Astor Bake Shop

...is located in NYC's borough of Queens at 12-23 Astoria Blvd. in Astoria. Ths new bake shop and cafe is bright and airy. When I visited the menu was limited and the service was a little haphazard.

I had the Astor Burger with lettuce, tomato, spicy Astor sauce, cheese, thick slices of apple wood smoke bacon for $10.50. I wasn't given the choice of 2 or 4 slices of bacon. I received 4 (for $1.75), but 2 (fro $1.00) would have been adequate. It was missing the creamy coleslaw and pickle. My burger was served on a Portugese roll (they didn't offer me a choice between this and the wheat roll).

I also had a homemade "salt" lemonade for $2.75...true to the name it was salty! Too salty for me.

But I balanced it out with a Lemon Meringue tart for $3.50 which was perfection! The tart was nice and flaky, the lemon filling was slightly tart and sweet and the meringue was lightly browned.

Ed's Chowder House

This restaurant is located in the Empire Hotel in NYC's Upper West Side near Lincoln Center at 44 West 63rd Street.

I recently read a review that said the lobster rolls were very good and since I LOVE lobster rolls "J" and I went to check them out.

We were immediately seated at one of the tall tables at the Chowder Bar and given a basket of different breads. The corn bread was very good. The jalapeno bread was tasty and not too spicy.

We both ordered the homemade lemonade ($5), started with the fried calamari appetizer ($11), we both had a lobster roll ($24 each), a side of seasoned fries ($6) and shared a dessert of lemon meringue pie ($8).

The lemonade was very good, fresh and tart. The fried calamari was crisp and served with a spicy remoulade sauce. The lobster roll was very good - nice meaty chunks of lobster with preserved-lemon aioli served on a split top toasted and buttered brioche bun with a side of coleslaw. But I felt for the $24 they should have also served it with fries. The side order of seasoned fries was very good.

The lemon meringue pie was very good with tall peaks of meringue, but not much crust.

The restaurant was well decorated with real lemons on the wall shelves. I would return to order from the regular restaurant menu and try their other offerings.