Conceived as part of sculptor Seward Johnson's impressionistic vision, Rat's Restaurant transports degusting diners into Claude Monet's beloved town of Giverny with cosmopolitan home cooking served overlooking a delicate lily pond. Launch your exploration into head chef Shane Cash's exceptional dinner menu with the petit escargot, featuring lemon verbena, escargot butter, and parsley tortellini ($15). Sophisticated palates can decorate themselves with a delectable selection of entrees, including Scottish halibut, a fresh pan-roasted catch accompanied by cauliflower puree and almond-caper meuniere sauce ($30). Before stepping into the attached Grounds For Sculpture galleries and discovering the secrets of scratch-n-see artwork, enjoy sips from a menu of hand-crafted cocktails and an eclectic wine list.

The mastermind behind French Tart is Chef Laurent, whose innovation earned him a gold medal for Most Creative Restaurant Dessert at the Eger Foundation’s 2011 Taste of Staten Island and whose flaky croissant recently won the New York Daily News' Best of New York award. His culinary team also whips up authentic French specialties, including sweet and savory crepes, cheese fondue, and French-style sandwiches, dashed with originality. The eatery’s ever-shifting menu has included such offerings as pan-seared salmon inside puff pastries, zucchini-flower omelets, and chocolate ravioli. Iced teas are served with a blend of rose petals, lavender, jasmine, and dried berries. Along with breakfasts, brunches, and dinners served six days a week, Chef Laurent and his crew fill gift baskets year-round with baked goods, imported French foods, and slightly smaller gift baskets.

A Toute Heure: A User's Guide

Erica Lieberman's lifelong affinity for baking began in her mother's kitchen 25 years ago. Since then, Erica has turned her passion for making treats into Whipped Bites, where she churns out cupcakes in a variety of sweet flavors. Featured cupcakes include apple pie with cinnamon-apple cake and vanilla-cream-cheese frosting and the PB&J, or peanut-butter cake filled with grape jelly and topped with vanilla-bean frosting.

Though they all share the same name, all eight of McLoone's Restaurants' locations have their own interior charm. With dining rooms adjacent to off-track betting facilities, McLoone’s Woodbridge Grille and McLoone’s Bayonne Grille are peppered with an energetic ambiance that fills their brightly colored spaces. Televisions at every table keep diners abreast of the results of each race, and the big screens plastered around the restaurants also broadcast NFL, MLB, and college games. Like an indecisive bride’s wedding, each location’s bistro-style menu includes both casual and elegant dishes, from seasoned thai chicken wings and Black Angus burgers to new york strip steak and mango salmon.

Aside from about 20 grams of protein, what do ahi tuna and steak have in common? They’re both black stone items on the menu at The Cambridge Inn. Diners get to step into the role of chef and cook the thick cuts tableside over heated black stones themselves. That experience anchors a staggering menu of new american eats that covers a wide swath of the culinary landscape, from steaks, burgers, and ribs to veal saltimbocca layered with prosciutto and mozzarella. Paired with sandwiches, salads, and more than 20 appetizers, the almost-steakhouse food is served in smaller lunch portions. It’s also incorporated into the Friday night all-you-can-eat prime rib buffet, and the Sunday champagne brunch, complete with an omelet station and a Virginia ham carving station, which is just like any other ham-carving station, only the chef dresses like Edgar Allan Poe.