If Le Cirque 2000 sounds too over the top for your taste, and Jean-Georges just too modern, Daniel Boulud's New York Times four-star winner is the place for you. Gorgeous neo-Renaissance features -- rich mahogany doors, elegant Corinthian columns, and soaring terra cotta-tiled ceiling make an ideal setting for Boulud's faultless classic-goes-country French cooking.

The menu is heavy with game dishes in elegant but unfussy preparations, plus Daniel signatures like black sea bass in a crisp potato shell, with tender leeks and a light Syrah sauce. Excellent starters include foie gras terrine with fennel confit and dried apricot compote, and rosemary and blood orange glazed endive. Sublime entrees may include spit-roasted and braised organic guinea hen with black truffle butter, or chestnut-crusted venison with sweet potato purée. But you can't really go wrong with anything -- the kitchen doesn't take a false turn. The wine list is terrific and, divided between seasonal fruits and chocolates; the desserts are uniformly excellent. On the downside, the staff is more formal than I would like, and I've heard the same complaint from others; service at equally classic La Grenouille also stands on ceremony, but I've found it to be much warmer.

Dining in the pleasing lounge is a great way to sample the master's marvelous cuisine without laborious advance planning or succumbing to formality, since the jacket-and-tie dress code for men is not enforced.