5-Minute Mini Restaurant Reviews

First impressions. Unedited perceptions. Meals considered briefly without further reflection. Sometimes the deepest truths appear from cursory glances and fleeting moments.

Brick Lane Curry House (306 East Sixth St, NYC 10003): East 6th Street's transformation from affordable Indian feast to post-Giuliani NYC wallet defamation has yielded at least three higher-end Punjabi eateries, tailor-made for the neighborhood's Yuppie deep pockets. Two are worth the extra coinage; Brick Lane is a nominal third. Anglo-Indian ex-pats display nerve with a $13 lunch buffet, and despite the sticker shock Cafe Drake took mid-December refuge from a snowstorm here, only to discover: Lipitor-required mushroom soup dense with heavy cream; an astonishing fresh salad bar replete with yogurt dressing and multiple chutneys; braised turnips nestled among their root-bearing greens; dry tandoori chicken; butter-soaked naan bread and the unusual offering of vegetable Jalfreezi. Spicier than most, pseudo-posh in decor and attitudinal in service, skip Brick Lane, distinguished only by a sumptuous yellow dhal and pretty fellow diners.

Papacitos (999 Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn 11222): In the latest stretch of genuinely good Mexican restaurants on Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint's Papacitos is a stand-out for their weekday lunch specials and spicy embrace of vegetarian options too quirky for mainstream taco joints. For $7 Cafe Drake wolfed down three tacos (yes, real, with two corn tortillas and legitimate green hot sauce): a chile verde pork (tender and tart); chorizo (suitably fatty and oozing requisite orange grease) and a seitan asada riff on roasted pork. All were toothsome and drizzled with spiced crema and chopped cabbage and radishes. An Ancho chile-frosted chocolate brownie will set you back another 4 bucks and worth it - one wedge can serve two happily considering its richer than belief density.

Mei Wen Kitchen (82-53 Broadway, Elmhurst, NY 11373) is the sort of Chinese home cooking establishment you always hope to stumble across in Manhattan's Chinatown but remains forever elusive. Across the street from Queens' best Asian supermarket, this modest take-out allows you four choices from its massive steam table and a bucket of soup for only $4.25. Skip the soup as both the Egg Drop and Hot & Sour are poor representations of the classics, but avail yourself of the esoterica on display, ready for the plucking. Cafe Drake finds our inner courage here and is rewarded with subtly seasoned offal and fresh veggies, happily free of the typical over-sauced and greasy standards of your local Chinese takeout slop kitchen. Recommended: cold Pig Ear in Hot Sauce (really!), Country Style Beef Tendon (braised to rich melting perfection), Chicken with Bitter Melon (a veggie akin to zucchini but sharper in taste) and Dry Bean Curd with Leeks.

La Superior (295 Berry Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211) - No one is claiming La Superior hasn't cornered the disposable income market synonymous with the New Williamsburg, but their foodie-obsessive spin on Mexico City street food is dispensed in portions foreign to the actual city and priced to kill. Yes, tacos are $2.50, but the reality is a half-dollar disc of tortilla (made in house - where else would they find such diminutive examples??) slathered with a tablespoon of your choice - the rajas (sauteed poblano peppers with heavy cream) are pleasant and the pig's feet surprisingly tender and rich. Still, it would take many pesos and mucho patience to put a real meal together here. Cafe Drake liked beef tips covered with salsa and cheese ($10) but struggled to convince ourselves we were full from the sparsely adorned salad plate-sized entree. Another nice choice is a mini/half carne asada sandwich doused with dried chile sauce ($9). A BYOB policy (for now) and a cute and friendly wait staff are the major selling points for now. Skip it and walk two more blocks to Bonita.

Ayurveda Cafe (706 Amsterdam Avenue, NYC 10025): You may recall a review here from late 2007 of this vegetarian health food outpost on a forlorn block of the scarily Upper West Side. But guess what? The $10 lunch is far better than the $13 dinner we sampled before. Same portions but with less pretense and more flavor. Again, you don't order here, but rather sit down and immediately have a thali (silver tray with many compartments bearing various sweet and savoury components) brought to your table. The selection changes daily so we can hardly honestly even review this weirdest of restaurants, but on a cold Wednesday Cafe Drake loved creamy urad dhal (mung beans), spicy okra fried with ginger and a thick and salty yogurt and grated cucumber salad.

Delhi Heights (3766 74th Street, Jackson Heights, Queens 11372): Sometimes you just don't want to brave the crowds of Jackson Heights' justifiably revered Jackson Diner. Or plow through the never-changing selection at Delhi Palace (though quite tasty). DH shuns the hyper-decor of most Indian restaurants for a more space age/techno vibe. Thai slop house anyone? While sharing the Thai predilection for tacky spaceship ambiance, Delhi Heights serves a mean weekend buffet ($10) of subcontinent standards (dhal, chicken biryani, pakora curry, saag panner) tweaked with Manchurian offerings (mung bean sprout curry, fried rice and chile-laced veggies in garlic sauce). We adored the baskets of buttery naan and proficient service.

Sripraphai (64-13 39th Avenue, Woodside, Queens 11377): Yet another of those snowy NYC nights, all gunmetal skies and swirling flakes of white. Cafe Drake and Jen Ruske heated ourselves up from the cold outdoors rather quickly with spicy Deep-Fried Watercress Salad (less weird than it sounds and entree sized at only $9) and a Cold Duck Salad spiked with dried and fresh chiles ($10). A homestyle pork stew ($12) was comforting and enhanced by a side of pickled mustard greens. We also loved pork stir-fried with long beans and doused in a peppery gravy ($12). The wine list is sparse but who can argue with a drinkable $18 bottle of Columbia County Riesling? No bonus points for the bargain basement dining room, decorated in early-period Filene's Basement.

Maharaja (133 East 45th Street, NYC 10021): A very decent foray into the growing Midtown trend of Indian fast food eateries offering Combo Lunches. Cafe Drake always chooses the Vegetarian option ($7), tempted by a variety of veggies well beyond the usual mundane suspects. The shoebox size and bouncing acoustics (you can hear the paratha tearing three tables away) are a problem here, but not so much to dissuade the adventurous diner away from tart and salty pakora curry, melting and oil-slicked eggplant with green peas and a stunning curry of fresh pumpkin chunks set blazing with dried red chiles.