Cafeteria at the Met

The Met has revamped their dining options and we ate in their new cafeteria this weekend: What a relief to finally have someplace to eat when we go to there! The immediate vicinity is kind of a wasteland, so even though the cafeteria has "we know we have a captive audience" prices ($30 for two, including drinks and desserts), the thoughtful food selections make it a good choice. (We're determined to try Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Museum sometime, but we nervous about taking August today--he hadn't napped all day.)

They have fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies, a grill that today was serving reubens (which Todd had), entrees like salmon with mango salsa, an antipasto bar and a salad bar, a sandwich bar with pressed sandwiches and interesting choices (the turkey, pear and St. Andre caught my eye). I went for a selection from the two bars, which cost 60 cents an ounce (which translates to $9.60 a pound, which is why they describe it in ounces). Good choices though. I had mixed greens with cold salmon, roasted yellow peppers, marinated mixed mushrooms with pearl onions, a blue potato salad with calamari and curried couscous with golden raisins, figs and dried apricots. Only the potato salad was bad, with rubbery calamari and mushy potatoes. The couscous was actually really good. And Todd liked his fries, too.

Good drink selection, with fancy-pants beverages like imported lemonade, Izze fruit drinks and Boyle's sodas. The desserts, though, are what had me running around the place like a puppy whose family all arrived home at once: mini coconut and chocolate cakes, berry and apricot-frangipane tarts, gorgeous cupcakes from Crumbs, giant cookies from another local baker, Krispie Kreme doughnuts for the tourists. We had an almond-macaroon sandwich made in their bakery, which was two almond paste-dense macaroons sandwiching chocolate ganache. So good. So good.

Then at the cashier they have all these impulse buys: Cote d'Or chocolates, mints in fancy silver credit-card shaped packages, Joseph Schmidt chocolate bars. I grabbed one with dark chocolate and lemom, but the biscotti ones sounded good, too. Am I a sucker? Perhaps. But I had fun and it tasted good. Plus my low expectations resulted in a pleasurable surprise.