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Enticing creations are on display high over Columbus Circle in the sky lobby of the Mandarin Oriental hotel, where Grant Achatz and his itinerant troupe of herbalogists, “drink-makers,” and madcap cooks have opened the New York branch of his famous Chicago bar The Aviary. Yes, the lobby setting feels a little impersonal, and if you’re familiar with the famous chef’s experiments back in Chicago, purchasing one of the many booking options on the restaurant website might feel a little like buying tickets to the performance of a traveling production of Cats, say, or a long-running Vegas magic show. But for grizzled, no-nonsense New Yorkers who’re used to taking their ritual martinis straight up, and who’ve endured enough comfort-food manias over the past decade or so to last a lifetime, there’s a certain pleasurable release in sitting back and enjoying, at least for one boozy evening, Achatz’s carefully staged culinary creations, which include pork rinds as big as palm fronds, weirdly reimagined gin-and-tonics that look like the green contents of lava lamps, and painstakingly deconstructed Bloody Marys, which are reassembled tableside, like a magic trick. — Adam Platt

Giant Crispy Pork Skin, tempura Hawaiian shrimp and/or pork-belly curry, Black Truffle Explosion. Instead of dessert, save your calories (and cash) for drinks like the Bloody Mary, Margarita-ish, and Heart of Stone.