Contra

Minimal, industrial and in harmony with the cool neighborhood, this is the kind of classic downtown spot that never goes out of style. Seating is either intimate or cramped, and the music is lively or loud, all depending on your mood. The menu features à la carte offerings in addition to a tasting menu that is just over $100.
The cuisine here reflects the team's wide-ranging talents and contemporary flair. Take the custard-smooth, house-made tofu. It's brilliantly topped with a generous quenelle of caviar and slicked with a lip-smacking maple and mirin sauce. Then, a lobster tart delights with its crumbly shell, enriched with charred scallion ash, housing  a poached lobster and scallop filling dressed with sauce Américaine.