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If you're not a regular, dining at Sette Mezzo on the Upper East Side is like crashing the anniversary party of a couple you never met. The patrons, almost all of them locals, are greeted with multiple kisses or handshakes. The cleanly designed interior is always crowded and the prosperous, air-kissing clientele makes the place feel like an extension of the Hamptons. The food is good but absurdly overpriced. The kitchen offers a range of daily appetizer and entrée specials, plus a large menu of antipasti, salads, pastas, fish, and meat. Among the trademark starters, the grilled sea scallops are intense and slightly sweet, flattened and arrayed like coins around a mound of grilled artichoke. However, another crowd pleaser, the carciofi con taleggio, artichokes with taleggio cheese, doesn't pack much punch. As for the main courses, the excellent pollo patanato boasts an appealing, paper-thin layer of potato atop the chicken. The Milanese vico, a breaded rack of veal, comes perfectly cooked but with little seasoning. The rigatoni with sausage and other pasta dishes are generous and tasty; the kitchen also serves baked Mediterranean sea bass, veal paillard, and a grilled ribeye—the latter dubbed a "cowboy steak," although no chuckwagon has ever sold one at these prices. — Nina Mehta

When in season, white truffles can be ordered with the risotto, veal, and other entrées, although the price heads into the triple digits. If that isn't a concern, you can splurge and pay still more for extra shavings of the prized delicacy.

Capesante alla griglia, $23.50; pollo patanato, $28.50; Milanese vico, $38.50; tartufo, $10