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Perched in an aerie high above MoMA’s sculpture garden, Terrace 5 is as clean and modern as the museum that hosts it. Color is banished from the room’s fittings, with blank white walls leading to a seasonal terrace. Architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s dramatic paneled overhang provides shade while a hodgepodge midtown skyline stands in for wall art. Arne Jacobsen flaring chairs, and iconographic Coke bottles reflect MoMA’s appreciation for design. Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group serves a seasonal menu, the presentations almost works of art themselves. An autumnal squash dish comes smoky and sweet, with applewood-smoked bacon and pecans, topped by a tangled jungle of baby radish and arugula worthy of Henri Rousseau. Slow-roasted salmon is matched with thin-sliced fresh fennel and Granny Smith apples or baby beets. Many of the well-heeled patrons here skip the savories for coffee and dessert, however. The decadent MoMA sundae blends sorbets, lemony cheesecake, fresh raspberries, and vanilla sauce. The lemon tart looks like a Wayne Thiebaud creation, with neat citrus slices garnishing rich almond-cream filling. Unfortunately, the cumulative effect of so much modernism can be the same in the café as in the museum: It’s cold in here. — Ethan Wolff

You can’t eat here unless you’ve sprung for the full MoMA admission. The prevalence of Europeans among the patrons has inspired an automatic 15 percent gratuity added to every tab. Reservations aren’t taken; when the museum is crowded, lines can get long.

Salmon and watercress, $16; MoMA sundae, $11; lemon tart, $7

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