Jean-Georges

Thomas Juul-Hansen redrew the interior and L'Observatoire lit it, though the floor-to-ceiling windows onto Central Park and Columbus Circle do most of the work. The dress code holds its line without much fuss, jackets suggested rather than required and ties optional, while shorts and sporting attire are politely declined. Children are welcome from ten, provided they will sit a tasting menu.

Vongerichten grew up outside Strasbourg and apprenticed at Auberge de l'Ill under Paul Haeberlin, then under Paul Bocuse, and under Louis Outhier at L'Oasis, before continuing in hotel kitchens in Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong. Sea urchin with yuzu and serrano opens the six-course dinner at $298, ten courses is the longer version, and black sea bass arrives in a Château Chalon sauce on the 1997 list at $478. The shorter lunch compresses all of it into three savory courses and cheese or dessert for $128. The route is legible in all of them.

Joseph Rhee runs the kitchen as chef de cuisine, in a room open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner. He came out of Johnson & Wales by way of a short externship at Daniel and single days in the kitchens at Eleven Madison Park and Le Bernardin, then arrived here more than a decade ago. He never left.