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Tse Yang is the least ostentatious of the stalwart upscale-Chinese group that includes the flashier Shun Lee Palace and Mr. K's. A dark room, big fish tanks, and walls carved with Chinese landscapes provide sedate scenery for the restaurant's suited, septuagenarian clientele. It promises a lot. There's a tasting menu and big-time Burgundies in the cellar—and it'll hit you in the wallet like a Paris restaurant after dollar devaluation. Szechuan lobster hardly seems worth it for chunks obscured in a thick, fruity sauce. The original Tse Yang is in Paris, and below the name of every dish on the New York menu is its French equivalent, which makes food seem more elaborate than it is. Even steamed rice becomes "le riz blanc dans son bain de vapeur." Many dishes are, however, elaborate, incorporating upmarket ingredients like veal and lamb. The few that aren't excel for their simplicity. Rainbow colored appetizers fails to deliver a colorful spectacle, but brings pieces of crisp beef in a sweet and spicy sauce next to flavorful shrimp over pickled cabbage. Meaty spareribs are tender and judiciously sauced—exactly what you hope for but never what you receive when you order this common starter in a lesser restaurant. — JJ Goode

"Rainbow" colored appetizers, $15.75; baby spareribs, $13.75