Monday, September 20, 2010

Lindy's - Midtown West, NYC

Remember when our friend Wendy came to visit NYC a while back? We took her on a whirlwind two day tour of all the popular NYC landmarks (we really tried our best to cover as much as possible). After checking out the Financial District and other parts of lower Manhattan, we jumped on the infamous NYC subway and headed up to Midtown. After all that walking, our legs were about to give way, if we didn't stop for a break soon. So, after getting off at Penn Station (and after a quick walkabout inside Madison Square Garden), we decided that we should go get some coffee and cakes.
Now, apart from taking her to popular NYC landmarks, we also told her that we came up with a list of 'must eat' NYC foods and that we will try our best to sample everything on that list. We have already taken her to try the ever famous NYC bagels earlier that day, so what else is on the list? Cakes...hmmm. When you think about cakes in NYC, what comes to mind? Oh look, what's across the street from Madison Square Garden? That's right, LINDY'S!! Now, what is Lindy's famous for?
Cheesecakes of course! When you think of NY Cheesecakes, you think of Lindy's! Lindy's has been serving their ever popular cheesecakes since 1921. However, this is not the original Lindy's branch. The original Lindy's was located in 1626 Broadway, between 49th and 50th St. A second branch then opened at 1655 Broadway in 1929. Sadly, both the locations are now closed. There are currently two Lindy's in NYC, this one, which is opposite Madison Square Garden and another, also on 7th Ave but uptown in the Theater District.
The decor of Lindy's is nothing to shout about really. Just your typical diner with booths and a long wooden bar. Apart from their awesome cakes and desserts, they also serve regular diner food. It was pretty empty when we walked in (just a few groups of tourist). I guess we must be in between the lunch and tea time crowd.
Since we were still rather full from the huge bagels, we decided to share two slices of cakes among the three of us. Good choice, since both the cakes were really rich, filling and the slices were relatively huge too. The first slice that we ordered was the Carrot Cake ($8.29). Boy, it was good. Really moist and rich, very very nice. The cream cheese frosting was also not overly sweet, just perfect. It's so rich, I cannot imagine finishing a slice of that by myself. The three of us even had some problems finishing it.
Ahhh here it is. The all famous Lindy's NY Cheesecake ($7.79). Many people say that it's over rated. You know what? No it's not. It's really THAT good. Seriously. I am not a cheesecake fan but I truly enjoyed that slice of cheesecake. Really light and flavorful, it's just so good. I can't even start to describe how good it is, you have to try it yourself! You can order the original or you could order it with various toppings, like strawberry or blueberry sauce. In my opinion, it doesn't need any toppings, it's perfect, just like that.
OK, are we ready for the bill? Our total came up to a whopping $31.52! Yup, $31.52 just for two slices of cake, one unsweetened iced tea, one Mountain Dew and a regular cup of coffee. That's pretty steep. Ahhh well, a few mouthfuls of that awesome cheesecake made up for it. I would say that this is not somewhere Kevin and I would go to, just to have a meal. There are many other places to go eat lunch or dinner in Manhattan. After all, the food served here is just regular diner food. However, if we have guest visiting us from out of town, we would definitely take them to Lindy's for dessert or for an afternoon snack. You cannot say that you have visited NYC unless you have tried a slice of Lindy's NY Cheesecake!


Lindy's - Midtown West, NYC
401 7th Ave
New York, NY 10001
Tel: (212) 630 0325

2 comments:

Twilight Man said...

Both of you are really generous hosts! How I wish to be your guests someday!

Charlene n Kevin said...

Hahaha...come come! You are always welcome to visit!