3Nota Bene

Is the place where comfort and luxury converge, delectably, thanks to the platinum trio of ex-Splendido owners chef David Lee and Yannick Bigourdan (front-of-the-house) with Franco Prevedello behind the scenes. The room is understated luxe all the way; the menu is comfort food for urban sophisticates. My kingdom for the duck salad with the mysterious crunchy bits on top. It is divinely crispy duck shreds atop crunchy green papaya slaw jazzed with bitter sumac and sweet coriander, gentled with toasted cashews. When they opened Nota Bene, the partners showed remarkable pre-recession prescience in taking it down a notch from Splendido: They wanted to serve fabulous food but using less expensive ingredients and a slightly simpler approach in order to keep the prices (relatively) down. Nobody in town makes more tender love to octopus than David Lee, or seasons it with more panache. His lobster salad is a small symphony with bacon, lettuce and avocado in superbly restrained blue cheese dressing. Mains delight equally: Papardelle is fat pasta with sweet rabbit shreds stewed with smoky house pancetta and fragrant porcini. That Nota Bene is busy every night should come as no surprise.