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“Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus.”
Peter Ustinov
It’s almost impossible to get anywhere in the 518 without having used Central Ave/State St. When I travel the distance between Schenectady and Albany, I can’t help but notice all the places to eat that go unnoticed. Maybe because I always look out for places to write about but it seems as if we get into a habit of thinking of the same places when going out to dinner, the chain restaurants like Applebees, or fast-food like McDonalds. One night, I was looking for something different (after PF Changs was too busy of course) and my boyfriend and I decided to check out Sitar (1929 Central Avenue, Albany), a restaurant I pass all the time but have never been adventurous enough to try- that was the night!
We were seated immediately at a two person table on the side.
The middle, main dining room, was quite lit up but it seemed as our area was darker than the rest of the restaurant. The service was great, could be because the waiters all seemed to be in the same age group as us and we were the youngest in the restaurant so we got into quite a few conversations. They were teaching us how to pronounce things on the menu and recommending food for our next visit, some of the best, most attentive service I’ve experienced.
I ended up ordering the Tandoori Chicken Wings (spicy chicken wings cooked in clay oven) which were $6.95, not a bad price for the amount I was served (picture to right) *NOTE- all pictures were lightened on my computer because it was too dark in the restaurant for the pictures to come out correctly on their own. My boyfriend ordered the Reshmi Kabob (chunks of lamb mildly spiced, charcoal broiled on skewers in a clay oven) for $18.95. His food came with a side & some naan and for the side he chose the vegetables which were great! It was a plethora of cooked vegetables in a spiced sauce that wasn’t curry but still tasted very good. I ended up ordering some for myself because I kept hogging his. I also ordered a side of the garlic naan (bread) because it’s my favorite.
All of the food tasted very good. 
Naan is just bread cooked with garlic and oil, not like Italian garlic bread more like a thick garlic pita. They have a bunch of different Naan flavors so see if there’s a kind you may want. It’s usually my favorite and I was satisfied. The garlic flavor wasn’t as strong as I’d like but it tasted very good dipped in the vegetable sauce.
Since we were both curious, we each ordered a dessert as well. There are 4 options and each is $3.95. The names are hard to spell/pronounce but I ordered the doughnut-like option. They were doughnut balls in maple syrup and honey, very sweet. I actually preferred my boyfriend’s dessert which was mango ice cream with nuts. 
I don’t usually like nuts but it added a great flavor to it. The taste of mine was very good but it did after awhile get too sweet to eat.
This was all a lot of food for us for one sitting so I ended up taking at least half of it home. When I got home I realized that my chicken wings were a bright yellow color that I was unable to see in the dark- kind of made me nervous. The next day, though, I realized I was correct in being nervous. The following 3 days I was on the couch with food poisoning. For the record, there is no way to prove that my food poisoning came from this particular restaurant or that it was food poisoning at all. All I can say is the 3 days following eating here, I was on the couch with sharp stomach pains and I wasn’t able to eat a thing. Could it have been a 3-day stomach bug? Possibly. I just want to disclose the full truth of my experience to those reading to make sure you’re aware. Therefore, I can’t tell you how the food was as a leftover because after being sick, it was the LAST food I wanted to eat. If you’re not used to Indian food, my recommendation would be to try something light, maybe just vegetables & naan until your stomach gets used to the spices & make sure to leave room for dessert!!
“Anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible.”
Cantonese Saying
The first thing I think of when I hear PF Changs is Lettuce Wraps. Tofu or Chicken, they’re both fantastic. Don’t leave PF Changs without giving those a try with some of the sauce you just made. You get served a plate of lettuce and another plate with the filling that comes with white crispy noodles that you can eat (I do) or leave as a garnish. It’s hard for me to explain the wonderful taste of the lettuce wraps. They’re not spicy at all, other than that you’re just going to have to try them.
I ordered the Asian Grilled Salmon and this may have been the best salmon I’ve ever had. They left the woody part on the asparagus so I just cut that off but the taste of the salmon was fantastic. What I loved about the salmon was that it wasn’t just a fishy taste but I tasted the seasonings when it was grilled. Just enough of the grill taste and just enough seasoning paired with the taste of the salmon itself with a squirt of lemon and I’d go back any day and order that. It was a bit on the pricey side but completely worth it.
“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
George Bernard Shaw
Those of us who have lived in the Schenectady area for any amount of time, know the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia. 
To me, it’s where I had both my Junior and Senior proms in High School. To others, maybe a wedding, a great tasting meal or a satisfying night of sleep. On May 18th, I attended an Italian Cooking Show hosted by guest chefs Angelo Mazzone, who owns the Mansion as well as Angelo’s 677 Prime in Albany and Aperitivo in Downtown Schenectady, and Joe Viscusi who owns Casa Visco pizza sauces.
Cavatelli is one of my favorite pastas. To me, it has the right heaviness for a substantial meal but not too heavy where I couldn’t finish the bowl. I never usually put olives in my pasta, in all honesty I never usually put olives in much of anything. Therefore, getting such a strong added flavor in something I’m so used to was a nice change- I didn’t even need cheese (but I put a little on for good measure!). After that, we waited for the next course.
Mom's Head in the Way
What I liked the most about this event (other than the food, of course) was the placement of everything. I was sat at a table with a group of people who I had never met before. As we drank more and more wine and ate more and more delicious food, we left Glen Sanders like we had all been old friends. I was very surprised by the number of people who attended. The food was obviously worth the experience but I had no idea that they did these types of events, and this was the last one for a bit. I can’t wait for them to start-up again! Nothing beats being cooked for by a great chef, even if I have to share the experience.
Next, we ate the Panzanella Salad. I was looking forward to this, I love salad and his choice to use either mesclun or arugula was a perfect match for my appetite. 
There’s not much to dislike about salad, toss in a bit of lettuce, some veggies, dressing and call it salad. My only issue with this salad was that I would have preferred it with smaller piece of bread. I love Italian bread, it has the perfect amount of soft and hard if you get a good loaf. When I’m eating salad, though, I prefer to not have to chew so many large pieces of crusty bread. After pushing some of those pieces to the side, it was a fresh and beautifully prepared salad.
In my opinion, pizza without a dash of garlic can automatically be improved upon. Besides my personal flavor scheme, it was a little squishy. That can be attributed to the fact that these pieces were previously prepared and had some time to soak up their own juices but I like my pizza with a crunchy crust and a soft melted cheese on top. The sauce of this pizza was fantastic, Casa Visco of course, but the flavor and pizza-like consistency was lacking.
I can’t really equate the taste exactly to a donut, just the consistency. If Dunkin Donuts ever served anything remotely similar to something like this, it wouldn’t be long before the employees had my order memorized. The pastry itself was soft and warm, not flaky but a solid cake-like outside. The pastry on the inside was similar to Boston Cream, but they have nothing on the smoothness of this cream, almost pudding-like. Now for those who don’t like donuts and have already written off this delectable dessert as not for you, I would give it another shot. My mother, for example, hates donuts but I couldn’t keep her away from these pastries. We were given containers to take some of the food home and the entire room was fighting over the nicely stacked pastries at each table. I kept my pastry refrigerated and reheated it in the microwave the next day and it tasted almost as good as the night before. My mouth is watering just thinking about these pastries again, anyone who came to visit took a bite therefore, they didn’t last more than a few days.
“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.”
Don Kardong
Bamboo Basket with Lemon Sole
Forbidden Broadway Sundae & Frozen Hot Chocolate
In my opinion, there is only one way to write about Serendipty 3, and that’s the start off with pictures of the food. Honestly, the food speaks for itself. Upon entering the small doorway, I get an essence of Alice and Wonderland. Colorful items to buy are on either side of you, and if you have to wait for a table you will see how crowded that little hallway gets and the friends you make waiting to sit down.
The first time I experienced Serendipity 3 was on the 21st birthday. I went to get dessert with friends of mine. To guarantee a table, call and make a reservation (up to 8 people ) for Lunch or Dinner (they don’t accept dessert res.). Once all the members of your party are there, they will either sit you at a table downstairs or upstairs. My first time was around Christmas so we were seated right next to a pink Christmas tree, so fitting for the decor. The most recent time we were seated upstairs in a room with high ceilings, a larger than life chandelier and tables close enough where you can smell the food of the table next to you but not close enough that you could take a bite. On my birthday, I ordered a salad. The name I can’t remember, it starts with an M and it’s located on a little post-it note attached to the first page of the menu. It has avocado, fruit, blue cheese and overall it’s the best salad I’ve ever had- handsdown.
This time, me and the members of my family all found the menu a little daunting. Not only is the amount of food choices a tad overwhelming but the menu size is as well. Each of the food choices sounds so appetizing, though, that though large you have to hold it and each each option. This time I got the Bamboo Basket (Bamboo Basket of steamed vegetables and lemon sole with a ginger sesame sauce 22.00). Everything tasted great. The waiter told us that everything located under the “De La Mer” & “De La Maison” sections takes about a half hour to cook which didn’t seem long at all but I ordered a New England Clam Chowder for the wait. The soup wasn’t very hot but it wasn’t cold either, about luke warm, a little colder than perfect soup temperature but it still tasted good. The fish was very warm and was very lemony. I love when the pieces of fish just peel off so I can just cut it with a fork. If you’re going to order this, watch out for the small fish bones that caught me off guard a few times!
Next, was dessert. These desserts are NOT MEANT to be eaten alone. My cousin Marina and I ordered the Forbidden Broadway sundae (Forbidden Broadway Sundae
chocolate Blackout cake, ice cream, hot fudge topped with whipped cream 15.00). Even with the two of us, after dinner we couldn’t finish it. The brownie should probably be written as “cake.” It was heavier than a brownie but tasted amazing with the ice cream and hot fudge. It’s a chocolate lovers dream!
Serendipity is known for their frozen hot chocolate so my Mom figured that we needed to order one- also to be shared (compare it to the glass of water in the picture). One would think that it tastes like chocolate milk, but no, it was honestly frozen hot chocolate. There was a distinct hot chocolate taste not found in chocolate milk. It was like an iced hot chocolate (vs. iced coffee) but almost with ice cream consistency. My Mom and I bought the makings of it in a package for home and it tasted about the same as a “fresh” one. You can add various flavors (mint, etc) but we all decided on the original.
Photo Credit: supersizemeals.com
The ice cream Serendipity is most known for is the Golden Opulence Sundae (reservation needed 48 hours in advance, $1000). I wonder how that tastes…
225 East 60th Street
between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
New York, NY 10022
http://www.serendipity3.com
To make a reservation for lunch or dinner please call 212-838-3531
