khao

They do have an online menu. http://sakagura.com/

Forgot: Falafel: Rainbow Falafel (Union Square), Moishe's (cart in Midtown)

OK, I couldn't wait five minutes, but here are some more: Malaysian: Nyonya, Malaysian Restaurant or Taste Good (Chinatown) Chinese: Congee Village, New York Noodletown, Joe's Shanghai, Yeah Shanghai Deluxe, New Green Bo, Sweet 'n Tart, Saint Alps', Shanghai Cuisine, Mei Lei Wah, Hop Shing, Golden Unicorn (all Chinatown) Vietnamese: Chinatown: New Pasteur, Nha Trang, Vietnam (all Chinatown) Brooklyn: An Dong (banh mi only, Sunset Park), Gia Lam (Sunset Park), Pho Tay Ho (Bath Beach) Mexican: Brooklyn: Torres Bakery (Park Slope), Los Pollitos II (Park Slope) Japanese: Manhattan: Sobaya, ONY, Otafuku Greek: Snack (Soho) Indian: Brick Lane (East Village) Ice cream: NYC Icy (East Village), Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory Chocolate: Jaques Torres (DUMBO) Hot Chocolate: Lunette et Chocolate (Soho) Other Sweets: Cupcake Cafe (Midtown), Ceci Cela (Soho), almost any Chinatown bakery, Payard Patisserie (Upper East), Marquet Patisserie (Carroll Gardens)

I find Ollie's truly bad. And Yum Thai, which someone else posted about, is not that great. You can get great Thai at about the same price at Sripraphai. Skylight Diner? C'mon. It's maybe the best place in that totally dead neighborhood, but it's certainly nothing to go out of the way for, especially for somebody visiting NYC. I also find Il Corallo to be pretty bad. If your friend wants to get an excellent, cheap Italian meal, head for Lupa. Pastas are around $10, mostly. If I had to pick only five, very tough, I guess I would go with: Sripraphai Di Fara's Bukhara (Pakistani place in Brooklyn) 'ino Lupa Although if I made a list five minutes later, it might be totally different.

Err... I don't really think I'm a Sripraphai maven, I just like good Thai food, and having eaten fairly extensively in Thailand, I feel like I know what good Thai food is. Sripraphai comes the closest to "Thai" Thai food that I've had in New York City (or anywhere else besides Thailand, for that matter). I think you ordered fairly well. The spicy beef salad is one of my favorite dishes on the menu, I think the combo plate is a good introduction, because fried chicken is a super popular dish in Thailand (there are KFCs everywhere), and somtom (papaya salad) is also a classic. I'm not sure what the pad see yu is. There are lots of other great dishes, but you sampled a decent representation. The only other thing I might suggest is going back with at least five people so that you can order a ton of dishes, and see what you think. If you go read Chowhound, you can find tons of postings of recommended dishes.

I feel that if the food is prepared correctly, then the heat adds this extra dimension of flavor that isn't found if it isn't there. Heat for heat's sake, no, but the way Sripraphai does it, yes.

Do you mean the prices were high? I thought it was pretty reasonable considering how much they give you and the quality.

There's a place called Bussola on 4th Ave between 9th and 10th, an Italian restaurant, that during the summer, opens an adjacent gelato store. They also use Elenka bases, and I think their gelato is similar, although I'd have to do a side-by-side test to be sure. Here's the Elenka website, if anybody's interested: http://www.elenka.it/eng/ptipodb.asp?sett=...ipo=polv&codp=0

What about those places that only accept Amex? They're few and far between these days, but a number of years ago I had a date at Grange Hall, and it really put a damper on things when I had to go out to the supermarket ATM (the only one at the time) and get cash. I think I got an Amex card because of that experience. Plus, I find that Amex is the best when fighting bad charges.

I will be in Japan at the end of August for 20 days, primarily in Tokyo, with a week spent outside, probably in the general area of Kyoto, Osaka & Nara. I know Tokyo fairly well, but I would like recommendations as to the absolute best ramen shops in the above cities, as well as must-try places in Kyoto, Osaka & Nara, where I've never been. I'd prefer on the cheaper end of the scale, because I already have some budget-busting meals laid on in Tokyo.

They don't have stars, because NJ reviews don't have stars. But at the bottom they do have all the information a normal review would contain, such as rating (Poor, Fair, Satisfactory, Good, Very Good, Excellent, Extraordinary), atmosphere, recommended dishes, etc. The Ryland Inn review can be found here: http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?...752C1A9669C8B63 It's important to note that when searching, you have to change the default from "30 days" to get more than a few reviews.

Everyone is saying how the New York Times does its readers a disservice by not having New Jersey restaurant reviews online. Admittedly, they aren't easy to find, but if you do a search on Corcoran and Restaurant, you get a list of all his reviews. Possibly there's a way to get to them from the menu system, but I haven't found it yet. It looks like the Frog & Peach review hasn't been posted yet. Here are a couple of links, although the older reviews are probably already archived (note that NY Times online registration is required): http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?...754C0A9649C8B63 http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?...755C0A9649C8B63 http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?...755C0A9649C8B63

this has all the info http://www.newyorkmetro.com/pages/details/2363.htm

Tommy's about as much of an engineer as I am. Which is not at all.

I've been roughly 20 times and it's been bad exactly twice. There's no trend, Nina.