Cafeteria - Chelsea

This isn't like your middle school cafeteria. There are no vats of condiments that the weird kid that always wears sweatpants like to play with. There are no chicken patties wrapped in tin foil. There are no teachers strolling around to give you detention for throwing a piece of bread at your friend who threw it at you first so really it was his fault and you shouldn't have been the one to get detention because he started it. It's not like that at all.

Cafeteria falls into that genre of "hip" restaurants that are self-aware of their hipness. They say "Hey, come eat here, we're trying to be cool--just like you, even though you don't want to admit it. Cheap is cool, looking cheap is not cool." That latter statement is a good description of Cafeteria. Nice decor, friendly staff, semi-formal setting with a menu that doesn't burn money and a very intimate space (it's small). And, hey the food's good too.

I started with a tomato basil soup ($6). Very simple, but well done--it had these odd, but pleasant, greenish grilled cheese croutons in the middle that successfully sucked up a lot of the soup and became a soggy, crispy vessel of tomato-ness. For the main course, I had the meatloaf ($15). The huge brick of meatloaf sat in a pool of diced tomato relish and leaned against a small pile of garlic mashed potatoes under a canopy of green beans.

The meatloaf was very tender with a slightly well done outer layer. As you cut away at it with your fork you'll notice chunks of tomato stuck inside--it's like the tomatoes are Han Solos and the meatloaf is carbonite. Delicious, savory, carbonite. The potatoes have a subtle garlic flavor and were very, very smooth. The green beans lean towards a more au naturale state, crisp with a slightly waxy bite--if you like your veggies limp then you may not like them. The portions here are very large, and you may feel as though you are laboring away at the meatloaf after a while without more sides to vary your flavors.

It isn't cheap, but relative to other "nicer" restaurants it is. A large meal in a "cool" environment for around $20 isn't too bad. It's good place to bring a date or friends before going out to a bar on a weekend night.

119 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10011, 212 414 1717, www.cafeteriagroup.com