La Rustique

This amazing little Pizza place offers excellent pizzas for takeout. We have tried pick-up as well as delivery and were impressed with both. We have only tried cheese pizza and haven't regretted it. We went for extra sauce as we loved their sweet sauce a lot. Very reasonably prized, this place fills a good void in the area it serves.

Morris St b/w Green St and Washington St
Jersey City

Dosa Hut

Yes, there are more Dosa Huts in the tri-state area than there are types of dosas in this particular Dosa Hut that I am talking about here, but only by a negligible margin. This is a new place where the old Chowpatty used to be in Journal Square in Jersey City. The dosas are spicy and tasty and the sambhar is good as well. Masala idly was our favorite. However, it dead not go well with our stomach. We had a bellyache for a couple of days so be vary if you have a tender stomach.


Newark Avenue, Journal Square
Jersey City

Leela Lounge

This Indian restaurant just off 5th Avenue on West 3rd St, is actually quite good. Not too many options for vegetarians but the portions are large and the food is tasty. The service is excellent and seems like the owners themselves exclusively serve the guests. This makes a huge difference and makes Leela, while not a great culinary experience, a fine dining experience.

Downtown Manhattan
W 3rd St

Tio Pepe

This might be some of the worst Mexican food you will ever taste. Bland, uninspired, low key and just plain boring. Citysearch has great things to say about it and I took Puja to this place yesterday and this was such a huge disappointment. Of all the horrible things you can do in a Mexican restaurants, these guys do the worst by serving over-the-shelf and not homemade salsa -- full of preservatives and tasting like tomato sauce and vinegar.

Downtown Manhattan
4w St

Moghul

Puja really likes the idea of this restaurant. It reminds her of the big and good restaurants we used to go to back home in Indore, India. However, she regrets it everytime she goes there. They always seat us in the most uncomfortable of spots claiming we don't have a reservation while there are several perfectly decent empty tables all around. The food is the usual saltless, medium spicy, oily stuff that you get elsewhere. We still like going here for the ambiance that others seem to enjoy and it does make you feel like you went to a nice place. It is quite far from where we live and we recommend making reservations if you want to sit in a proper place.

The achari aloo and lassi are good and the naans are warm and fresh. The rest is indistinguishable from anywhere else. Seems like Hyderabadi or Bagare baigan is becoming the new cool thing that everyone wants to serve these days. It isn't that good here. It doesn't come even close to Bay Leaf in midtown.


Oak Tree Road
Edison, NJ

Pongal

Puja and I went to Pongal on Monday night. The south Indian place was what we expected. Good food and moderate to lousy service. I tried the butter dosa and it was delicious. The Moru was also quite good. Puja didn't seem to excited about her Maysore masala dosa but didn't complain either. In general Pongal is a safe bet but not a great bet.

Manhattan
Lex between 27th and 28th

Amiya

This new restaurant is generally a disappointment. We get delivery from them generally and the food is way too oily and creamy. They seem to be competing in some sense with the very successful Rasoi and not doing that well. They need to make their food more flavorful instead of what they are doing now. Also quite expensive with about $11 for each entree.

Exchange Place
Jersey City

Pinch

This new-age pizza place seels pizza by the inch. Thin crisp crust and some amazing toppings like sauteed mushrooms and chillies in oil make this quite an amazing experience. It is not cheap but not too expensive either. Customer service is great. It is right across from my office so we often end up ordering this for dinner for the crew during our late nights at the office -- which happens more than we would like.

Park Ave between 28th and 29th
New York City