Falai, NYC

Overall: Worth the wait!
Cost: $56 incl. wine
Falai has been open over a year, but was one of those out-of-the-way restaurants where it was so hard to get a table that it took me this long to try it. But I'm SO HAPPY that I did (and that things have calmed down there a bit) - all our food was refined and delicious. Even though the menu purports to be Italian and offered many enticing pastas, we went for more inventive dishes and were well-rewarded: Insalate Funghi was a standout with marinated and breaded wild mushrooms topped by a poached egg, but we also polished off our entrees of creamy whipped cod and hanger steak with bearnaise sauce. Finally, desserts like passionfruit soufflé and citrus cream millefoglie made us swoon. The highlight was getting complimentary house-baked bread, amuse-bouche, refresher and petit-fours... unheard of at these prices, which, though loftier than one may expect of the Lower East Side, is on par with most other restaurants around town.