Café Salmagundi

Like the dish whose name it borrows, this charming Gramercy Park spot pulls together a variety of elements into something more than the sum of its parts. The setting has the feel of a warmly hospitable neighborhood bistro, while the cooking highlights greenmarket ingredients, judiciously drawing on global flavors, from Mediterranean to East Asian. A meal might start with a selection from the raw bar, or an umami-packed appetizer of crisp, lightly battered hen of the woods mushrooms with a dipping sauce of anchovy, caper and cornichons. House-made pastas are a specialty (and diners may well see them being shaped by hand during their meal), as in tortellini with a filling of tender lamb shank, paired with a consommé lifted with a peppery Szechuan kick.