Omai, NY

The Vietnamese-inspired Omai is orders of magnitude more creative and fully realized than the diners, dives and dens I usually frequent. It may be my favorite place to eat right now.

I've been there a half-dozen times in the past year. The food has always been excellent and everyone who works there is so nice. I was in the neighborhood last week with the Grumpy Diner, and we impulsively decided to see if we could get in without a reservation. We were seated immediately at the only vacant deuce.

We ordered four dishes to share. I practically gasped with delight at the first taste of seafood dumpling soup -- the rich, basil-infused broth had just a hint of garlic and ginger. The dumpling wrapper was paper thin, slightly al dente, stuffed with tender, tasty chopped shrimp. Delightful.

Velvety-textured seared tuna was wrapped in crispy greens and came with a mildly spicy soy-based dipping sauce. Bun cha pork was cooked to the consistency of crisp bacon and had an intense, concentrated meat flavor. It was served with plain rice-vermicelli, lettuce, and some slightly funky preserved cabbage and carrot salad. The funk was a nice contrast to the other flavors and textures.

Our entree, grilled scallops, shrimp and veg over several squares of tender rice noodles in lime and basil sauce, contained the largest scallops I've ever seen. They were meltingly tender. Veg included eggplant, zucchini, asparagus and green beans, all lightly grilled and delightfully tasty.

I recommend making a reservation on the early side. Once the place fills up -- and it has every time I've been there -- it's so loud it's impossible to hold a conversation. Omai attracts an interesting crowd, so it's always fun to eavesdrop on the people at adjoining tables, or even those across the room who you can hear because of an odd acoustic bounce. Or you can play a one-person game of "telephone" and try to imagine what your companion is talking about.

Or you can do what I usually do: focus on the excellent food and the spare but interesting decor, and catch up on the conversation later, over tea and dessert elsewhere.

Jefferson Diner, Lake Hopatcong, NJ

The exterior of this gleaming chrome diner looks like it's hand-waxed daily. It sparkles, even on a cloudy day. The place also twinkles inside, with Lucite ceiling fans, mirrors in all shapes and sizes, etched glass, several shades of neon, and shining dessert cases with a huge selection of sweets displayed on slowly revolving shelves. Some of the upholstery patterns look Uncle Louie-inspired, in dazzling color combinations.

The menu, of course, is enormous, and the kitchen sends out plates the size of buffet platters in a steady stream. The Jefferson offers more kinds of french fries than I've ever seen in one place, including Midnight Disco fries (brown gravy) and a combo platter with regular, spicy, waffle, and sweet potato fries. It's a great place to go if you're hungry enough to eat a horse, or just spent the afternoon riding one.

My ideal meal includes tastes of a lot of different things, so I opted for a salad with grilled chicken, roast peppers, fresh mozzarella, grilled portobellos, and even some nice crisp greens, with balsamic vinaigrette. Those ingredients yielded lots of tasty combinations, including mini-sandwiches I built on the accompanying pita. Pita usually tastes stale and cardboard-y to me, but this had a nice, chewy, almost bagel-like consistency.

Want some more hot water for your tea? The waitress delivers a new cup of steaming water, plus a new bag, each time. Bad news if you're watching your caffeine intake, and washing all those cups probably isn't totally environmentally sound. Still, it's hard to fault them for being so eager to please.

Pleasantville Diner, Pleasantville, NY

This is a good place to have a bite while talking over the movie you've just seen at the Jacob Burns. The menu is enormous, but simple preparations are better. My Greek-style roast chicken was a tender half chicken with a nice garlic, lemon and parsley sauce. Dinner included a big Greek salad with romaine, feta, tomato, olives, cucumber, onion and dolma, all very fresh; roast potatoes, mashed potatoes (two kinds of spuds? go figure!), and steamed veg. I opted to skip the bread basket the waiter offered. Even without it, I took home enough leftovers for two more meals. Cooked veg are the diner's downfall: They look nice and bright and fresh, but are soggy and tasteless. The menu includes a big selection of meal-size salads with grilled chicken or fish. Based on the Greek salad that came with dinner, I'm likely to choose from that page on my next visit.

David King, White Plains

Back in the day when we lived on takeout, David King was practically on our speed dial. Feeling swamped with work last week, we "treated" ourselves to an order of old faves. Everything was so-so, pretty bland, except for the supposedly spicy garlic broccoli. That was sweet and oily. Delivery used to be super-fast, we'd joke about expecting to hear the doorbell within minutes of hanging up the phone. Not this time. It was a half-hour or 40 minutes.

Now I'm in the market for another place in White Plains that will deliver decent Chinese food.