BHATTI INDIAN GRILL 100 Lexington Ave. (at East 27th St.), 212-683-4228. Come for North Indian cuisine, including kebabs cooked over the namesake bhatti, a lava-stone grill. Highlights include a $9.95 unlimited lunch, made to order; there is no buffet here. more

Sub par Indian food like that historically sold in the bastion of cheap spots in Curry Hill is infamous for inflicting its consumers with gut-churning regret. But according to Guarav Anand, who recently opened two spots on Lexington Avenue smack in the middle of the neighborhood, additional hazards lurked in the restaurants’ outdated interiors. more

KITTICHAI THE ULTRA-SLEEK modern Thai restaurant in Soho’s ultra-sleek 60 Thompson Hotel, is probably the last place I’d expect to see a hoard of avid DIYers. But on Monday nights, the restaurant hosts diners for an evening of do-it-yourself deliciousness: that is, cooking your own dinner over woks of steaming spiced broth. more

I should have known that Janis, the new West Village basement lounge, would operate according to the well-established tradition of other subterranean hotspots— that is, not getting hot until well after midnight. Instead, here I am at 11:30 on a Friday night, approaching its unmarked door only to find it not yet open. more

YOU DON’T EXACTLY expect a bar called The Drunken Horse to be a classy or charming establishment. If, like me, you spent your early twenties at Black Bear Lodge, Red Lion, Brass Monkey and zoo’s worth of other recent-grad hangouts, you might be permanently wary of any bar with an animal in its name—especially when preceded by the word “drunken.” But an evening at this new Chelsea wine bar, recently opened by Turks & Frogs alum Azman Dayakli, taught me not to judge a bar by its name. more

SOMETIMES YOU WANT to go where everybody knows your name, or at least where you can grab a hearty pint without leaving the confines of your hood.That was our goal on a recent Friday night after dinner at my friend Joeys Brooklyn Heights pad, and we hoped The Roebling Innthe brand new Atlantic Avenue barwould do the trick. more

Tucked in the cellar of a former townhouse and marked by a garish neon sign, the subterranean space is decked out in the sort of old New York glamour—think marble floors, pressed-tin ceilings and lighting from vintage chandeliers—that immediately transports one from the hustle of Houston Street above. But as struck as I was by the luxe, romantic room, I was bound to discover what my friend Sarah, already nursing a hearty glass of Clos Vauriou ($9) at the century-old mahogany bar, had by now figured out: Bar Henry is all about the wine. more

I ADMIT, I seldom meet a dirty martini I dont like.Yet never have I sipped one so savory and smootha blend of Russian Standard Platinum vodka and what must be the most luscious olives on Earththat I wanted to haul myself off the velvet banquet on which I was lounging and kiss the bartender. more

AS A 25-YEAR-OLD karaoke virgin, I was afraid that Baby Grand, the new “singing bar” in Soho, would be a tacky joint. But when I strolled in one recent Friday night with my spotlight-loving sister in tow, the diminutive spot was a far cry from the American Idol reject’s lounge I had envisioned. more