ARCHIVES

In a red-sauce sea of indifferent Italian food, 50 Carmine is an island of stylish, ingredient-driven cuisine.

At his new, unrelentingly rustic Upper West Side Italian joint, Tom Valenti delivers equal measures of elegance, neighborly bonhomie, and bulk.

Alain Ducasse’s Mix in New York offers an eclectic blend of homey American and European dishes that ultimately just doesn’t jell.

Instant critics be damned. Two months after opening, Lever House has earned a spot among New York’s top power-dining palaces.

At Schiller’s Liquor Bar, bistro and brasserie king Keith McNally brings steak-frites, cloudy mirrors, and yards of brass railings to the Lower East Side.

From five tiny tables and veggie souvlaki, Snack has expanded with an innovative new taverna.

Soho’s 325 Spring Street dishes up truffles in virtually every conceivable way (truffle pizza? truffle jelly?). The results? Comme ci, comme ça.

Spun off from two popular Italian sandwich bars, ’inoteca and Bread Tribeca are full-fledged ristorantes.

If the over-the-top theatrics of Rocco’s reality show make you crave old-fashioned restaurant professionalism, the River Café hits the spot.

With big flavors and small prices, Kuma Inn gives tapas a Thai-Philippine twist (and a dash of Bouley and Boulud).