Every city neighborhood deserves a hangout as convivial and inviting as NoHo's Five Points -- but please don't tell everyone and ruin it, okay?

The chef and staff at jazzy 27 Standard are showing some real chops.

Le Cirque 2000
455 Madison Avenue, near 50th Street; 212-303-7788

Shelly Fireman, of Brooklyn Diner fame, brings Sheepshead Bay to the Upper East Side.

Seeking inspiration in the past is fine, but Larry Forgione is starting to seem stuck there.

It's the attention to detail -- in its curry nage, in its wine list, in its air-conditioning duct -- that makes Scott Bryan's Veritas such an instant success.

Quince suffers because it's haunted by the specter of the old Quilted Giraffe; Icon is simply bedeviled by spirits from the bar next door.

Belgian cooking is New York's unlikeliest new foreign fad since the work of Jacques Derrida. Will it catch on? Stranger things have happened.

Lotus offers trend-seekers high-style ambience with a menu to match -- if you can locate it. Tja! is also hard to find -- not that you'd want to.

The food at Pampano is enough to set you cheering. So why is the atmosphere so quiet?