Best Options for Business Lunches in NYC – I

If you have an important client and you want to show him a good time, very often, you end up burning a huge, nasty hole in your pocket. Save yourself the agony and take a look at these restaurants where you can impress your client with top-notch service, great ambience and absolutely delectable midday fare. And, of course, the prix fixes and specials save the day.

Aureole

• Address: 135 W 42nd St between Sixth Ave and Broadway
• Phone: 212-319-1660
• Three-course prix fixe $34.

If you are looking for a combination of homespun recipes and opulent settings, Christopher Lee’s menu offers you the perfect balance. The foie gras starter served with corn bread dripping with butter, tart blueberries, and smoked corn coulis is to die for. Or, there is the Surf and turf, a scrumptious dish of butter-poached lobster and barbecued pork. For dessert, try the pan-fried carrot cake. Heavenly!

A Voce

• Address: 41 Madison Ave, entrance on 26th St between Madison and Park Ave South
• Phone: 212-545-8555
• Three-course prix fixe $29.

A Voce means “word of mouth” and word of mouth makes this restaurant out to be a haven for delicious Italian cuisine. Missy Robbins offers dishes like delicious Quadrati, ricotta-filled packets tossed with butter, savoy cabbage, and bacon batons. If your client is an Italian food fiend, he will be amply rewarded and you are sure to land the contract.

Casa Lever

• Address: 390 Park Ave at 53rd St
• Phone: 212-888-2700
• Average main course: $34.

NyTimes calls it an “Italian restaurant of the Manhattan old school,” and we agree with them. This place attracts A-list clientele and hence is a perfect place to impress a very, very important (read rich) client. The bright Warhols hanging from the sloped walls and the red carpets gives you a very Manhattan-meets-Milanese-sophistication. Their desserts are particularly enticing – the white chocolate mousse with striated limone cake layers, the lemon curd, raspberry gelée and a praline crunch under a thin chocolate shell….if you are watching your calories, we say you skip the main course and dive straight for the desserts. Makes sense, right?

Convivio

• Address: 45 Tudor City Pl at 43rd St
• Phone: 212-599-5045
• Two-course minimum $28, additional courses $12 each.

“Convivio offers modern interpretations of the flavorful and soulful food of Southern Italy,” that’s how Open Table puts it. We are less subtle and we say “Go, Chef Michael! You’ve done an awesome job.” For antipasti we suggest the country bread slathered with chicken liver mousse, and among pastas the saffron gnocchetti with crabmeat, sea urchin, chili flakes, scallion and garlic is out of this world. For dessert, re-acquaint yourself with the best loved dessert of all times – chocolate cake – not to sweet, moist and flavorful! Yummm….

Eleven Madison Park

• Address: 11 Madison Ave at 24th St
• Phone: 212-889-0905
• Two-course prix fixe $28, three courses, $95; five courses, $135; “Gourmand,” $175

Eleven Madison Park, under the “Chef-manship” of Eat Out Award winner Daniel Humm, is one of the most exciting dining places in the city. Great food is complemented by a substantial wine list. Choose from dishes like foie gras with golden raisin brioche and African kili pepper, Jamison Farm herb roasted lamb with tomato confit and niçoise olives, and butter-poached Scottish langoustines with carrot-orange nage. It’s a difficult choice, no doubt. And when you head out, you leave with more than a full stomach and content heart. You also take home a quartet of delectable petits fours – compliments of the Chef. If that doesn’t get your client’s attention, what will?

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