Buddakan

The mere mention of this grand clubstaurant’s name is enough to evoke flashbacks to Sex and the City–era New York, but if you really are determined to eat dinner in a place that feels like it was airlifted in from Las Vegas, Stephen Starr’s dark, massive Asian-fusion dining hall in the Meatpacking District is the place to do it — mostly because the food (especially the tea-smoked spareribs and the best-selling edamame dumplings in a shockingly delicate wrapper) is far better than you’d expect from a place of this ilk.