Weekend Picks: Pre-holiday dining deals

Before the holidays and their expenses arrive, it's worth looking for satisfying deals. Here are three restaurants that offer them.

It's Thanksgiving every Thursday at Ben's Deli (Woodbury). Choice of soup, roast turkey with white or dark meat and cranberry sauce, house-made stuffing "real and lumpy" mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and carrots or another vegetable, coffee or tea. It's $18.99 plus tax. Very good. I had mine at the Woodbury branch. Others in Carle Place and Greenvale.

Lunch beckons at the West End Cafe in Carle Place. The "mile high" salmon club sandwich comes in at $11.95, with smoked bacon, avocado, tomato and pesto aioli, on seven-grain bread. Add $3, and nibble on the Kobe-style beef sliders, with Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions and pommes frites.

Cafe La Strada in Hauppauge is a destination for its escarole-and-bean soup, a hearty choice for $8.95. A dollar less gets you good pasta e fagioli. Polenta with sausages and mushrooms is $9.95; spinach salad with onions, bacon and mushrooms: $8.95.