China Latina, New York

Located on the ground floor of Chelsea's Hotel Indigo, Blu Restaurant shares the same dedication to understated elegance as the hotel, incorporating Asian and Mediterranean influences into its menu of refined continental cuisine. The chefs man their stations from sunrise to moonset, whisking together meat- and vegetable-filled omelets in the morning before devoting their evenings to the seasonally rotating dinner menu. In addition to grilling dry-aged new york strip steaks and roasting free-range chicken, they also introduce palates to subtle trans-Pacific flavors by glazing tuna with teriyaki sauce or infusing salmon with ginger.

To accent meals, the bartenders can either mix one of their signature cocktails or telekinetically uncork a bottle of wine from the 50-bottle-strong list, which emphasizes small-production wineries from Spain, France, Italy, and the United States. The 20th-story Glass Bar NYC affords guests panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline amid a modern Mediterranean atmosphere of palms and illuminated sculptures. Here, patrons sip flavor-forward cocktails prepared by quizzical mixologists, and, on friday nights, mingle at the bar's swanky slumber parties.