Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant track record has been hit-or-miss of late, but ABC Kitchen is decidedly the former. You get a this-is-gonna-be-good feeling as soon as you walk in— it’s something about those beautiful gnarled tree trunks, those roughed-up wood beams, stark white chairs, glam chandeliers, white-brick walls—and after an initial damn-this-a-short-menu worry, you’re back on solid ground. Each dish earns its spot—the flavors pop, and the combinations often surprise. [...]

The normally Midas-touched restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Indian restaurant Tabla may have met its demise recently, but Maialino, his first attempt at Italian, is definitely kicking. Meyer takes the rustic, earthy Italian-restaurant paradigm New Yorkers deeply adore, and airs it out with higher ceilings and intimate nooks that open breezily onto each other—and installs skilled chef Nick Anderer, ex of Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern, to create a mostly-Roman menu of dishes like bucatini all’Amatriciana and a half roasted chicken with pickled chili. With all that, he creates an Italian destination that somehow commands attention in a hyper-crowded field. [...]

Certain Aldea visitors have been known to ask for seats at the chef’s counter in back, mainly to ogle the dashing, chiseled chef-owner George Mendes. If that’s what it takes to get reluctant types into a nouveau-Portuguese restaurant on a slightly drab block near Union Square, fair enough. But Aldea is dazzling even without Mendes (well, without his Montgomery Clifty-ness, but definitely not without his kitchen genius). [...]