Long Island Food Blog

Review: Insignia

Finally made it to Insignia. Everyone who eats there loves it and says, "Oh, you have to go!"

Hey, guess what? Those people have no idea what they're talking about.

I've been to Bryant & Cooper several times, Capital Grille, and other good steakhouses on Long Island. Those places are overpriced, but at least the food is decent. I knew I was going to get ripped off at Insignia, but I thought I'd at least have a good-ish meal--or maybe very good. It wasn't good-ish. It was horrible (for the money). It was about the quality of a J&R's Steakhouse meal.

The place is big and dark and noisy, with pounding music. Don't expect to have an intimate conversation there. The menus are one-page deals and laminated (like a J&R's, if I remember). Looking back, that was the first red flag.

Appetizers were Caesar salad ($10) and the crab cake ($16). The Caesar salad was about the quality you'd get at a diner. The crab cake was terrible. It had green onions in it (huh?) and a flavor I couldn't place (cumin? curry?) that completely overpowered any crab flavor. It also had julienned carrots on the top, which made no sense.

I got a ribeye ($46), which was a thin cut. It was cooked fine, but I can cook them fine, too, and I like a thicker cut.

There is one item on the menu which is by bar the biggest ripoff, and that is the broiled lobster tail for $44. Lobster tail. That's it. No sides, nothing. So, of course, my girlfriend got the lobster tail. She liked it, but how do you mess up a lobster tail?

I'd say it was a 6 oz. tail. And you know what? You can get one at Waldbaum's for $10.

The menu is a la carte, so sides are extra, but they feed two people. We got hash browns ($10) and asparagus ($10). The asparagus was nothing special. The hash browns were salty as hell and tiny, which was weird. You have to eat them with a spoon. I've never seen anything like it.

I only had iced tea and a cappuccino. The girlfriend got two cosmos, $15 each, which is not unusual.

Tax and tip came to $205.00.

Bottom line: you can get the same quality food at a J&R's steakhouse for $50.00.

Crab Cake

Caesar Salad

Lobster Tail

Ribeye Steak

6 oz. lobster tail from Waldbaum's for $9.99

2 out of 5 stars

Insignia
610 Nesconset Highway
Smithtown, NY 11787

Mother's Day Eating

I know where I'M taking mom for Mother's Day dinner!

Review: Leo's in Garden City

Smallish restaurant/pub on 7th Street in Garden City. There are Virginia lacrosse pics on the walls, but also lots of caricature drawings. There's a bar with several TV's showing sports.

Is it a pub? A sports bar? I don't know what this place is going for.

Went there for lunch recently. A chicken sandwich, a turkey club, and two iced teas = $36.00. Yikes! Any diner could make food equally shitty for half the price.

The booths are cramped. The food is terrible and overpriced. Maybe the focus is on the bar and not the food. Maybe this place is fun during a football game when the beer is flowing, and the food is an afterthought.

But as a local place in Garden City for lunch or dinner, it sucks. Reminds me of similar places in college towns, except the prices are about twice as expensive.

1 star out of 5.

Leo's
190 7th Street
Garden City, NY

More Celebs Who've Never Been to a Grocery Store

Oh, so that WAS RedFoo singing into a banana at Waldbaum's Thursday night.

Food News

Here.

Oh, so that WAS Lady Gaga buying a pound of potato salad at the deli counter last Tuesday night!

Mysteries at the Supermarket

Saw this at the store on Sunday. Threw up in my mouth.

Riesterer's Halloween Cookies

Was in Riesterer's bakery in West Hempstead today. Lots of Halloween-themed cookies and other goodies.

Reasonable prices. Many of the cookies were $1.00 or $2.00. The $2.00 cookies are pretty big. Small pumpkin pies are $2.95.

I got a Frankenstein cookie for $2.00. Top row in the pic right below. It was good. Filling.