Craft - View this location on map This is a handsome restaurant, with a clean, vaguely Mission-influenced look that supports the culinary theme. Craft invites diners to take a trip. The destination is a simpler, cleaner, more honest America; it's a vision of food heaven, a land of strong, pure flavors and back-to-basics cooking techniques. But in pursuit of his vision, Tom Colicchio, the chef and an owner, has placed demands on his customers that make Craft one of the most baroque dining experiences in New York. At Craft, diners build their own meals. The saving grace at Craft, from the beginning, has been the high quality of the ingredients and their masterly handling by Mr. Colicchio and his chef de cuisine. Nothing at the restaurant sounds like much. Lunch could start with a half-dozen Belon oysters, followed by a thick slice of stuffed veal breast with roasted spring onions and roasted bluefoot mushrooms. Every bite is a revelation. The oysters sparkle. The veal, a humble cut of meat wrapped around some simple roast vegetables, has an honesty and a depth of flavor that will stop you cold. Craft pulls off this quiet magic with deceptive ease. In a city famous for steak worship, the frighteningly large porterhouse, neatly sliced into rectangles, ranks as one of the finest large-scale hunks of beef you'll encounter. - NYT review 43 E. 19th St., New York, New York Restaurant

---