Mercer Kitchen

Globetrotting celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten offers a relaxed American Provencal menu at this SoHo hotspot with 200 seats inside the Mercer Hotel. Some of the menu items seem rather typical of a hotel restaurant (think Buttermilk Pancakes, Omelette with Gruyere, Eggs Benedict), yet all are prepared with the typical elegance and flourish of a Jean-Georges property. Thus you'll find perennial favorites such as a peekytoe crab appetizer, a raw tuna and wasabi pizza, a baby lamb sandwich, and superb duck, salmon and seasonal venison entrees. Guests love looking up at the bubble glass ceiling from the lower level dining room; you can watching passersby walking across this roof that doubles as the SoHo sidewalk outside. At night, there is so much action to observe you might find the noise levels rather defeaning. But given the sleek interior, the superb über-SoHo location, and the crush of tourists hankering to eat here, reservations are a necessity.