Critics’ choice: Fine dining worth stepping up to

Four Twenty Five

New York City

“Two megawatt celebrity chefs in one kitchen is practically unheard of, besides being proverbially too many,” said Melissa Clark in The New York Times. Despite this, the unlikely pairing of “notorious renegade” Jean-Georges Vongerichten and “ingredient-driven purist” Jonathan Benno has given Park Avenue a new haute-dining destination to boast about. From the buzzy cocktail lounge on the ground floor of a glassy new skyscraper, diners ascend a staircase, “like Wagnerian gods,” to a chic, second-floor dining room that suggests a 1930 art deco ocean liner.

At first glance, the menu appears to be playing it safe. But the chefs “shatter expectations every chance they get.” Their fluke tartare is made to be eaten by hand, rolled in shiso leaves. Their butter-poached lobster is served in a fiery sauce inspired by Singaporean pepper crab. This is food that “doesn’t just please, it woos.” It meets you where you are, then amuses and delights you and “inspires you to explore corners of your appetite you didn’t know you had.” 425 Park Ave.

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La Padrona

Boston

Bostonians can agree with New Yorkers about this: “There is something about ascending a staircase to reach the dining room of a restaurant,” said Devra First in The Boston Globe. The effect is especially stirring “when the restaurant at the top is a luxe room with a grand bar shaped like a racetrack at the center.” At La Padrona, an instant grand dame of Italian fine dining, the swank setting suits the focused execution of Jody Adams’ cooking.

Want a little theater? “There is more tableside action at La Padrona than I’ve seen in eons,” starting with the buttery orange sauce poured over Nantucket bay scallops and even touching the heavenly tagliatelle Emilia-Romagna, which gets a stripe of balsamic just before you lift your fork. It’s characteristic of La Padrona that the risotto, often disappointing elsewhere, is inspiring, and while the secondi, including the beef tenderloin and osso buco, aren’t at the same level, you can make a transporting meal from the primi, the desserts, and the cocktails. Combining luxury with cooking that “hits a sweet spot between familiarity and invention,” La Padrona is just the restaurant Boston needed. 38 Trinity Place.

March

Houston

At March, most diners begin the evening by climbing a staircase to a pleasingly lit, “positively spa-like” lounge, said Bao Ong in the Houston Chronicle. It’s a reset facilitated by a chilled martini, and when dinnertime arrives, you’re escorted into a space given warmth by a lavish wall-size tapestry and modern elegance by tables and chairs “worthy of an international art fair.” You choose between a $185 and $245 Mediterranean tasting menu, and chef Felipe Riccio’s cooking “sets Houston’s fine-dining standard.”

His current menu, focused on Venice, opens with a “refreshing” play on frutti di mare and moves on to tender octopus and wagyu beef. “But it was the humble risi e bisi”—rice and peas—“that convinced me March cared about serving food you actually want to eat instead of just food that entertains the eye.” I end each visit hoping I’ll be back to enjoy Riccio’s next regional menu. With food like that, and service that’s beyond attentive, March is “a rare Houston treasure,” a dining destination that’s “among the country’s best.” 1624 Westheimer Road.