BEAUTIQUE: MIDTOWN DINING WITH A DOWNTOWN VIBE

Beautique, the new Midtown "Must" with a downtown vibe, may be filled with the bold and the beautiful, but attitude is not on the menu.

*The sea scallops at Beautique are served with a Shitake, turnip, and diablo sauce.

You'll get the gist of Beautique the second you step up to the glass doors under the cool but demure backlit signage—that is, if you don't walk past it entirely. Since the restaurant opened in April, Beautique has attracted the privacy-seeking likes of Leo DiCaprio as well as the Wall Street tycoons he's recently portrayed on screen. Inside the front door sits a gleaming teakwood grand piano next to a glass staircase showing the way down. But the sub-subterranean locale is the only thing low about this beauty of a boîte. The rest, decked out in Jean Paul Gaultier–designed fabrics and glittering chandeliers, will leave you feeling like you've dined and gone to beautiful-people land.

Part of that has to do with the fact that the aptly named Beautique tends to be chockablock with well-dressed, good-looking men and women who are as strikingly lovely as the place itself. And it truly is. Valerie Pasquiou (whose clients include Cartier, Ralph Lauren, and Miami's Box Park restaurant) and Marc Dizon (Butter, Aspen Social, Pink Elephant) designed the space to offer a nod to the luxe parlor of Coco Chanel's Parisian pied-à-terre. But as most of us never had the opportunity to take tea or tipples with the late Queen of Couture, it's an easy trade to settle for a Charlotte Voisey–crafted cocktail delicately sipped while perched upon pale gray velvet banquettes beneath wallpaper featuring oversize tumbling rosebuds. Le sigh.

*Flat iron steak with marble potatoes, ahi Amarillo, scallion ,onion, and olive jus.

For a windowless spot, this 125-seat eatery offers much in the way of views. A wall of antique decanters twinkling in the subdued light are as much objects of beauty as potential vessels to be plucked at a moment's notice by Elie Tahari–clad waiters for serving vintage or Beautique's allocation of storied and extremely rare Pappy Van Winkle whiskey.

The second dining room, an oval-shaped space, is lit by an oblong chandelier beneath a golden ceiling, and the late-night back lounge (where John Legend and 30 of his friends partied after his August concert at Barclays Center), accessed in cheeky speakeasy fashion through the kitchen, is done up in gold and black, with a mirrored ceiling that gives the appearance of endless height. "We want to really have that air of exclusivity, but with an approachable vibe," says Seth Shaning, Beautique's general manager. "We're able to offer people from uptown a hot scene that's a a hop, skip, and a jump away."

*Chef Adolfo Montes plates a salmon dish.

Despite all the beauty to behold, the true object of desire is the food. As initally crafted when the spot first opened in the spring, and helmed now by chef Adolfo Montes, the dishes balance the gallery-like aesthetics—artfully arranged, often locally sourced ingredients on Vera Wang–designed plates—with flavors that are at once complex and immensely satisfying. If you're up for rabbit, this tender decadent starter will not disappoint, along with a savory-sweet salad accoutrement of grape, fava bean, and fennel sprinkled with verjus vinaigrette.

On the lighter side, a plate of buttery-sweet Wild Gooseoysters has a mere whisper of brine that plays nicely with Hopson's pear and pepper mignonette, and the cubed fluke ceviche nestled in a demure pool of lime and coconut is intensely fresh. The above ratio is how you can expect to eat, in fact: Red meat takes a backseat to creatures that swim or flap their wings (the duck, in particular, with its tangle of miner's lettuce and tang of sunchoke, is a standout). There are only two meat dishes: a luscious mixed grill of lamb and a grass-fed steak. The latter has a well-marbled tenderness so plush it's as comely as a confection and is served in discs placed across the plate, with little circles of petite roasted potatoes dotted with the creamy, aiolilike ahi Amarillo, made from Peruvian yellow chilies.

The desserts from pastry chef Jiho Kim hit the artful mark, too, with dishes like his spin on tiramisu: spongy cake paired with mascarpone, espresso gelée, and chicory ice cream. But if you can raise your eyes from this delightful little distraction, the real dessert is all around—eye candy as far as the eye can see.