Prouvé chairs. Fine china. Organic poultry and produce. Mas brings refined French-countryside quaintness to the West Village.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns, on the old Rockefeller estate 30 miles up the Hudson, delivers country dining with city sophistication.

Why contend with the schlock of the new? The Odeon and La Luncheonette, nearly 30 years of bistro experience between them, have only gotten better with age.

Instant critics be damned. Two months after opening, Lever House has earned a spot among New York’s top power-dining palaces.

Lamu—named for an island off the coast of Kenya—is African only in name. But maybe an exotic moniker is exotic enough.

Crispo
240 West 14th Street
(212-229-1818).

Blue Hill dispensed with all the flash that dominates the current scene, and still got my attention; the equally subdued Tocqueville is a labor of love.

Charlie Palmer's new spot, Kitchen 22, may lack the elaborate artistry of Aureole, but with a well-crafted -- and recessionproof -- menu, consider it a holiday gift to yourself.

Bond 45’s family-style cooking and service evoke Italian restaurants past.

City Bakery 3 West 18th Street (212-366-1414). Open 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday; dinner, beginning shortly, will be served 6 to 11 p.m. Appetizers, $6 to $11; entrées, $9 to $20. All major credit cards.