Dining Out: Lido

From their apartment we walked about five minutes to a restaurant called Lido at the corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 117th Street. It was a beautiful day outside and with zero hesitation we accepted the offer to sit on the patio. 

The Lido menu is a simple one with a few savory choices for breakfast, a few sweet ones and then a few classic Italian specialties if you feel more like lunch. 

The most notable item is the bottomless pitcher of mimosa. All you can drink for $13 dollars! 

The fiances started with coffee, cappuccino for him and coffee for her. 

They both said their drinks were just average.

I had a fantastically refreshing ice tea which came in an extra tall glass. 

For his meal, my sister's fiance choose the egg panini which was supposed to be eggs, bacon, goat cheese and tomato. What arrived instead was eggs, goat cheese, tomato and lettuce (no bacon). 

He said, "The eggs were very fluffy and it was a really juicy tomato. The sandwich definitely need the salty taste from the bacon, though." 

My sister went with the mushroom omelette which also had goat cheese and ham, as well as a side of arugula salad and a piece of grilled bread.

I could tell she was really enjoying it because she wasn't offering to share. She explained, "The egg was just so airy and the mushrooms were really meaty. The acidity of the dressed arugula salad on the side balanced the creaminess of the goat cheese and the saltiness of the ham." 

I got the breakfast sampler which was two fried eggs, home fries, a piece of grilled bread and bacon. No, I am not eating meat again, I gave the bacon to my fellow diners. 

My plate was simple, but the eggs were cooked perfectly, the home fries had a great onion taste and the grilled bread was perfect for soaking up the runny egg yolk. 

The three of us also shared a polenta muffin with corn, tomato and red pepper flakes. It tasted like a corn muffin with salsa baked into it. I know that sounds strange, but it was actually quite delicious. 

I also loved that the salt and pepper shakers were heart shaped. Too cute! 

Before we left I ran inside quickly to use the ladies room and I was shocked to see how big the restaurant is. They have an enormous dining room and a significant bar area. 

I could easily see coming in from the snowy street in the winter to have a delicious brunch with girlfriends. 

Now, we purposefully didn't do French toast or pancakes at Lido because we wanted to go across the street to Levain Bakery. I don't know if you remember my review from when I visited their Upper West Side location, but these cookies are insane. 

We went with one dark chocolate peanut butter cookie and one chocolate chip walnut cookie.

The Levain cookies are so rich that even between all three of us, we couldn't finish either cookie. 

I had never really spent any time in Harlem before this trip and I was pleasantly surprised by all the fun restaurants. Do you have a favorite place in that neighborhood?