Camaje Bistro and Lounge- Greenwich Village

I like French cuisine and I'm a sucker for restaurants with the name bistro or brasserie in them, especially ones with atmosphere. That said, Teresa, our friend Lisa, and I were headed down to Greenwich Village to attend a play written by a friend and of course I got to decide where to eat. Now that is a rather daunting task given the number of restaurants on MacDougal Street alone so I narrowed it down to three and looked at the menus online, finally deciding on The Camaje Bistro. We made reservations at noon, their opening time, and arrived about twenty minutes early as traffic was light.

We were greeted by a woman who was getting the restaurant ready, she turned out to be Abigail Hitchcock, the chef-owner, who allowed us to wait on the couch in the front of the restaurant until she was ready to open. The restaurant is small, seating maybe fifty or so, and rustic, with a tile floor. Plenty of simple European charm and atmosphere. The tables are close in the style of a French bistro.   

Eggs Benedict

Since it was a Sunday they were serving brunch so I had to miss on the Kobe burger, but after a few minutes I decided on the eggs benedict with Atlantic Char, as did Lisa. Teresa ordered the crepe with wild mushrooms and gruyere. We also ordered two sides, the pommes frites and the smoked mac and cheese. Teresa said the crepe was good and Lisa and I both enjoyed the eggs. The mac and cheese was indeed smokey, perhaps some smoked gouda in it, and the pommes frites were quite nice as well.

Banofee Pie

When it came time for desert we decided to splurge a bit and ordered two to share between the three of us. The one shown above is a banofee pie and the one below a pear dish. Both were quite excellent. 

Our server, Ernest I believe was his name, was amazing. He was attentive, yet gave us space and he had a good sense of humor. All told, three entrees, two sides and two deserts were seventy bucks with tax. Not bad considering we were in NYC. The portions were French sized, read that as a bit small for American tastes, but we did leave full and happy. I would definitely go back again for a visit.

Mediterranean Deli & Grill- Middletown, NY

Regular readers of this blog will notice the conspicuous absence of a photo on this post, and for that I apologize. We sere coming home from a wake when we stopped and I simply did not bring my camera as we weren't planning to eat out. I will certainly return and get a picture as this is a really nice place to eat. 

The restaurant is small, they do a lot of take-out and deliveries, but there are a few tables to eat. The place is decorated with greek pictures, flags and items and Greek music is playing on the stereo. The people are friendly and the prices are cheap. 

They have 20 different Gyro options. I chose the Cretan which had plenty of good gyro meat, lettuce, cabbage, bacon, cucumbers and an interesting onion sauce. With fries it came to $7.25 and it was very good. Teresa got the Achilles sandwich which had eggplant, roasted peppers, fresh mozzarella and mixed greens on a foot-long sub for $6.75. She said it was quite good and fresh tasting.

Stop by sometime and see what I mean. I'm going back to try a few more gyros and maybe a burger, they have about 8 different combos of burgers.