ARCHIVES

Chow Bar
230 West 4th Street (212-633-2212). Dinner, Sunday through Wednesday 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 5:30 p.m. to midnight. Appetizers, $4 to $10; entrées, $14 to $20. A.E., M.C., V.

ONEc.p.s.
One Central Park South (212-583-1111).
Lunch, Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Dinner, Monday through Sunday 5 to 11 p.m.
Appetizers, $8 to $26; entrées, $19 to $34. All major credit cards.

Mr. Chow
324 East 57th Street (212-751-9030).
Dinner, Monday through Sunday 6 to 11:45 p.m. Appetizers, $4 to $17.50; entrées, $24 to $32.50. A.E., D.C., M.C., V.
Sandro's
200 Ninth Avenue, near 22nd Street (212-633-8033).
Lunch, Monday through Friday noon to 3 p.m. Dinner, Monday through Friday 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday till 11:30 p.m. Appetizers, $6.50 to $12; entrées, $10 to $20. A.E. only.

Austrian cuisine dances into the West Village with Wallsé, where the flavors are light and complex, the schnitzel is golden, and the knödel won't weigh you down.

Chef Mark Spangenthal moves uptown to work the stove at the newly opened Dining Room, an oasis for New Yorkers without dining rooms of their own.

Brasserie 8 1/2 is restaurant dining at its most Fellini-esque: a subterranean stage where the scene, not the food, is the main attraction.

Rising from the gray mediocrity of Mortimer's, Orsay is an unexpected oasis of comfort and culinary verve in the stolid heart of the Upper East Side.

Meigas's traditional but complex dishes will transport you to Spain. The tyrannical waiters -- Galicia is famous for its dictators, too -- are just as authentic.

Lotus offers trend-seekers high-style ambience with a menu to match -- if you can locate it. Tja! is also hard to find -- not that you'd want to.

The folks at Gnocco in the East Village have a simple plan: Offer better food for less by importing young (and cheap) chefs straight from Italy. Hope they can keep it up.