Cafeteria

Cafeteria is one of those trendy restaurants that aims to make comfort food fancy. They serve some classic things like meatloaf and fried Oreos; they retain the great homey taste and feel of comfort food, but they're just prettier because they're in an all-white restaurant.

My appetizer was the meatballs; beef meatballs in marinara sauce with toasted bread. These are so good--really moist and flavorful, and the sauce is really nice too. Although you don't have a lot of options in meatball dishes (they also have a pork meatball slider) these are definitely better than the ones at The Meatball Shop. My only criticism is that the bread was mostly crust, and was way too crunchy and charred to be good with meatballs--you need a soft, chewy bread to dip into the sauce.

My entree was the chicken and waffles--cheddar tabasco waffles with chili butter and maple jus on the side. The waffles were so good; they're incredibly fluffy, and they have a mild cheesy flavor. The fried chicken itself was great too--the skin was incredibly crispy and well-seasoned. You get practically a whole chicken; I got two legs and what appeared to be a wing still attached to the breast. The meat was really juicy--and as moist as chicken breast can be, this was it. Though, the highlights of this dish were really the skin and the waffles, and I would be really happy just eating them with the chili butter.

They're fancy and they grill the lemon, although I can't taste
any difference once you squeeze it on your food.

So fluffy!

For a side, I got the parmesan truffle fries. I've had a lot of truffle fries where the potato is actually fried in truffle oil--this was not one of them. These were just drizzled with truffle oil, and they really skimped on the oil, too. The result is less than a third of the fries having that amazing truffle aroma. I don't think it was worth the $6; you could just buy some McDonald's fries and a bottle of truffle oil and it would be better than this.

Cafeteria makes some really nice, classic American dishes. If you can only get one thing here, it would definitely have to be the chicken and waffles. I also recommend the meatloaf! Save your money on the side dishes though; they're not really unique or something you'll be particularly thrilled with.

Cafeteria
119 7th Ave., at W 17th St.
http://www.cafeteriagroup.com/