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Saxon + Parole, which opened four months ago in the East Village, is another restaurant in an old, oft-occupied space. The slightly disjointed room on the corner of Bleecker and the Bowery used to house Double Crown, which served a grab bag of fusion dishes oriented toward the old British Empire and featured an excellent ­speakeasy-style gin bar. The bar is still intact, but the owners have scrapped the old teak-heavy Colonial motif in favor of a cleaner, more typical modern brasserie look (whitewashed brick, lots of wood rafters) by the well-known design firm AvroKO. The restaurant’s name is a reference to two famous racehorses, and the new menu features grilled meats and “aquatic delights,” which is a fancy way of describing the kind of bankable, run-of-the mill surf-and-turf specialties (grilled lobster, steak for two, a pork chop) which you’ll find in bistros all over this stolid, meat-and-­potatoes-soaked town.

“Why are these restaurants all the same?” exclaimed one of the weary gourmands at my table as we pondered the “S + P Dry Aged Angus Burger,” which was served with a mass of soggy fries and topped, in a vain attempt at haute-burger originality, with melted Havarti and a fried egg. You can complement your S + P Burger with pots of smooth chicken-liver mousse (served, predictably, in Weck pots), or marrow bones slathered, not unpleasantly, with miso. In addition to the de rigueur pork chop (with applesauce and quince here), I have vague memories of a fatty short rib braised to a tarry blackness in Guinness and a nice but pricey cut of New York strip ($49) with a pot of tired-looking béarnaise on the side. The desserts are professionally cooked, but like most things at this stylishly generic restaurant, there isn’t one of them—crème caramel, chocolate soufflé, doughnuts served in a little metal bucket—that you haven’t seen a thousand times before. — Adam Platt

Ideal Meal

Chicken-liver mousse or bone marrow with miso, New York strip steak, chocolate soufflé.

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (1/9/12)