How the Other Half Lives: A Server Is Served

I work at Kitchen 82. Obviously it is in my best interest to recommend this restaurant to the Columbia community, because that would bring the restaurant more business, and it would bring me fatter paychecks. That said, I must also mention that I am a picky waitress. I won't work at a place that is too pretentious or stressful, has poor food quality, or is sloppily managed. I've quit various waitressing jobs because I thought the restaurant I was working at didn't provide patrons with an enjoyable dining experience. The fact that I've been working at Kitchen 82 for five months means that I think it offers just that.

For $25, a patron gets three courses served by a smiling waiter in a romantic yet trendy setting. For the Upper West Side, it's kind of an anomaly. It's certainly better than spending half that much to get the buffet at John Jay, which doesn't taste very good, probably makes you sick, and certainly isn't romantic. Your date will be highly impressed with your restaurant savoir-faire if you take her thirty blocks downtown to Columbus Avenue and 82nd Street. Once you're there, check out the wine list. Look at the wines that are paired with each dish on the menu, which makes choosing one all the easier, and splurge for a few glasses or a bottle. When the food and the wine complement each other well, everyone looks like an expert. Your date will be swooning.

I settled on the tomato and white bean soup, served over a bed of micro greens and smoky in flavor. A perfect consistency for bread-mopping, the soup is comprised of tomatoes that are fully puréed and white beans that are left whole. Thus, in every bite there is a burst of white bean flavor hidden underneath the tomato base. The hearty soup is a satisfying cold-weather addition, more substantial than expected, but a small enough portion so as not to fill one up before the entrée.

My entrée, the seafood "Billi-bi," is a salty seafood broth filled with clams, mussels, shrimp, Chinese long beans, saffron potatoes, and triangular slices of rosemary lavash bread. The cornucopia of ingredients gives the broth its pungent flavor. The shellfish is fresh, and the long beans add an interesting Asian twist to the dish.

Dessert is always my favorite part of the job at Kitchen 82, because the servers actually get to prepare and garnish the desserts, and no patron leaves without licking his dessert plate clean. The plum tart, a sliver of buttery fruit heaven, is my favorite. Served with a plum caramel sauce and homespun whipped cream that is mixed with real vanilla beans, the tart is incredible. This third course guarantees that everyone leaves the restaurant content and fulfilled. Most likely, your smoothly-running date will continue into drinks or a movie, and your wallet will still be intact.