o sole mio ristorante & lemonleaf grill

so far in long island i haven't come across any "bad" restaurants. but two particularly good ones that i have been to recently are of the italian and thai persuasion.

o sole mio is an italian sitdown/pizza takeout restaurant in stony brook. we went for an early dinner one friday night, waited about 10 minutes for a table for 4, and watched as the entry way filled to standing room only capacity. having heard rave reviews from my sister, our parents, and her friends, i finally got to experience the delicious wonder that is o sole mio. after the appetizer of garlic knots and bread with olive oil, parmesan, and olive paste, i ordered my fallback-fettuccine alfredo. the sauce was rich and creamy [death for lactards like me] but not too oily. the pasta was as close to homemade as you can get in a restaurant and was light but not flakey.

after stuffing myself...then came the dessert tray. i ordered canoli bites, but as they had run out for the night, was given tiramisu bites. AMAZING. the picture doesnt nearly do justice to the rummy mousse surrounded by crispy white chocolate.

leah had a chocolate mousse on top of biscuit-like crust filled with pudding

all in all, i will definatly return to o sole mio. the regular evening wait would most likely be 30 min, but worth it as the food is amazing, the portions are huge [but unfinishable], and the price is about $25/person including dessert and tip.

the lemonleaf grill is 2 blocks from my house. since it opened last summer, i have eaten-in twice and picked up take out [on foot] probably 5 times. so far ive tried the tom kha gai [soup], shu mai [mini dumplings], pad see ew [spicy noodles], mango chicken, gai fad prik king [green beans & chicken], and green curry. even doing takeout, everything was hot and delicious, actually spicy instead of "white-i-fied", and really really cheap.