My high school friends Lauren and Kristen were in the city from Pennsylvania this weekend, so yesterday afternoon I headed uptown to meet them and Lauren’s boyfriend Dan for lunch at Lansky’s, an old-school Jewish deli on the Upper West Side.

I could tell it was popular just by the size of the crowd hanging outside! Our wait wasn’t too long though, and a long line usually means great food Once seated, we were handed gigantic menus with a massive selection of brunch items, sandwiches, and ridiculous “challenge foods,” as I like to call them.

The complementary pre-meal items we received were pretty generous! Banana bread with strawberry butter, homemade cole slaw, and pickle spears.

I totally dominated the pickles. The fresh deli ones are the best.

Lansky’s has a super popular Sunday brunch special: bottomless bloody marys, mimosas or prosecco with every brunch entree. It was tempting, but after two nights of pretty heavy boozing I decided to stick to the lunch menu and forego the beverages. I chose the “healthy platter,” which contained grilled chicken, grilled veggies, greens, chickpeas, cucumber and tomato salad and pita:

It was alright. I definitely didn’t order the right thing for this restaurant, and I kind of knew that going into it- I was craving something healthy, and Lansky’s is definitely more of a traditional heavy breakfast fare kind of place. Still, the veggies were well done, as was the cucumber salad, and it was filling enough.

My tablemates got the imperial eggs benedict, served over crab cakes:

The corned beef hash, with hash browns and eggs:

And the Asian chicken salad, with grilled chicken over iceberg lettuce with almonds and noodle strips:

It was a gorgeous day, so rather than take the subway home, I opted to walk. From 71st and Columbus, all the way down past the Village…around 4 miles.

I’ve never continuously walked that far since living here, and it was actually pretty cool to see things go from residential, to park, to touristy, to trendy, to home.

Probably one of the last beautiful days of the fall, too. I’m glad I had the time to spend outside!

Heading home for Thanksgiving this evening. See you from PA!

What’s your favorite “diner food?” I actually really like the Jello they serve in fancy glasses. Don’t judge me, it reminds me of my grandmother.

You know how there are those things and people you always plan to meet up with, but nothing ever really materializes? Blogger meetups tend to be like that. People are usually coming from a ways away, finding a date that works for everyone is a challenge and figuring a restaurant that fulfills all sorts of dietary restrictions and preferences can be difficult.

After meeting Aubrey, Ilana and Danielle at the Foodbuzz Festival a few weeks ago though, we were determined to make a dinner date in the city before I leave for my internship in early December (more on that another time). We got together to hit up Prune in the East Village, which fell through as a restaurant, but the company and food were amazing nonetheless!

With Prune out of the question, we wandered over to the West Village and settled on Mary’s Fish Camp, cute, hole-in-the-wall seafood place. With an hour and forty five minute wait, we hit up Lederhosen for drinks first. We all got a Weihenstephaner Hefeweiss, which came in a huge glass that made it way more fun to drink:

And we also all shared a soft pretzel with mustard, fresh from the oven.

CAAAAAARBS. We were hungry, they were there, it was a party.

Once we were finally seated at Mary’s, we opted to share a bunch of things instead of getting our own plates. Going out with legit culinary students like Aubrey and Ilana is awesome because they’re up for trying new and weird things.

For appetizers, we chose the fried oysters and clams with homemade fish camp tartar sauce:

And the fried calamari with a dill dipping sauce:

In general there are things I prefer to fried food (like dessert, duh), but fried seafood is in a league of its own. It ranks a little lower than frosting on my favorites food list, so needless to say I was all over these two apps. Pretty sure they lasted about .2 seconds at our table- five hungry girls, just sitting down to eat at nearly eleven? The waitress was in danger of losing a hand.

As for entrees, we got the seared scallops with chickpea tagine, fayeh yogurt and harissa:

And a double order of the market fish tacos with pico de gallo, chipotle aioli and pickled jalapeno:

Scallops are one of my favorite shellfish, and these were big, melt-in-your-mouth and buttery. I loved the Indian feel to the dish, too- it’s rare to come across a seafood restaurant that offers something so unique. The bowl also included some chunks of butternut squash, which were the perfect texture and flavor next to the scallops. And the tacos were pretty damn good, as well- the fish itself was kind of bland if eaten solo, but combined with all the fixin’s it packed a ton of spicy heat. Why don’t I eat more fish tacos in my real life?

Obviously, because we’re healthy food bloggers, we also had sides of roasted cauliflower and broccolini. I know it’s so annoying when people say this, but I really do adore vegetables when they’re prepared well, and these definitely were.

Along with my dinner, I also had a Narragansett Lager, which was light, crisp and kind of fruity. I like.

I had the best time hanging out with everyone! I recommend that all blogger meetups always include drinks, and that the juicy details of your life are always discussed. Because sometimes there’s just too much talk about blogging, and not enough about your actual life.

Bloggers- have you ever been to a blogger meetup? How was it? What bloggers would you most like to meet in person?