The seriously good, again: Recipe, where my consort and I stopped in for a real lunch to fortify us before a picnic dinner in Riverside Park and where the best thing besides the food was the manager acting as if he didn’t recognize me after my overstaying at dinner. We ate the usual main courses — outstanding skirt steak with chimichurri and roasted potatoes etc. for me, roasted hen with farro etc. for him — after the bitter-sweet salad with grilled pancetta, walnuts and Parmesan and the beet salad with goat cheese and pecans. It’s the best lunch deal in town: $11.95. And would be worth it at twice that. 452 Amsterdam Avenue near 82d Street, 212 501 7755.