Like a tongue on a flagpole in February, fusion cuisine results from curiosity and a shortage of popsicles. Rein in restless taste buds with today's Groupon for Table 45, located inside the Intercontinental Hotel. Choose between the following options:

• For $30, you get $60 worth of world cuisine on Friday or Saturday.
• For $20, you get $40 worth of world cuisine Sunday through Thursday.

From within a 6,000-square-foot lounge space divided into five zones for different moods, Table 45’s chef Zachary Bruell dazzles jaded taste buds with a blend of culinary influences from North Africa, South America, Europe, and Asia. Bruell's interplanetary fusion earned him a Best New Restaurant award from Esquire Magazine in 2007. The current menu raises stomach curtains with a drum roll of curried-sweet-potato soup, a vegan concoction crowned with coconut garnish ($7). The roasted pork chop takes advantage of the restaurant's tandoor oven, emerging piping hot and served alongside succotash-stuffed acorn squash in a butter-herb sauce ($24). Spherical lobster meatballs add curve to flat fettuccine and arrive with fried shallots and dapper, well-shaven fennel in a tomato-and-chardonnay-cream sauce ($24). The clean contours of Table 45’s sleek, ultra-modern décor will make you feel like you’re on a layover to a distant galaxy in a posh Scandinavian starship-port. Reservations are required.

Reviews

Gayot gives Table 45 a good rating of 13 out of 20. Nine TripAdvisors give the restaurant an average of four owl eyes, and OpenTable reviewers give it a 4.1-star average.

• Rice paper-wrapped crab cakes served with a spicy Asian rémoulade or tandoori naan with three dipping sauces (the India pickled lime aïoli is our favorite) are among the extensive list of international appetizers. – Gayot
• Some of the best food I've tasted in a long while. – An OpenTable reviewer who dined on 12/18/2010