Though meals tend to bring friends together, meals peppered with magnets can push them apart. Enjoy an attractive repast with today's Groupon: for $20, you get $40 worth of Italian-American fare at The Asylum Cafe.

The epicurean alchemists at The Asylum Cafe populate their menu with New York–style pizzas, pastas tossed with fresh tomato sauce, and thickly stacked sandwiches. An opening act of little neck clams simmered in white wine ($9.95) warm up the audience before a 14-ounce Angus rib eye shares the stage with garlic mashed potatoes ($24.95). On its way to becoming a lasagna pie laden with hamburger, ricotta, and parsley ($17 for small; $20 for large), pizza dough endures punches more stoically than a pillow auditioning to be the fourth Stooge.

Meanwhile, pecorino romano cheese showers cheese ravioli in fresh tomato sauce ($13.50), and breaded chicken mingles with hot sauce and blue cheese in a buffalo chicken wrap ($8.50). Feasts finish on a sweet note with Chef Joe’s cannolis, two crispy pastry shells bursting, like overinflated Ferrari wheels, with ricotta cheese ($5.95).