New York dining's top tickets

After last year's fanfare openings of multistar, big-deal dining venues in the Time Warner Center, including Café Gray, Per Se and Masa—the latter probably the most expensive dining experience in Manhattan—this year's restaurant scene has a lot to live up to.

Dining patrons at Time Warner, however, will have one disappointment. Chicago's Charlie Trotter has decided not to open his long-awaited restaurant in the complex. Manhattanites are also bidding adieu to the New York institution, the Oak Room, which is being closed by the Plaza Hotel's new owners. This dining signpost of an elegant, bygone era will be missed.

So what is new in today's New York restaurant world? For starters, more serious dining venues are coming to Midtown, as evidenced by Nobu 57, The Modern and BLT Steak. The Meatpacking District is cooling off, with the hippest crowds migrating to the Far West Village. Hotels and residential towers now offer prime restaurant locations, hosting newly opened Country, Thor and Perry Street. Restaurateur Stephen Starr of Philadelphia is bringing Morimoto and Buddakan to Manhattan in late November, but sufficient details had not yet been released at press time to include them in our list. Both are described as "modern-Asian" and promise to be spectacular.

Japanese cuisine holds sway; French bistro is fading into classicism; and good old American food is finally claiming its place. Food inspirations this season range from Kyoto to Kansas.

Restaurant prices are going up. Affordable restaurant gems are fast becoming a distant memory, with the average cost of a pleasant, three-course restaurant dinner in Manhattan (without alcoholic beverages) hovering between $50 and $60 per person. According to The New York Times, "A meal that cost $33 in 1994 now goes for over $50, outpacing inflation." Try a top restaurant address, and the bill quickly soars to between $80 and $100 or more per person—before adding alcoholic beverages to the tab.

But try not to fixate on your American Express credit card balance—go out and have a good time. DDI's A-list of new restaurants opened in Manhattan this year will dazzle both eyes and taste buds.

In alphabetical order:

Alto

520 Madison Ave. (near 53rd Street); (212) 308-1099

The entrance to this restaurant is through a small pocket park, which serves as a transition zone from the bustle of Midtown Manhattan to the tranquility of haute Italian dining. Designed by part owner Vincent Wolf, the restaurant has city attitude, juxtaposing concrete, steel and glass with Jacobean-style chairs and rich silk fabrics in tones of rose and burgundy. A two-level wall, made of wine bottles behind glass, sparkles in the backlighting of fiberoptics. Alto celebrates the cooking of the Alto Adige region of northern Italy.



Bar Americain

152 W. 52nd St. (near Seventh Avenue); (212) 265-9700

In the former Judson Grill in Midtown, Bobby Flay, of "Iron Chef" and Mesa Grill notoriety, teamed with designer David Rockwell to create a new American brasserie. Fabric-shaded lamps were installed, and a zinc bar now anchors the room, which is done entirely in warm tones of caramel and orange. Shellfish cocktails star in the food line-up, which also includes clam and sweet potato chowder, Gulf shrimp with grits, and pork with apple ginger chutney and creamed corn.



Bette

461 W. 23rd St. (Chelsea); (212) 366-0404

This new venture by club scene impresario Amy Sacco, of Bungalow 8 and Loft 61 fame, is one of the season's hottest reservations. The restaurant is on the ground floor of the London Terrace Towers, where owner Sacco resides above, and is part of what is being called the "Tenth Avenue foodie corridor," made up of dining enterprises that are satellite to the locally popular Chelsea Market. Bette (pronounced Betty) provides menu offerings including steak served with fries drizzled with truffle oil; Italian-inspired dishes including spaghetti with lobster; and final flourishes, including baked Alaska with strawberry gelato and goat cheese cake with lavender. The space is dominated by large graphics of faces reminiscent of '60s fashion models. Tubular, Art Deco chandeliers hang from the leaf-patterned, carpet-covered ceiling, and glass encloses a dining mezzanine. For those who enjoy people watching while dining—Robert Downey and Nicole Kidman have been sighted here.

Bistro du Vent

411 W. 42nd St. (near Ninth Avenue); (212) 239-3060

For those who revel in discovering a very good, moderately priced, New York restaurant, this new bistro may be just the ticket. The red awnings, leather banquettes and dark wood accents subscribe to the standard French bistro formula, while the requisite pâtés, boudin blanc, onion soup and steak frites grace the menu.

BLT Fish

21 W. 17th St. (near Fifth Avenue); (212) 691-8888

Master seafood chef Laurent Tourondel holds court in this new restaurant, which does for fish what BLT Steak does for beef. This Flatiron District location is really two food venues: the ground floor houses The Fish Shack, offering drinks and fish sandwiches, including a superb $24 lobster roll, while upstairs more serious dining prevails. Underneath the glass ceiling, the main dining room is unassuming, which keeps the emphasis on the stellar seafood. If fish doesn't do the trick for you, check out sibling restaurant BLT Steak, 106 E. 57th St., (212) 752-7470, which debuted last year.



Country

90 Madison Ave. (near 29th Street, in the Carlton Hotel); (212) 889-7100

Country is a new venue by Geoffrey Zakarian of Town restaurant fame. Located in the newly renovated Carlton Hotel, a casual café surrounds a dominant central bar, with a more formal dining room upstairs. Designer David Rockwell has added contemporary elements to the Beaux Arts style of the original building. The food concept treats guests as if they are at a dinner party, with each table being served the same family-style meal.



Del Posto

85 Tenth Ave. (at 16th Street)

Food Network star Mario Batali's new venture is an 18,000-sq.-ft. Italian spectacle that unabashedly aspires to a three-star-plus rating. This spacious, 120-seat restaurant has a stellar staff, including a meat-cutting specialist and a Parmigiano-Reggiano expert who circulates the dining room, offering "cheese flights." As for the décor, Batali promises enough dark wood and marble to satisfy any yearning for bella Italia.



Fatty Crab

643 Hudson St. (near Horatio Street); (212) 352-3590

This casual spin-off of nearby restaurant 5 Ninth brings bold Southeast Asian flavors to the West Village. Chef Zak Pelaccio produces mouth-watering soups, salads and noodle dishes—often inspired by Malaysian cuisine—and pairs them with offbeat Asian beers.



Galleria illy

382 W. Broadway (near Broome Street); (877) 455-9347

A pop-up coffee shop? You'll have to move fast to enjoy this one, because it goes away on Dec. 15. Under a unique chandelier of suspended espresso cups, guests enjoy coffee drinks—featuring authentic Italian espresso—bomboloni from Osteria del Circo and sandwiches from Chicago's Tru restaurant. The shop also includes an art library. Duck in if you're in the neighborhood—before it ducks out.



Koi

40 W. 40th St. (in the Bryant Park Hotel); (212) 921-3330

Sushi up to Koi, the buzzing, hipster-attracting Japanese restaurant of the moment. A stunning, giant canopy of open-honeycomb latticework dominates the dining room, where red-hot colors and loud music set the vibe. This is Nobu on steroids and a bit confused about whether it's a restaurant or a club, as evidenced by the bouncer guarding the door.



Ninja New York

25 Hudson St. (near Duane Street); (212) 274-8500

Chef Michinobu Okamoto resides over this $3.5 million labyrinth setting designed to resemble a rustic Japanese mountain village. The servers are cleverly dressed all in black, like ninjas, while the food blends Japanese with other international selections. There is also an extensive tasting menu.



Nobu 57

40 W. 57th St. (near Fifth Avenue); (212) 757-3000

This new sibling of the original Nobu in TriBeCa will make it easier to enjoy dining with Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. With 200 seats in the new restaurant, getting a reservation may also be easier. Japanese overtones are reflected in the food and décor by designer David Rockwell, who also designed the original Nobu. Rockwell used a quilt-like patchwork of Japanese fabrics for seating, applied rustic wood shingles to walls, covered the ceiling with abaca rope panels and seashell mobiles, and suspended sake barrels over the onyx and walnut bar.



Perry Street

176 Perry St. (West Village, near the West Side Highway); (212) 352-1900

Jean-Georges Vongerichten's latest venture is a "neighborhood" restaurant on home turf—he lives upstairs. The restaurant is in a Hudson River-view building designed by Richard Miere, with décor designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen, a Miere protégé. Perry Street, however, is the worst kept neighborhood dining secret in New York, with a usual reservation wait of many weeks. The space is sparse and contemporary, yet warm and welcoming, and the inventive menu lives up to Vongerichten's reputation.



Sapa

43 W. 24th St. (Chelsea); (212) 929-1800

This soaring space can best be described as a Zen-like loft, where wood and other natural materials complement Asian simplicity. Square lighting fixtures enclosed in white fabric and glowing candles set the mood for Patricia Yeo's fusion cuisine, which slants toward Vietnamese. Check out the dramatic, lower-level restroom space with its bubbling stone fountain. The interior is by the firm AvroKO, which is making its presence felt in New York restaurant design.



Sarabeth's

40 Central Park South; (212) 826-5959

Sarabeth Levine, who opened the first Sarabeth's on Amsterdam Avenue in 1981 and founded the well-known line of comestibles that bear her name, now has an outpost on Central Park South—the perfect spot for a weekend brunch.



The Modern

9 W. 53rd St. (at MoMA); (212) 333-1220

The new restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is equal to its prestigious surroundings. Overseen by well-known restaurateur Danny Meyer, the glass-enclosed dining space overlooks the Museum's famous sculpture garden. Bentel & Bentel architects used a Bauhaus inspiration, combining black and dark brown Danish furniture with silver surfaces and white marble. Chef Gabriel Kreuther creates works of art from the kitchen, ranging from lobster salad to wild boar. Reservations for the $74 prix-fixe nightly dinner may be difficult to come by at this A-list location.



The Pegu Club

77 W. Houston St. (near West Broadway); (212) 473-7348

Named for a British officer's club in Rangoon, India, The Pegu Club is the place to go for classic, creative or exotic cocktails. Essentially a lounge, Pegu offers "the biggest ice cubes in New York"—better to keep drinks cold—and assorted nibbles, many of which are Asian inspired.

The Stanton Social

99 Stanton St. (at Orchard and Ludlow streets); (212) 995-0099

Designed by AvroKO, this Lower East Side venue boasts fringe-covered walls, lizard-skin covered banquettes and a generous dash of '40s glamour, including a 30-ft.-high glowing wine rack. The upstairs lounge has an elegant Japanese mural of tree branches on its walls. Kobe beef sliders, duck empanadas and lobster and chorizo paella cakes are but a few of the menu offerings. The restaurant transforms into a lively late-night scene in the wee hours.



Thor

107 Rivington St. (at Essex Street, in the Hotel on Rivington); (212) 796-8040

Austrian chef Kurt Gutenbrunner holds court in a space that is stone-cold hip. Serving also as the hotel's lounge, the restaurant enters through a "blobular" sculpture made of fiberglass that gives way to a 22-ft.-high ceiling with glass walls overlooking the gritty reality of seedy tenements in the neighborhood. The interior design is by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders. Gutenbrunner specializes in small plates, producing morsels such as foie gras with caramelized peaches, squab with mushroom crust and salmon lasagna.



Upstairs at Bouley; Bouley Bakery and Market

130 W. Broadway (at Duane Street); (212) 219-1011

Just across the street from his restaurants Bouley and Danube, David Bouley has opened an ambitious enterprise that combines several food concepts. Bouley Bakery and Market is a market that sells signature breads, desserts, cheeses and other foods, including organic meats. Above the market is Upstairs, a café serving casual fare at lunch and dinner, ranging from roast chicken to sashimi. Cooking lessons take place in the café between seatings.



The club scene's newest hits

• Duvet Restaurant and Lounge: 45 W. 21st St.; (212) 989-2121

• R&R (at Rare): 416 W. 14th St. (between Ninth Avenue and Washington Street); (212) 675-2220

• Salon: 505 West St. (at Jane Street); (212) 929-4303

• The Double Seven: 418 W. 14th St. (at Ninth Avenue); (212) 981-9099

• Sascha: 53 Gansevoort St. (at Washington Street); (212) 989-1920