Utopia Diner

Here is the northeast city coffee shop with something for everyone. I don’t mean to say that the Utopia Diner serves food that is write-home-about memorable, but I do believe that the meals served are a memorable taste of New York. Many old time locals take three-meal-a-day coffee shops such as this for granted, but for us out-of-towners, they are a unique taste of city life. They’re in nearly every neighborhood (although fewer in number than there used to be), and generally they serve unsurprising square meals with a Greek flourish and such northeastern notes as lox-and-bagels, egg creams, and ultracrumby crumb cake. The fare can be mediocre or, as it is at Utopia, it can be very good.

Orange juice, for example, is freshly squeezed. So is lemonade. The Greek omelet contains bright, briny feta and a surfeit of flavorful spinach and tomatoes. The buttered hard roll is impeccably fresh.

Lunch temptations include Italian peasant salad and Greek salad; open-face hot turkey or roast beef; lamb souvlaki and moussaka; matzoh ball soup and Utopia chili; rice pudding and 7-layer chocolate cake. If you are on the West Side and hankering a decent meal at a fair price (for New York) any time between 7am and midnight, give Utopia a try.