Boulud sets 'Bar' high while Gray’s Papaya feeds students low on cash

When faced with hunger pangs at the end of a long week, Columbia students have delicious options with the cheap sausages, high-end lox, and reliable ethnic cuisines of the Upper West Side.

Home to an increasingly diverse crowd of affluent businessmen, growing families, and young professionals, the UWS offers a wide variety of excellent, affordable restaurants to adventurous individuals willing to venture out of the Columbia bubble. With the 1 train operating as a direct pipeline to the neighborhood’s culinary treasures, great food is only a subway stop away.

Anchoring the bottom cusp of the Upper West Side, Lincoln Center has inspired a bevy of new dining spots catering to corporate drones who make the trek from Midtown. For example, Bar Boulud, star chef Daniel Boulud’s outpost on the UWS, offers a charcuterie-dominated menu to sophisticated lunchers, and was recently named as one of the Hot 10 entities in the food world by Bon Appetit magazine. Boulud himself rarely graces the restaurant, but luckily the kitchen’s output seems predictably strong.

Specialties include pâté Bourguignon­, a forcemeat of guinea hen with red wine, which arrives at the table cut into a perfectly measured rectangle, served alongside lightly pickled cornichons and spicy whole-grain mustard. For an entrée, the boudin blanc, or truffled white sausage, with mashed potatoes and poached pears is a harmoniously sweet composition. Unfortunately, the gâteau Basque, a custard cake with brandied cherries, comes off as a little uninspired.

Some diners might find the tunnel-shaped dining room off-putting, but the cavern-like space is actually a nice complement to Bar Boulud’s French bistro cuisine.

Slightly farther uptown at West 72nd Street and Broadway, Gray’s Papaya provides a more downscale charcuterie option—hot dogs. Gray’s Papaya’s cheap sausages, superbly savory and served smoking hot, are some of the best in the city. Dining at the food stand amounts to jostling for a space at the red plastic counter, with sweaty construction workers and suited bankers alike trying to find room to rest a styrofoam cup of foamy, milky papaya drink. Although Damien Reilley’s original hotdog stand is located at 116 Waverly Place, the UWS incarnation feels like a firmly accepted addition to the neighborhood.

Resting on Amsterdam, between 86th and 87th streets, Barney Greengrass celebrated its centenary in 2008. Undeniably one of the country’s best delis and a fixture for kosher-style dining, the only question for customers, once jammed into the buzzing dining room, is what to select off of the extensive menu. Some of the pastries, like the chocolate babka muffin, taste dry and listless, so sticking to savory dishes may be the best option. A particularly strong choice is the sable sandwich, which includes slices of glistening white fish that lie pillowed between cream cheese and rye bread. Less oily than other sable dishes, this presentation easily beats the lox, a tired classic at best.

Another institution that captures the pulse of the UWS is Gennaro, a Southern Italian-style restaurant, located between West 92nd and 93rd streets. The food might not win awards for best Italian food in the city, but the collection of noisy families that patronize the tackily decorated space amusingly make up for any culinary missteps. Try the grilled octopus and potato appetizer that features a generous helping of unusually tender purple tentacles.

As even more ethnic groups work their way onto Broadway, Amsterdam, and Columbus, the food scene will grow infinitely richer. Four years isn’t enough time to plunder those treasures.