Alison "really goes by Ali" W.'s Profile

Perfectly perfect little shack on a small lot. Is the food generally healthy? Heck, no. So leave your calorie-counting at home and stop in for some of the best Mexican comfort food on Long Island. My husband's family has been stopping in here from time to time since my husband was ten and I hear it hasn't failed to disappoint once.

Try anything here. You used to have to wait 20 minutes to get a chicken but their system has improved and you can get it at the same time as the rest of your food. Definitely do get the chips and salsa to snack on while you wait.

If you arrive when they've just opened, you may need to speak a little Spanish to get your order across because the chef doesn't speak much English. The host speaks English quite well so show up a little later in the day if you're nervous about trying out your pronunciation.

Great selection of Mexican sodas. Win!

First of all, the decor is the bee's knees. It's exactly what you want from a Long Island diner. Huge neon displays shout your name from halfway up the road. They have chandeliers over every table that are IN THE SHAPE OF JELLYFISH. Unbelievably cool. But that really is where the awesome ends.

Everyone in Seaford has been saying this is THE diner to go to and I think this may be evidence that the people of Seaford need their heads checked. When I first try out a diner, I stick with some safe basics that no diner should screw up. Ever. So here's what was on our table: matzoh ball soup, french fries with mozzarella and gravy, grilled cheese, vanilla milkshake, soda. Now. Not one of these dishes poisoned us or made us physically ill. But it was a quiet night and our cheese was congealed, our gravy was so gloppy it looked like it was mostly made of gelatin. and the vanilla shake had an inappropriate aftertaste. Matzoh ball soup actually okay. Our waiter finally deigned to ask us how our meal was after we attempted to catch his eye for a check twice. Then he came back to ask us if we wanted any of our food to go without bringing us our check.

I'm glad the whole bill was under $20 for two people but I won't be going back until I hear there's a new chef.

I highly recommend this post office location. Last year I sent and received around 700 packages (seriously) with this post office and had absolutely no issues with any of them. Any time I went into the post office, I was greeted with a smile and the clerks were always willing to go the extra mile to help me with my mailing needs. In short, this post office feels like an alternate bizarro world where the post office is a pleasant place to be and gets everything right.

It's a clean location and (bonus) you can walk there from the Mineola train station.

I was running down the road trying to loosen my load. Just kidding; I was in a random house doing my job. But I did have a world of trouble on my mind. So, as I was saying, I was held captive in a random house by foreign intelligence operatives and the operatives were hungry. And this is the place from which we procured foodstuffs, mainly because it was two blocks away.

I don't want to say that this is the absolute best takeaway I've ever gotten because I don't want to build this place up so much that you're disappointed. But I do want to say that it's incredibly solid food at great prices. Everything gets crisped up nicely (and doesn't get disgustingly steamed in the trays on the admittedly short trip to the foreign intelligence operatives) and was clean and fresh. We didn't get any gross, bottom of the barrel meat or vegetables. It may have been because we had guns but, really, I think they're good all the time.

Give them a try if you're ever held captive by hungry foreign intelligence operatives.

So, together with certain members of my family, I have become absolutely obsessed with soup. Good soup is practically a lost art, but it still lives at Lynbrook Bagels. They even have a special category for vegetarian, low fat, no lactose soups. I don't have a problem with meat, fat or milk but it's nice to know and their choices always sound like food instead of a consolation prize. They have a good mix of thick and hearty soups but they do have a couple of lighter options for when you're not crazy hungry. And they don't do that thing where they have three weird soups to choose from with nothing else. I hate that.

While you're waiting to order, you can see all their fresh baked desserts and breads and they all look freaking amazing. And they smell good. This is evil. Also, I haven't met a better bagel in Lynbrook. They have cute little mini bagels, too.

Went here with friends for a loud, casual birthday dinner based upon Yelp recommendations. And holy cow were they spot on. At these ridiculously low prices the portions are beyond huge.

The cuban isn't my thing but someone ordered it and it was gone in 60 seconds.

I ate some mofongo (about $4 for a giant scoop with dipping sauce), some "fried green" (which caused us all to comment "I love green!") which came with bean sauce for I think $6, fried (no breading, yay!) calamari, scallops and shrimp (mostly tentacles and very little scallops and shrimp but still delish) for $14.50 and a few bites of the biggest steak I have ever seen in my life with some kind of green breading on it. Sorry, I'm not that well versed in Dominican food yet. This place is going to change that.

Anyway, it's a very raucous, very accommodating place and I freaking love it. Our waitress never specifically checked on us but she was always available when we needed to get her attention. And hooray beer.

During the height of our no AC-crisis at the beginning of this past summer, this PC Richard saved us. We have those stupid windows that slide open horizontally instead of vertically. Which meant we had to get one of those obnoxious freestanding AC units with the giant duct connecting it to a hole in the window. But good luck finding this. The only other place we found one was Sears and it was $500. We finally remembered PC Richard existed and, despite the monstrously packed parking lot (which they had an attendant directing) and elbow-to-elbow need for AC units, we were out of there in 40 minutes.

Bonus: The guy who helped us gave us personal attention and a good discount because he has an Infiniti and my husband works at Infiniti.

So, when you first walk in it takes all your energy to steel yourself against the stench of rotting fish.

But do not turn and run. Because this place is filled with a lot of the awesome unconventional Asian food you can get in Flushing with none of the tiring hustle and bustle. There is a ton of fresh (yes, fresh, not rotting, despite the smell) seafood and it's all very hands on d.i.y. So make sure you know how to pick a prawn out before you come here. They also have tons of candies, snacks and frozen appetizers that you can't find in your average international aisle in supermarkets.

Their fresh fruit selection could be better (and I've seen many a fruit fly on the prowl) but many of them still look better and heartier than what you can get in a chain. Occasionally there are weird fruits, too. A full aisle of regular American grocery story basics and plenty of Coke- and Pepsi-owned drinks.

This Home Goods is such a pleasure to shop in. There's not too much else going on in the same strip, so the parking lot is manageable. And the store itself is giant and well-spaced. They keep everything incredibly neat, especially in comparison with other TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods locations. If I'm going here for the kinds of things they sell here with a not too specific agenda, I never ever come out empty-handed. Once I went to eight other stores and found exactly what I was looking for at this one (a bird cage with a specific height and color requirement).

Their holidays section is always incredibly extensive, so it's a good place to start for decorations and holiday-related gifts. They have the same stuff they sell at places like Bombay and it's a third of the price.

Staff seems less pressured than most locations, so they're really helpful and pleasant.

This is a TJ Maxx for serious TJ Maxx shoppers. Half of the customers in the store can tell you exactly when the next truck shipment is due and they lay in wait for the introduction of said shipments to the floor.

So, we know what this means in the negatives: the good stuff is scooped up right away and everything gets broken really quickly. And that's what leads directly to the positives: things go on sale quickly here and you can absolutely negotiate down on anything with a defect when it hasn't gone on sale yet. Beauty products that have been opened, three-piece sets that are missing pieces, everything is fair game here and it all gets picked through and opened very quickly. (Go to Port Wash. Home Goods if you need something you don't want other people to have touched, like food.)

So, be aware that the customer service/returns line will occasionally be way longer than the new purchases line. At least they have the nifty "Please proceed to register ##" contraption now, making it clear where to go.

This location is always incredibly messy if you come any time after noon. This means someone may have covered up something awesome with something crappy, so you have to be prepared to dig here. Especially excellent sections: shoes, wall hangings, toys. Avoid: all clothing except men's shirts and underwear; the rest should only be tackled when you're looking for nothing in particular and don't mind rubbing elbows with cranky, pushy people.