Heidi's House by the Side of the Road

Great neighborhood spot on the UES, although the line/wait time tends to be quite long.  The menu is quite small, but the food is above average and the service was really friendly.  That said, while overall it was quite enjoyable, I probably wouldn't wait hours for it (and they don't take reservations).

We started with an artichoke salad, which was fresh and well done.  Then we had the gnocchi (with red snapper), mac & cheese (with bacon and mushrooms), as well as the paella.  The gnocchi were larger than usual, but they tasted great -- doughy without being too dense.  The mac & cheese was nice and cheesy but not overly salty.  The paella was the weakest link and just seemed like normal rice on a plate (not served in a paella pan, so no crispy rice).  There's a good assortment of seafood and meat, but the dish didn't quite come together for me -- rice and chorizo were quite salty, but seafood was quite bland.  I normally don't like overseasoned seafood (good seafood should be able to stand alone), but the other flavors masked the seafood and it was hard to appreciate (hence tasted bland).

     

For dessert, we got the bread pudding, and it was as good as advertised.