Best of New York 2010 • Eating

• Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar

  132 W. 58th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-957-5550

  There are all sorts of old-world pleasures available at this unassuming, underrated restaurant in midtown, but the one we can’t resist is the oldest, most stolid Austrian specialty of all. Truly great Wiener schnitzel, one of our aged gourmand uncles liked to say, should always have �a bit of cloud� between the meat and its puffy, golden, crisp skin. And that’s what you get here. Only instead of the usual flap of too-thin, undertenderized calf meat, the co-chefs, Wolfgang Ban and Eduard Frauneder, use meticulously sourced Grade A grass-fed veal. They serve the dish the traditional way, with a mound of creamy, faintly sweet potato salad on the side and a pot of lingonberry jam. And did we mention the crust, which is neither too greasy nor too thick, and encases the tender, perfectly cooked veal in a cocoon of crisped bread crumbs and butter?

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