Less Known Good Eats of Manhattan

5 Ninth

The Meatpacking District is jam-packed with trendy restaurants, but many prioritize scene over food. Not at 5 Ninth: A romantic townhouse setting provides the backdrop for global cuisine and inventive cocktails, too. There's a winning golden beet salad with snow peas, orange supreme and goat cheese dressing. Great mains include a Korean-style pork plate and Bell & Evans chicken, slow-cooked with haricots verts, wild mushroom stuffing and gravy.

Tre

Want great Italian food in lower Manhattan? Well, Tre is proof there's more to it than Little Italy. This Lower East Side hot spot is known for solid Italian cooking with inventive flourishes. Examples are pappardelle flat ribbon pasta with fall vegetable ragout and ricotta salata foam, and cavatelli chipotle, homemade ear-shaped pasta with mussels and broccoli rabe foam.

P*Ong

Chef-owner Pichet Ong teamed up with architect Andre Kikoski to create this small but dramatic space where sure, you can get real food like house-cured Arctic char or a warm mushroom tart, but the real fun is in the menu's "sweet and savory" section. There's a smoked trout caviar parfait with crème fraiche ice cream, vanilla salt, and nasturtium, a Stilton soufflé with walnut crust, black pepper, basil-arugula ice cream and more along those over-the-top lines. Veering off into sugarland even more, order up the pineapple tiramisu with cognac sabayon, decaf espresso, grated chocolate and cilantro, or the milk chocolate and chestnut truffle, served with chestnut mousse, violet salt and olive oil caketons.