies there, which were amazingly tasty, achieving an optimal blend of sweet and salty.

The last California-specific treat was a visit to the farmer’s market at the Ferry Building. Now, we do have good farmer’s markets in New York, but you just can’t get things like oranges and strawberries there. A graze through the farmer’s market is well worth it, although I was disappointed in a sausage sandwich at one of the stands there. Hog Island Oysters is also located at the Ferry Building, and it’s a treat if you like oysters.

We checked out PPQ, a Vietnamese restaurant on Clement Street in the Richmond District, for their crab dish bathed in garlic, which we loved on a prior trip to San Francisco, although for some reason it didn’t feel so special this time around. The same goes for the spring rolls in vermicelli there. I don't know if they've gone downhill or we were just there on an off-day.

For an upscale meal, we went to Commonwealth, on Mission just south of 18th Street, and ordering the tasting menu. I was pleasantly surprised at how flexible they were about a substitution I wanted to make with it, and the food was really tasty.

We also got a Sunday brunch at Star Belly in the Castro on 18th Street, which was fine for stuff like pancakes and bacon for when you that kind of thing. FWIW, I drank a lovely mimosa there, too.

I also got a prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich from Luccia’s at 22nd and Valencia which wasn’t anything to write home about.

Finally, I got a very tasty meal at Gajalee, a Goan restaurant on Valencia between 16th and 17th Street. I’m not so savvy as to the distinction between Goan food and most the dishes one finds in Indian restaurants in the U.S., and just ordered lamb vindaloo and a shrimp thali, which were both spicy and non-greasy.

I probably didn’t go to places that most SF ‘hounds don’t already know of, but I’m hoping that this report can be helpful for out-of-towners looking for a good sample of SF chow.

I'm late responding to this post, but I love this place (until this week, I worked nearby). The tacos con suadero (goat) were delicious.

Had lunch at Emilia's on Arthur Avenue yesterday, which is around 186th Street. The best thing about the lunch was an appetizer that they have, a zucchini-flower-and-prosciutto fritter. It's amazing in that cusp-of-crispiness-and-doughiness that a good fritter has. I got the gnocchi as a main course, which was good. The meatball it came with was a bit meh, but the gnocchi itself was nice and fluffy.

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Emilia's
2331 Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY 10458

Went to Governor's Island today and, near the weird mini golf course, got some Jamaican food from Veronica's, the vendor who has the concession there. It was pretty great. The jerk chicken didn't skimp on the spice at all and was very flavorful. The ginger beer I had was pretty impressively spicy, too. My wife got oxtail, which was sumptuous. The sides weren't as spectacular, but got the job done; I tried the mac n' cheese, rice and beans, and collard greens.

For dessert, we got Blue Marble Ice Cream near the Southern part of the island. The people I was with got a lot of flavors, but the butter pecan was the best. It actually was really ... buttery.

Lately I've been lunching at Mi Pueblita, on 167th Street just west of Grand Concourse (between the 167th stops on the D and 4 lines). I got the torta first, which was pretty good - packed full of the usual stuff, including a nice jalapeno, but nothing spectacular. Lately, I've been eating the tacos, and they're really good. My favorites are suadero (goat) and carnitas. They're delicious with cilantro and onion, and you can douse them with guac and red/green sauce to your taste. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a try.

Thanks for responding to my inquiry, but I have to respectfully disagree about generalized statements about "high-end restaurants with well-established reputations." Some such restaurants may have better qualities than others for partcular circumstances. Some may have "well-established reputations" based upon the past rather than present conditions, and some are just overrated. Partly for reasons having to do with time and partly for reasons having to do with money, I don't get to eat at restaurants like this very often, so when I do I want to assure that it's going to be worth it (which has not always been the case in my past experiences at high-end restaurants). I have consistently found the collective chowhound community to be the most trustworthy source of information toward this end, by the way, so I appreciate your tip about EMP and any others that might be posted.

A couple of us husbands are taking our wives with birthdays a day apart out for dinner together, and I wanted to scope the opinion of chowhounders on the choices in the subject line - if you had to pick one of those, where would you go? "Fabulousness" was requested, and deliciousness is of course a top concern. Thanks!

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Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10010

Del Posto
85 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10011

Corton
239 West Broadway, New York, NY 10013

I had lunch today at Mai, a Senegalese restaurant in Staten Island on Victory Blvd. near Corson. I didn't have high expectations, but I was curious about the place and hadn't had Senegalese good for many months, so I checked it out. I was very pleasantly surprised. I got a dish called "debe," a grilled lamb dish that came dressed with onions and a lemony sauce -- not like yassa, but more subtle. It also came with a fiery hot sauce (I like spicy food) and a side of sweet plaintains. At the owner's recommendation, I also got a homemade ginger drink that was kind of like ginger beer, which was also quite good. My one complaint is that the lamb meat was tougher than I usually like it, but it so flavorful that it wasn't a big deal.

Incidentially, this area (Tompkinsville, I guess) seems to have a remarkably diverse array of cuisines: besides the Senegalese food I ate, I saw Polish, Italian, Trinidadian, and Mexican restaurants, and I've eaten Sri Lankan food a few blocks down Victory Blvd. I wonder if anyone has any recommendations as to the other options in the area.

My family and I will be vacationing in Rincon next week. I've searched this board and haven't come up with too much, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations (for anything, as long as it's delicious; from take-out carts to upscale and everything in between). Thanks.

My favorite Mexican in the area is Mexico Lindo y q Rico, on Coney Island avenue just south of Church (actually, south of where Church and Albemarle almost run into each other). On weekends, they have delicious barbacoa (goat) tacos, but the tacos al pastor are not bad, either. They also have a great breakfast dish, "huevos divorcios," or "divorced eggs," which consists of two eggs, one in green sauce and one in red. Not bad for a place that looks like a nondescript deli from the outside.

La Huasteca, on Church between Westminster and Argyle, isn't as good, and it's pricier. My favorite thing about La huasteca is the caldo de pollo, or chicken soup, which is hearty as heck and great if you're sick.

Tauqeria Poblano, on Church Ave around East 8th Street is iffy. I used to love their cemitas (sandwiches with melted white cheese on them), but sometimes they're off. The tacos there are usually pretty reliable, though.

Los Palmeras, on Church between Stratford and East 10th, confuses me. Sometimes it actually seems like a restaurant and carries food -- which isn't bad -- and sometimes it seems more like a bar without the license and they don't seem particularly interested in serving food.

There are other places in the neighborhood I haven't made it to yet, like Gavilan on Church and East 5th, or Guadalapana (I think I got the name wrong) on Coney Island Avenue and Albemarle, just south of Mexico Lindo y q rico.

btw, I think of Kensington as being west of Coney Island Avenue and Prospect Park South as east of Coney Island Avenue.

I find the whole tenor of this comment thread to be rather odd. One of the things that I love about chowhound is the focus on deliciousness. Issues like service and price aren't irrelevant, but they've consumed the thread here in a manner that strikes me as way disproportionate the the issues at hand.

For me, the bottom line is that the lunch I had at Mile End yesterday was delicious. Moreover, they're selling a product that I can't find elsewhere in NYC, so I really hope that they succeed. In a city where so many delicious restaurants go under, and so many mediocre ones survive, I find it hard to begrudge one that both serves delicious food and has hyped itself to the point where their supply is having trouble keeping up with the demand.

You often see this come up in discussions about DiFara's, where you get a superlatively delicious product via a pretty dysfunctional service model. Having once contributed to complaints about DiFara's service, I'm sympathetic with the gripes of people who couldn't get the smoked meat they were expecting, but one important difference is that Dominic Demarco is set in his ways and unlikely to change, while the owners of Mile End are just starting out and have a lot of room to adapt.

The other beef with this place (sorry) is the $8 price for a sandwich, which I also find odd. My office is located in the financial district, where sandwiches of vastly lower quality go for comparable prices. I can't see how $8 for a unique-to-NYC, delicious sandwich is so out of line, especially when NYC is filled with restaurants that have entrees that easily exceed that amount that don't come close in terms of taste. (I certainly don't mean to trivialize anyone's economic situation if they really can't afford something; I'm just comparing Mile End to common dining-out prices around town.) Indeed, the Econ 101 guy in me says that if the supply of smoked meat isn't enough to meet the demand, then the price will naturally rise. To return to a DiFara's comparison, slices there are a lot more expensive then anywhere else, but well worth it, and still a lot less than a regular meal out at a restaurant where you're likely to get much less tasty food.

It bears noting that pastrami sandwiches at Katz's (which I also think are delicious, btw) go for something like $15. Granted, the sandwiches there are bigger, but beyond a certain point one hits the law of diminishing returns anyway; there's only so much one can eat before one's stomach starts to eat. That goes double for the monstrosities at Carnegie Deli, who seem to plow everything their food lacks in quality into sheer, oppressive quantity. Granted, your mileage will vary depending on your individual appetites, but my humble, subjective judgment was that the Mile End sandwich was not unduly small by any stretch.

Well, I tried it this afternoon and liked it a lot. I've been to Montreal once and felt bummed that I couldn't get smoked meat in NYC. Mile End fires up those neurons in me; the meat was smoky, moist, and tender. Unlike some other commenters, I was fine with the size of the sandwich; I was plenty full by the time I was done. I don't have much use for Carnegie-Deli-style monster-sized sandwiches myself.

When I first tried Madina, Bangladeshi take-out (with an eat-in option) at Coney Island Ave & Beverly Road, I didn't like it, but it's grown on me over the years. I got delivery from there twice in the last couple of weeks and it's gotten better. The samosa chat stands out for me as a delicious combination of spices with a hint of sweetness, vaguely reminiscient of back-in-the-day Mina. The palak paneer (cheese and spinach) doesn't scale Mina heights, but it's still quite good. I also got a lamb dish (forgot which one, sorry) that I liked a lot as well, with a nice tender lamb in a spicy sauce.

In light of the sad demise of Paradise East, a rare bright light in the otherwise uninspired Pakistani dining choices along Coney Island Avenue, it's nice to have good South Asian in the neighborhood.

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Madina
563 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11218

Went to J & V pizza on 18th Avenue just south of the N stop this weekend (around 63rd street) and got a plain slice and round and square margherita slices. All were good, but the round margherita slices really stood out. There was a sumptuous bulkiness to them that packed in extra flavor. DiFara's is still my favorite in Brooklyn but if the thought of jockeying against a crowd for 45 minutes is too exhausting, it's nice to have this option available.

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J & V Pizzeria
6322 18th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11204

Chalk me up as another fan of NYC ICY who's named Jack. To be technical about it, NYC ICY makes ices and "cream ices," which I guess us sherbet. They make some unique and awesome flavors, like mango basil ice, peanut butter/reese's pieces creamy ice (soudns gross, but it's heavenly), Mexican chocolate creamy ice (pretty spicy for ice cream), and more standard flavors that are done well, like cookies and cream or vanilla malt.

I don't know how authentic these places are, nor if they will satisfy you, but there are two Sephardic restaurants in Brooklyn that I think are quite tasty, FWIW.

Olympic Pita on Coney Island Avenue between Avenue J & Avenue K has a range of kebabs and an even bigger range of salads, which are quite sumptuous and delicious. I believe that they're Iraqi/Israeli, although I'm not sure.

Famous Pita on Coney Island Avenue around Ditmas is my favorite place for falafel. After you get it (with a shmear of hummus), there's a brimming salad bar where you can help yourself to falafel trimmings.

This may not be totally on point for your request, but as I said, these places are quite tasty. Good luck!

I went there last night and loved it. The beef momos are simple -- just beef dumplings -- but quite good. I got the chili pork, which had a nice texture and flavor. I'd recommend getting with the tingmo (steamed bread) rather than the rice; the tingmo was a good medium to soak up the flavors. They also had a very spicy sauce that you could add on (I'm under the impression that spiciness isn't really native to Tibet, but what the heck, it tasted really good). We also got a tsel-something (I forgot the second word) that was a fried vegetable patty, basically, which also had a great texture.

I have to add that I've lived in this neighborhood for almost four years now, and the eating options have expanded much for the better in that time. Top Cafe Tibet, Farm on Adderley, Mexico Lindo y q Rico, Shayna's, NYC ICY, 2 B Thai, and Pomme de Terre have all opened within the past two or three years, and they've all been delicious additions to the local dining scene.

First, a nitpick. East of Coney Island Avenue is more Ditmas Park or Prospect Park South than Kensington. But I digress. I'd like to add a rave for NYC ICY.

I live around the corner and have had a chance to sample multiple flavors and haven't come up with one I don't like yet. The mango basil ice is as refreshing as it sounds. The creamsicle ice cream actually tastes like a creamsicle in ice cream form (it sounds gross, but it tastes surprisingly good). They pull a similar trick with caramel-flavored ice cream. There's no caramel in there per se, and it looks like vanilla ice cream, but they somehow manage to make it taste like caramel.

I've also tried the vanilla malt ball (which I think I posted about previously), which was pretty good, the Mexican cocoa, which was pleasantly spicy, and the peanut-butter-snickers flavor, which again sounds gross but is actually quite sumptuous. I highly recommend this place.

Speedy's is on 4th Avenue between 59th & 60th Streets. I went there a few years ago on a recommendation from this board and liked it a lot. I checked it out again this past weekend. Since my first visit there, I've traveled to Oaxaca, so I was very interested in the Oaxaqueno tamale on the menu. While the tamale didn't particularly remind me of the tamales I had in Oaxaca, it was incredibly good: steamed to a velvety perfection and fiery spicy.

My dining companion and I also tried a quesadilla with corn fungus -- I forget what it's called, huitcochle or something like that -- which was good enough to get again, a taco al pastor, which was fine albeit short of sublime, and nice watermelon juice and horchata.

I moved to the vicinty of Church Avenue and Coney Island Avenue about three-and-a-half yeares ago. There's some good food around there, but not a whole lot. Recently, though, there's been a pleasant surge of decent places to eat.

I posted a little bit earlier about Bev's, the Jamaican place on Church between Westminster & Argyle. I went back and tried the jerk chicken, which wasn't as good as the jerk pork I had on my first trip, but the oxtail was still good.

NYC ICY, which I think used ot have an outpost on Avenue B in the East Village, just opened up on Church between Coney Island Avenu & East 10th Street. It's got creative flavors of both ice cream and ices. I tried the mango basil last night, which was terrific and refreshing, and the vanilla malt ball ice cream, a nice combination of tasty flavors that make you want to regress to childhood.

Palmeras has been on that strip of Church for a while, betwen Stratford and East 10th Street. While it was technically a Colombian restaurant before, it never exactly seemed like a restaurant, but more of an unlicensed bar. They never reacted well when I ordered food in the past. However, they've had a change in ownership and it's now a Mexican restaurant, joining the concentration of Mexican eateries in the area. I've tacos there that were pretty good; I had the carnitas and al pastor and they were done pretty well.

Finally, E & R, which was on the corner of Church & East 10th had gone out of business, and has now been replaced by Shayna's, which I assume is Trinidadian based upon the huge flag they've got inside. I got a goat roti there, which wasn't as superlative as some others I like better around town, but good enough to return and try more things. I had to plead with them to give me sufficient pepper sauce, which they did.

I went there with friends last Saturday night. We have a baby, so we made a reservation for 6. I'm generally a little sheepish about dining with a baby in places like that, but I figure the 6 o'clock sit-down leavens it. They were very gracious and accommodating, and there were actually several babies at that hour (we all cleared out by 7:30, in case you're worried).

Anyway, the food was great overall. I had a special shrimp salad which was fresh- and crisp-tasting. I sampled other appetizers that my co-diners got, and grilled sardines and tuna tartare were both quite tasty. For a main course, I got the duck confit which was pretty good -- the haricots verts that came with it were unexciting. The people I was with got the grilled branzino (a bass-like fish), the duck club, and the mushroom ravioli. I didn't try them, but there were good reviews all around. For dessert we got a special bread pudding, which was wonderful.

I live nearby and would definitely go back.

Bev's is/was a Jamaican take-out joint on Church Avenue between Westminster and Argyle. It was always forbidding, no one ate there, and the few times that I went in to get food, they acted like it was rude to do so.

A couple of weeks ago they seemed to close, but there was a sign out front saying that they were renovating.

The renovation is complete, and it appears to be run by different management. On one of the awnings the sign that says "Bev's" was scratched out and instead it looked like some initials, I forget what, B and P or something like that.

Anyway, I checked it out tonight for some take-out. Unlike its prior incarnation, the new place actually had people eating there (they have some tables) and ordering food there. Good start. Even better, my holy grail for Jamaican food was on the menu -- jerk pork! I ordered a medium dinner of that and oxtail for my wife. We both enjoyed our dishes. The jerk pork was appropriately spicy and flavorful, the oxtail tender. The sides that came with the dinners were so-so; iceberg lettuce and flavorless tomato, with a little plantain and good rice. Glad to see that it's changed. I just need to get the name of the place straight.

Tottenville, Staten Island is part of New York City, but it feels like you need a passport to get there. I had to go there for a non-chow related reason and took the SIRT all the way to the end of the line. I checked out a pizza place on Amboy Road just west of Main Street called Vellaggio (I'm probably spelling it wrong). I got what they called a "Brooklyn" slice, which basically was a Sicilian. It wasn't bad; nicely flavorful sauce, the pizza dough was tasty. Afterward, I went to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor up the block for dessert which wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but very nice.

This neighborhood doesn't strike me as a destination for food, but if you happen to be there for another reason, there are at least these two pleasant options.

I had jury duty the other day and at lunch wandered into Guyana-Trinidad roti (or something like that; I forgot the exact name) on Lawrence Street just south of Willoughby. They had duck roti on the menu, but didn't have it that day. I got the veggie roti instead and it was pretty good. I didn't have to beg them to put the pepper sauce on (they did ask, but weren't shy about applying it). The spinach was particularly good, the roti not overly flaky, and the sauce a nice compliment. One quibble is that they didn't put pumpkin in the roti, which I usually love in roti dishes (Hot and Spicy in Ozone Park, Queens does a good job on this score). Pretty cheap, a good place to return to.

About three years ago, I moved to Prospect Park South and was excited by the proximity to the big Pakistani community on Coney Island Avenue between Avenue H and Ditmas. I figured that there must be a lot of gems in there. I tried about five places, and they ranged from bad to mediocre. I'm glad to report I found one that I genuinely liked: Paradise East on Coney Island between H and I.

They've got kind of an odd menu, because there are Chinese and Italian dishes there (I was hoping for something Tangra-Masala-like, but that will have to wait). I stuck with the Pakistani dishes. I particular, the samosa chat was great (although better the first time I tried it), the palak paneer was spicy and flavorful, and I also got a goat dish that I don't remember the name of. They have four goat dishes on the menu; it's a spicy dish, with ginger in it. The meat was exactly as goat should be, and the sauce it was in was right; not too gloopy.

I would recommend the Farm on Adderley, on Cortelyou Road between Westminster and Stratford Road (a few blocks west of the Q train). The food is terrific, Applewood-level -- they do a lot of different salads, meats, fish, at least one veg dish, creative cocktails, and good desserts. It may sound boring, but I actually got the hamburger a couple of times on recommendations from others. The first one was heavenly, the second not so much.

And they're baby-friendly (there are a lot of parents with small kids in the 'hood). My wife and I have a three-month-old, and we've taken him there twice already. One time, they accommodated us by clearing a space at a table in their garden for his stroller (He slept through it, but if he were to cry, we would have sped out of there to bounce and comfort him).

I ate at Meytex once. It's Ghanaian. It's OK. I had fufu with goat. It wasn't the greatest, but was intriguing enough that I'll go back at some point.