Marcus

Tucked inside NoMa’s Morrow Hotel, New York chef Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant is a visual and culinary dazzler. Blue cornbread lives up to its hype. Smoked-halibut pâté on paper-thin lavash is divine. Tamarind-braised lamb shoulder, the size of a Sunday roast, comes with the best collards in the city. And “crab rice” is a low-key name for the extravagant platter that arrives heaped with crunchy shallots, okra, obe (a fiery Nigerian red-pepper sauce), uni-infused béarnaise—and crab. For dessert, go for the praline-vanilla rum cake, assembled tableside.