In an unassuming building in Midtown, near the southern end of Central Park, Bruno Cilio has opened a shiny white restaurant that looks more Museum of Modern Art than rustic pizza joint. But where any obvious authenticity fails, once you delve into PizzArte, the food and vibe prove pure Italian. For example, the walls display over a dozen paintings of the Neapolitan volcano Mount Vesuvius done by Italian artist Luciano Scateni, most of the heavily accented staff comes from Italy, and the gorgeous pizza oven was shipped over from the mother country and rebuilt here by the artisan. more

NICK CERVERA HOVERS around his Williamsburg Mexican restaurant like a proud parent, stopping at tables to show off what his baby has to offer. Though this marks his Brooklyn debut, Cervera isnt a first-time dadthis boroughs new location is the fourth version of his popular restaurant, Mole. more

CRISP; CLEAN AND classic are the best words to describe The Beagle, Matt Piacentinis three-month old venture in the East Village, though on a recent sweltering night, the first adjective to pop in my head was hot. more

ALMOST A YEAR after the iconic Empire Diner closed its doors, the space was reborn as another cafe, The Highliner. The best part? Not much has changed as far as appearances go, despite the gutting of the joint by owner Charles Milite. more

The past year has seen an influx of hip bars, stylish coffee shops and buzzworthy restaurants opening up in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Enter Sud Vino & Cucina, the latest of these ventures, which opened up a few months ago. more

Eighty Four on Seventh, a small European- American-style bistro on a busy corner in the West Village. With placid, white-washed and unadorned brick walls, standard dark wooden tables and stiff place settings, the restaurant feels too stuffy for casual dining. The large open windows help, but unfortunately the traffic noise (and smells) from bustling Seventh Avenue make eating semi-alfresco a challenge. more

I PROBABLY NEVER WOULD have made the trek to Chris Iacono's Giuseppina's if it wasn't the sister pizza parlor to the popular Lucali in Carroll Gardens, which is owned by Iacono's own flesh-and-blood, brother Mark. With a generic awning, the short, dark building didn't look like much, but I quickly found out that what's inside warranted every moment it took to get there. more

AS CHEF JULIO Mora set down four tiny dishes, three filled with jewel-like shades of red and one pale green, he quizzed me as to their contents. The first was an oily mixture of five chilies pureed in more

Upon hearing Julian Medina of Toloache and Yerba Buena fame was opening a Nuevo-Latin style diner in Chelsea, my original thought was, Oh boy, another expensive comfort food place in Manhattan. Luckily I was way off. more

Miss Manners would be appalled at the amount of texting, tweeting, Googling and god knows what else we do on our phones during dinner. But at celebrity chef Angelo Sosas new Asian-American comfort-food fusion restaurant Social Eatz, that is exactly what diners are encouraged to do. more