Brasserie 1605

The Crowne Plaza (it's not The Plaza OK? It's the Crowne Plaza) takes off the bandages from an $8 million face-lift and reopens its in-house brasserie with Keith Williams at the helm, a chef with a knack for running sophisticated restaurants within larger institutions: You might remember the very pretty dishes he put out at BG (Bergdorf Goodman's restaurant) starting in 2006. Williams' menu interprets brasserie food broadly, with French classics like cassoulet and croque monsieur alongside American mac-and-cheese and chicken pot pie. If you have the misfortune of ending up in Times Square for lunch, at least you know where to get a decent lobster roll.

See more: Midtown restaurants, Midtown West restaurants, American contemporary restaurants, French restaurants