Le Crocodile

The food at this restaurant is more akin to what you'd find at a Parisian wine bar with a handwritten menu and limited seating than in a hotel restaurant within walking distance of the East River. It's pleasant and unassuming, which is exactly what you'd expect from a large place in the basement of a hotel with tiled flooring, a massive menu, and servers in white coats roaming around like they just finished catering the PGA Tour in 1930.

The menu at Le Crocodile is roughly 40 items long, which may paralyze whatever section of your brain is in charge of food selection - but here's a tip: get the chicken. It's the best thing on the menu, and it's all you actually need. That isn't to argue that the rest of the meal is pointless; it's just that this roasted half-chicken is both delicious and filling. Crispy skin, succulent meat, and a mountain of fries the size of a seagull's nest The only drawback to ordering it is the inevitable existential panic that sets in when you consider what your life would have been like if you had had one of the other 40-odd dishes instead.

Location: 80 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249

Website: www.lecrocodile.com