(Photo: Hannah Whitaker/New York Magazine)

• SHO Shaun Hergatt

  40 Broad St., at Exchange Pl.; 212-809-3993

  Thought you’d seen the last of sweet lobes of foie gras scented with hibiscus, and ridiculous gelées spiked with bizarre tropical fruits from the jungles of Borneo? Think again. The dark art of Asian-fusion cooking may have been banished from prissy, trend-conscious dining circles uptown, but it’s alive and well at Shaun Hergatt’s excellent eponymous restaurant in the financial district. Hergatt was born in Australia and trained at the Ritz, which means his cooking combines rock-solid classical technique with a subtle internationalist sensibility. Delicate mille-feuilles are constructed with foie gras and gingery pistachio wafer, and if you order Scottish salmon, it’s served in a broth infused with Thai basil. But our favorite creation is the quail, which the chef simmers in a red-chile-spiked Malaysian coconut-milk curry, and caramelizes with a faint cornstarch crunch, like some ethereal version of General Tso’s chicken.

From the 2010 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine