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Chef Mario Arnero’s New American cooking offers distinctive twists to southern favorites in giant portions, though you wouldn’t expect it from the minimalist sensibility of this restaurant’s design. The showroom-style furnishings—pale wood floors that pop against chocolate wood banquettes and booths, a marble bar, and ivory walls that make the rectangular space feel expansive—are all about looking chic. But there’s more to Whym than that. Beyond predictable salads and tuna tartare are riskier dishes like Sexy Mushrooms, a decadent mixture of shiitake, black trumpet, and oyster mushrooms in a garlicky mascarpone sauce sprinkled with slivered almonds. Home-style comfort foods are all strong, too: Chipotle-spiked meatloaf is pleasantly spicy, and baked chicken pot pie, a disarmingly fragrant mound topped with a cheddar-chive biscuit crust, is packed with chunks of chicken, and apple sausage whose flavors flawlessly mingle. — Timothy Cooper

Sexy Mushrooms, $6.95; baked chicken pot pie, $15.95