Alain Ducasse at the Essex House - View this location on map Open since June 2000, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House remains the restaurant to go to for a certain kind of decadence, an exercise in opulent overkill, its main dining room as sumptuous and sepulchral as a pharaoh's tomb, its menu a showcase for the timeless divas of a luxurious larder. You will likely find foie gras and truffles aplenty, lobster and squab, beignets and souffles. The executive chef, Christian Delouvrier, cooks for the most part in a classic, straightforward fashion, with an aim of amplifying rather than eclipsing superior ingredients. The results are often wonderful. But during my visits between his arrival in mid-2004 and early 2005, there were recurring letdowns and lapses, in regard to the food and the service, that added up to a spell less binding than a restaurant this ambitious and extremely expensive can wish or allow it to be. -- Frank Bruni 155 W. 58th Street, New York, New York Restaurant

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