Marea

A coastal Italian dining room on Central Park South, a few steps from Columbus Circle, that has been one of the city's serious seafood addresses for fifteen years. It won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2010, and the crowd still leans toward suits.

The pasta is the reason to book. The fusilli — handmade curls with red-wine-braised octopus and bone marrow — is the dish the restaurant is known for; the squid-ink mezzaluna stuffed with lobster under bottarga is the second. Start with a crudo sampler, and share several pastas between two rather than committing to a main.