Sippin' on More Than Alcohol at 109th

Few here at Columbia will deny that the single most significant criterion for any restaurant is its price. If the food is both cheap and good, then so much the better, but nine times out of ten, cheap wins.

In that vein, Sip, the tiny hole in the wall on Amsterdam between 109th and 110th, seems at first like a marvelous addition to the area. They have developed a number of deals that are appealing to the average student's budget: the free tapas and discounts on beer and wine during their happy hours (5-7 p.m., 2-4 a.m.), the $25 all-you-can-drink Mimosa brunch on weekends, and the quite remarkable Monday "half-off-all-food-all-day, period" deal are particularly seductive. The last makes Sip a great Monday lunch option, with $3 sandwiches of reasonable size.

Arguably, Sip's best trick is its brief entree menu, featuring an ambiguous "meat/fish/bird of the day." It's an ingenious conceit, and the main reason that I will happily return to Sip. Instead of paragraphs exhaustively detailing every tuber and fiber in a given dish, the Bird of the Day has mystery to it. It turned out to be a perfectly lovely stuffed quail, which for $7 (remember, this is Monday), was a delight. With somewhat small portions, $7 is reasonable-but $14, which is the normal rate during the rest of the week, seems indecent. In addition to the quail, the meal was served with a side dish of potatoes lyonnaise, which proved bland, and a carrot-ginger soup that was excellent, thick, and warming.

Sip also offers free wireless access and an extensive coffee menu for the assiduous student. On that note, it may also be good to know that it is one of the rare establishments that offers Pu'er tea ($4), a Chinese tea so powerful it makes Red Bull look like chamomile.

Despite the apparent discounts, my companion and I managed to burn north of $25 each at a Monday meal. The culprit? The drinks. Foremost is the obscene price of liquor. Thirteen dollars for an unexceptional Monkey Gland cocktail is preposterous, and for a White Lady, it's highway robbery.

Another grief is the slow service. Sip is a bar above all else. That is to say, don't expect swift food service. On a relatively slow night, drinks might take as long as 10 minutes, with food taking even longer. This can be expected in places that aspire to cachet and trendiness, though. And Sip bends over backward to be cool, from the red and black upholstery, to the neo-bistro chairs out front, to the back wall covered entirely in pennies. It's cute, but cute wears thin.

In all, if one steers clear of the cocktails, brings a date whose conversation is interesting enough to distract from the slow service, shows up at happy hour on a Monday, and orders an extra plate or two, the thrifty may yet find Sip a perfectly pleasant place.