Out in Brooklyn there are a number of great places, Carino's Cantina for excellent mexican, Pies and Thighs for great fried chicken, Peter Luger for steak, Fatty Cue for well, just go look it up. Great brick oven pizza up in Greenpoint at Paulie Gees ( and you can get in without too much of a wait. )
Avoid Indian in the city. For excellent, Egyptian, there is Ali's Kebab Cafe in Astoria Queens.
If you want more ideas, shoot me an email at the one that is listed for my account. I can throw tons of ideas at you. In general your best bet if you are in the city is usually going to be in the West or East villages. Williamsburg and Greenpoint have a ton of great places as well.
