“108 Food Dried Hot Pot offers the city’s latest Chinese food fad: the dry hot pot, a craze renowned for its spiciness that began in Beijing and first appeared here in Flushing food courts. Here’s how it works at 108: You step up to a lavish display of raw ingredients deposited in metal tubs at the rear of the restaurant. An attendant with a sense of humor, her baseball cap turned askew, will assemble the ingredients you point to, putting the meat, poultry, and fish in one metal bowl ($10.99 per pound), and the vegetable matter in another ($9.99 per pound). I’d put the food quality at 108 Food up against that of any Chinese restaurant in town at a similar price.” Four stars.

“The bill of fare's most prominent section is Sichuan. In fact, you've never had a better tea-smoked duck. As if this were a farm-to-table bistro in Williamsburg, special ingredients and methods of preparation are flaunted: ‘salted duckling smoked with Lauraceae tea’ ($17.95) is the way the menu puts it. With its dark, moist flesh redolent of burning autumn leaves, half a mallard of good size arrives fully articulated, with a thin layer of fat quaking (if not quacking) beneath the supremely crisp skin. God, is it good! A plummy hoisin sauce on the side stands as a warning that you don't really need any sauce.” Three stars.

“You can almost hear a drum roll as the barbecue accoutrements arrive — a guy dashes up to the table and stops abruptly, holding with tongs a blackened metal vessel glowing with lump charcoal. Everyone pulls back apprehensively as he thrusts the smudge pot into a depression in the middle of the table, shooting up sparks into the overhead hood. Another employee installs a stainless steel grill over the live charcoal. Next the waitress appears with your meat. She ostentatiously displays the well-marbled meat, then shows us the bones it was cut from, picked clean, to demonstrate we weren't being cheated. We hadn't mistrusted her for a moment.” Three stars.

“While the menu may not seem as wild or comprehensive as that of many of its younger counterparts, Szechuan House offers a well-polished version of the cuisine utilizing superior ingredients, with a level of presentation and service that verges on the elegant. The classic dishes are all in evidence. The playfully nicknamed "ants on a log" — here called "clear noodles with meat spicy sauce" ($9.95), and paradoxically included in the Vegetables section — is a morass of clear mung-bean threads in a thick soup tasting pungently of fermented bean paste, reminding us how fermentation has become a fad in modern culinary praxis.” Three stars.

“Like several of the new restaurants on this row — which seems to be creeping upscale — the outside is unprepossessing, almost ramshackle, while the inside is sumptuous. Presaged by red-ribboned bamboo plants and a smiling ceramic lucky cat with a fist raised in greeting, the front room of the restaurant is spare and straight-chaired. But pass through a bottleneck to find an area of comfy booths penned in by black brick walls surmounted by white lattice fences. Bring a crowd, because each booth can accommodate an army.” Three stars.

“With entrees in the $18 to $29 range, the place looks as expensive as a typical bistro-level restaurant, but instead of small servings devoid of sides, that price gets you massive plates of food with all the trimmings, so that you can barely contemplate apps or desserts. The single serving of feijoada ($27) feeds two, while the portion for two ($34), would do fine for three. Dating from the days when there were no churrascarias in town, Via Brasil also provides a menu of grilled meats, of which the assortment called Rio Grande delivers chicken pieces, a thick pork chop, a sirloin steak, and a smoke-laced sausage.” Three stars.

“The biryani is some of the best in town, available in eight varieties. Rather than sitting on the steam table and drying out, it is assembled to order with freshly cooked morsels of meat and vegetables. Two of the choices are vegetarian, one also vegan. The rice is kept exceedingly fluffy, delicately flavored with ginger, garlic, and cardamom. The shards of meat, poultry, or seafood are tender, pleasantly fatty, and cut in pieces smaller than usual, the better to hide among the tan, yellow, and orange grains of rice. Deeply brown caramelized onions and bright green chopped cilantro and scallions are heaped on top; a lime wedge is provided on the side to further irrigate and sour the rice. By all means, squeeze it!” Four stars.

“Deng Ji is one of the first places in Manhattan’s Chinatown to offer mixian, and it does so in a more traditional fashion. Originating in Yunnan, mixian is a type of rice noodle that’s strikingly white and slender like spaghetti. Try to pick them up with chopsticks and they may fall away before reaching your mouth, since the noodles are mega-slippery. At Deng Ji, look for noodles in the Guo Qiao (“bridge”) section of the menu. One selection called the classic ($21.99) most resembles the dish in the Chinese fable. Though it’s listed as dinner for two, it easily feeds three. Man, this soup is great!” Three stars.

“This being a self-described kebab house, there are kebabs you've probably never heard of. Tenderest is gola kebab ($10), associated in a menu side note with Karachi, Pakistan's Burns Road, named after Dr. James Burns, an early 19th century British colonial physician. Gola means ‘hand grenade,’ which this kebab resembles in shape, if not texture. In fact, finely minced with papaya, yogurt, and spices, the beef is so soft it must be laced together with thread like a girdle. The first thing you should do upon receiving it is carefully remove the thread, which can be quite annoying. Though the gola kebab won't look like a grenade anymore after being unthreaded, it will still explode in your mouth with flavor.” Four stars.

“It’s in Eastern Queens right on Union Turnpike where you’ll find a less common cuisine represented at Taste of Cochin, serving dishes from the palm-shaded state of Kerala on India’s rainy southwestern coast. The cuisine showcases seafood, palm products, curry leaves, coconuts, black mustard seed, black peppercorns, and beef — the latter an ingredient rarely seen elsewhere in India due to the cow’s sacred nature to many Hindus. Defect from the buffet and even the bound menu, and seek out the paper menu found in a stack by the front door. Don’t miss the beef dishes on the Keralan menu, many of which are the subject of yearly festivals in Kochi, the modern-day name for the city of Cochin. Beef ularthiyathu ($12.95) features a sauceless dice of tender meat that’s mildly spiced so the flavor of the beef shines.” Three stars.

“Engagingly, Sahib plays fast and loose with several wazwan components. Hare mutter ki shikanpuri is often a grilled patty made with ground lamb, but here green peas and fresh paneer cheese are substituted for the meat, and the fritter is pan fried. Delicious! Other regional dishes are similarly transformed. In palak paneer, a Punjab staple, a slurry of flavorful spinach is surmounted by browned balls of ricotta, suggesting a nascent Indo-Italian cuisine. Similarly, Banarasi eggplant, from the northeastern Indian city of Varanasi on the Ganges River (famous for its burning ghats), is improved by loading the familiar vegetable curry into a smoked eggplant skin. This is cooking genius — reverent toward the original recipe, but willing to alter it in a way that is both contemporary and scrumptious.” Four stars.

“The new crop includes Thai Diva, a remarkable spot with an operatic name on a side street in Sunnyside. The interior is square and compact, with only four tables, but the décor explodes with color. A checkerboard of orange and gray squares spreads across one wall, as a sky-blue coffered ceiling draws the eye upward. With Isan food as the base, the menu draws its inspiration from all regions of Thailand, featuring many dishes rarely seen on Siamese menus.” Three stars.

“The menu showcases organ meats like pig bowel, pig’s ears, and pork and beef stomachs, along with other surprising ingredients like pickled mustard greens paired with oblong rice cakes. Many dishes have playful names, often not listed on the English menu. One is fly heads ($11.95), listed in English as as minced pork with black beans. ‘Aw shucks,’ you may say, ‘No real fly heads?’ Well, no, but the taste of ground pork, fermented black beans, and bales of garlic chives is awfully good, insects or not.” Three stars.

“If you're a goat lover, Golconda Chimney is for you. On its sprawling 18-page menu, 17 selections incorporating the horned and sure-footed beast are listed. There's a goat biryani ($13.99), of course, featuring succulent boneless pieces among the spice-scented grains, with a boiled egg perched like a bulbous white bird on top. It comes sided with thick yogurt raita. Also worth trying is goat sukha, a bony mass in an oily chile bath that makes it seem almost Sichuan. Gnaw away!” Three stars.

“You could do worse than order that old warhorse, steak frites ($32). Instead of slinging a rubbery and inexpensive hanger as bistros traditionally have done, Le Baratin fires up a New York strip, consciously treading on steakhouse turf. Well-marbled and tender, the thing comes smothered in a green peppercorn sauce with a bit of piquancy to it. Welcome back, sauces! The accompanying french fries are superb — scraggly, salty, and slightly greasy. Once the steak has been demolished, there’s nothing better than sopping up the last of your sauce with these unruly fries.” Three stars.

“One outlook the chefs have in common is a belief in simple and powerfully flavorful preparations, proving simplicity can be startling. One of the dishes that seemed as though it might not work was the juxtaposition of creamy and oozy Apulian burrata with delicate spring strawberries. Faintly scented with basil, the fruit proved as good as ripe tomatoes in cutting the cheese's creaminess with their acid, an effect accentuated by a red-wine reduction. This is daring seasonal cooking at its most aggressive...and most successful.” Four stars.

“Like Pok Pok, which it more than a little resembles in outlook, Kiin Thai fearlessly features dishes from other Southeast Asian countries, especially when they fill in perceived gaps in the Thai menu. Grilled summer shrimp ($10) constitutes a cunning variation on Vietnamese summer rolls. Colorfully served in a series of four shot glasses, each roll features pickled carrots, cucumbers, and good-size shrimp tumbled inside an oak-lettuce leaf, which is further wrapped in sticky rice paper. A dose of fermented fish sauce finishes the accompanying tamarind dip, which is so good you’ll grab it back from the busboy as he tries to remove it from the table.” Three stars.

“If you were a fan of Greenpoint in the days when it was a bucolic Brooklyn backwater — before entire streets became paved with trendsetting boutiques and noisy cocktail bars — Chez Ma Tante (“My Aunt’s House”) may be your serene place. In its emphasis on organ meat pates and terrines, it’s reminiscent of Montreal’s Au Pied de Cochon. Dishes are on another level, offal-wise, particularly with the pig head terrine. While the starters come charging out of the gate like a bull at a bullfight, the entrees, modestly priced at $17 to $25, are a little more laid back.” Three stars.

“Another highlight of the menu is the pressed sushi called hako (‘box’) sushi, a variety made popular in Osaka that predates Tokyo-style nigiri sushi, and was once regarded as a form of preservation. The vinegared rice is pushed into a box called a battera, with the fish carefully planked on top like wooden floorboards. Sometimes gelatin is added to help the sushi set. The lid is put in place and pressure applied. After it achieves firmness, the solid block is removed and cut like a cake into bite-size pieces. This sushi doesn't strive for the lightness of nigiri sushi, but flaunts its rich density. Of the three types offered, best is orange sea trout ($18), with skin that glistens a rainbow of colors. Covered with a haystack of fried burdock shreds, the conger eel (anago) is also worth trying.” Three stars.

“Real Tuscan restaurants in the city have remained rare. Now we have another: Fiaschetteria Pistoia. This improbably located spot was founded by Emanuele Bugiani, whose family owns Fiaschetteria La Pace in Pistoia, a trattoria 30 kilometers northwest of Florence. The most purely Tuscan pasta is a broad noodle here called by its generic name of maccheroni in a chunky wild-boar sauce. All are quite fantastic, but make sure you examine the brief specials menu before ordering a second course.” Three stars.

“The menu is a mercifully brief document, allowing the small kitchen staff to concentrate on perfect execution. Other apps, two cold and four warm, include deviled eggs ($8) in which the whites have been panko-crumbed and deep fried, a moist scoop of chicken liver mousse sided with crisp chicken skin, and a soft-shell crab illogically but deliciously presented with burrata, proving that burrata goes with nearly everything.” Four stars.

“Fried to perfection, served in pairs, and poked with a toothpick that hoists green cocktail olives like a battle flag, the empanadas ($8) at Charrua are among the best in town. Your choices run to tuna, ground beef and egg, and best of all, corn kernels shot with pimento, making the filling sweet and salty and tasting like a summer day. As with nearly everything else on the menu, the empanadas come with a salad dressed a little too heavily with vinaigrette. Ask for no dressing, and use instead some of the excellent olive oil that comes with the table bread, rife with such tart, house-pickled vegetables as mushrooms, carrots, and onions that delicately flavor the oil.” Three stars.

“In visits with different groups of Vietnamese food fans, much of the menu was explored with a particular emphasis on rarely seen dishes. Bot chien is a delicious heap of starchy, boxcar-shaped rice cakes scrambled with eggs — it would make an excellent brunch, if the city's mimosa mills only knew about it. So nuoc dua is a lovely ceramic bowl of gargantuan two-bite mussels immersed in a thick coconut-milk curry, which glistens a dreamy shade of green. But what about the pho? From among two dozen permutations, one is well advised to order the deluxe xe lua, which contains the full catalog of beef additions in a complex broth with cinnamon and star anise accents.” Three stars.

“The menu at Flaming Kitchen concentrates on ‘Szechuan Cuisine and Hot Pots.’ Yet when you flip it open, much of the Shanghai food remains, along with Sichuan cold dishes and hot pots, all-day dim sum, and Cantonese and Chinese-American stir fries, plus a smattering of northern Chinese, Taiwanese, and plain American fare, like french fries and chicken wings, all washed down with fruit shakes and bubble tea. Will this strange mix become the standard Chinese menu of the future? You could really stay within the Chef's Special section for your entire meal, especially since it contains desirable standards from Shanghai (braised pork elbow), Taiwan (basil chicken), Xinjiang (grilled lamb chop with cumin), and Dongbei (pork with preserved cabbage). There's a wealth of wonderful dishes from all over China, but the menu doesn't go into much depth where Sichuan is concerned.” Three stars.

“Welcome to a new category in the evolution of the Chinese restaurant in America, the Chinese restaurant not predominantly run by people whose ancestors lived in China. While the food at Kings County has been described as "classic Central Chinese cuisine" (whatever that means), the menu is a canny accumulation of regional recipes that have succeeded in America — mainly from Guangdong, Sichuan, Shanghai, and Northern China — only styled for modern bistro tastes. The flavors everywhere on the bill of fare have not been dialed down, to the restaurant’s credit. The best thing on the menu is ‘crispy garlic chicken’ ($24), a half bird with skin like a copper-colored potato chip that seems to float above the tender flesh. It rests in a generous pool of the restaurant’s soy sauce, which has been laced with honey. The marriage of East and West is subtle and terrific.” Three stars.

“In the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge amidst queues of cheap Chinatown buses is Cantonese teashop King’s Kitchen. Chinese charcuterie is served in the conventional style over a mountain of perfect white rice, and there is also now a more Hong Kong-style alternative to these over-rice Cantonese barbecued meats called bo zai fan, designated on the menu as Rice Casseroles. Other big feeds at budget prices include congee (try the stomach-soothing sliced-fish version), the usual assortment of wonton and noodle soups (which you should skip as being fundamentally boring), and a catalog of noodle stir-fries, the best being beef chow fun (get the kind with the gravy) and soy sauce fried noodle — a rudimentary vegetarian conglomeration that’s a Hong Kong favorite. Some of the best dishes at King’s Kitchen are the soul of simplicity.” Three stars.