Waiters were said to often discourage diners from ordering mixed drinks, maintaining that it would spoil an otherwise impeccable dinner.
She relies on the Happy Cow app, which identifies vegetarian and vegan restaurants around the world, often with diners' reviews.
The authors — Yigal Schleifer, a freelance writer, and Ansel Mullins, a real estate consultant — tracked down dozens of often overlooked diners that sell some of the best basic food in the city.
For instance, how often do diners, even worldly ones, encounter rock shrimp and vegetable hash, braised short ribs with lemon gremolata, game hen accompanied by a foie gras-enriched red wine broth or a malted milk chocolate brûlée?
Mr. Rodriguez has built a reputation on his liberal interpretation of tropical cuisine, often teasing diners with radical juxtapositions and brazen condiments -- anyone for grilled whole red snapper with green rice, chayote-and-shaved-calamari salad in lemon dressing sprinkled with cumin chili praline?
This city too often frustrates diners searching for familiar dishes, made with decent ingredients and a minimum of showboating, at prices that don't pinch too hard; the Restaurant Collection, as initially configured, was an exaggerated but telling example of that problem.
Mr. Galatis and Mr. Samiotes, whose restaurant, Meze Estiatorio, is a marble-walled, white-linen-tablecloth affair where Mr. Samiotes often greets diners by playing a Greek mandolin called a bouzouki, decided to get involved in Greek baseball in 1998 after seeing a newspaper article saying that to build a team, Greece needed American players.
Often, these diners got sidetracked by sports talk, kids and TV shows, and wrapped up their meetings without advancing business with each other.
Long before the entrees comes a giveaway appetizer, not only different each night but often different from diner to diner.
A moment's thought will reveal to everyone that it is because the diners often eat too much.
