• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Sportello's mod lunch counter.    (Photo: Mike Ritter)

Get lunch at Sensing for two thirds of the cost of dinner. The restaurant opened in January at the Fairmont Battery Wharf with a menu designed by three-star Michelin chef Guy Martin. His dishes are executed by his former protégé, French-born Gerard Barbin.

Chef Barbara Lynch opened her high-end Italian lunch counter Sportello last November, and it’s been on food editors’ lists ever since. Saveur deemed it a “restaurant that matters” and Travel + Leisure last month called it one of the country’s 50 best new restaurants. Reserve a stool in advance in order to try the truffled gnocchi with peas and mushrooms.

There’s not a bad bite in the fifteen-course, three-hour eating event that is the omakase menu at O Ya. Get a seat at the counter and your $150 will get you a glimpse of Top Chef finalist Tiffani Faison, as well as pieces of foie gras balsamic chocolate kabayaki with raison cocoa pulp.

Published on May 21, 2009 as a web exclusive.