LeBernardin is just a wonderful experience and has been for decades. I am also a big fan of Jean-Georges as well, which had 3 stars for a number of years but has dropped to 2 stars. When in think of high end French food in NYC I think of LeBernardin. Been there a number of times over the years, although not recently, and was always just blown away by how good the food, service and ambience was. I would place Jean-George’s in close to that category.

I have not been to the new Joel Robuchon but really was impressed for our one visit to the old one. The new location has two stars. The old one was really kind of unique in combining fantastic food in a somewhat more casual setting.

If you aren’t tied to French you might try Tori Shin. It is a one star Japanese yakatori restaurant. Great little skewers of various chicken parts and some other things cooked over an open fire or hot stones. Chicken artery on a skewer anyone? But seriously it is great if you like non sushi Japanese. There are some Michelin starred sushi places as well.