Odeon-still great!Other place-not so great.

A friend was visiting me from Orlando, her first comment to me as we walked into Gertel's for chocolate ruglach, Guss' for pickles and the Italian Food Center for an "Italian Food Center Special" Sandwich was "GOSH, I really miss REAL food"! (Almost every restaurant in her area -except BBQ's- are themed-restaurants!)

ANYWAY, we went to the Odeon for dinner last night, had a great meal, they have the most varied menu -- sandwiches, seared tuna, pasta and the greatest simple goat cheese salad w/ pignoli nuts. And I love the "only in NY" atmosphere.

Afterwards, my friend asked that we go to a place with super fancy-doodle desserts. The kind that she's "seen in the magazines". I chose a popular, hip-o-rama North African-Moroccan place that is well known nearby. Unfortunatly, the desserts were pre-fab and flawed. A galactoboureko had a heavy sour tasting cream filling that was just plain bad. My Citron Tarte had a merengue

(sp?) on top that was definitetly a day or two old. A Coffee Ice Cream sandwich showed no creativity in it's presentation. It was our only culinary dissapointment during her stay. Let's hope better eating lies ahead!