Cosme

New York has traditionally been a graveyard for flowery, ambitious cooks from abroad, but with this hit Flatiron District restaurant, Mexico City’s Enrique Olvera appears to have cracked the code. The bar area serves a whole array of inventive tequila concoctions (call for as many Palomas as you can manage), and once you stumble back to the quieter, more peaceful dining area, you’ll find a small, impeccably sourced menu of Mexican favorites that combines comfort, technique, and a kind of elevated style in equal measure. If you’re in the mood for an extravagant big-city feast, call the magisterial duck for two, which the chefs braise to a sticky softness in citrus, condensed milk, and Mexican Coke, among many other things, finish in a sizzling cast-iron pan, and hoist to the table with a stack of the famous house tortillas. Save a little room for the desserts, in particular, the much-hyped (and -Instagrammed) husk meringue, which manages by some strange miracle to taste like fresh-milled corn, a meringue cookie, and the finest Parisian crème anglaise more or less at the same time.