Thalia
828 Eighth Avenue (at 50th Street)

I met with a friend of mine for lunch across town last week. Again, I usually don't wander to the West Side, especially around Times Square, but it's easier for my friend -- so I was happy to tread into tourist hell for a short time.

Thalia is a pretty okay spot, and I can see how it could be extremely busy with tourism traffic. However, we met for a late lunch, so it wasn't very busy. However, the staff was nearly asleep, so that was not great.

It was an extremely hot day, so I cooled down with a glass of pinot grigio and had a pretty okay lunch. I started with the fricasee of seasonal mushrooms. This was disappointing, especially for a mushroom lover. There was barely any mushrooms, it was nearly all polenta. It was good, but it wasn't what I hoped for.

For the main course I had the scallops, which was pretty good. The accompanying items, such as the risotto and kale, was rather nice. I enjoyed this part of the meal.

We were running short of time so we passed on coffee and dessert -- not that I was interested in the latter. It was a pretty fair lunch, and I had a drink of water before heading out into the hot sunny afternoon. Where is my winter?!

Food: B
Atmosphere: B-
For Lone Diners: B- (*)