PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

This smartly designed, airy, and comfortable tri-level restaurant is helmed by chef Didier Virot, formerly the executive chef at Jean-Georges, and offers fresh twists on the traditional cuisine of Provence. Virot takes a classic dish like the vegetable soup pistou and adds fresh raw sardines -- it not only works, it enhances the soup. Both the baked chicken with star anise, honey, mushrooms, and fingerling potatoes and the Atlantic char with a smoked-salmon sauce were done to perfection. The only mistake I encountered was the bland gnocchi with Jerusalem artichoke and black-truffle cream. Desserts are adventurous and may not be for everyone, but it's not often you have the chance to experience Provence salad, sugared green tomatoes, and celery topped with mint sorbet; or a licorice panna cotta. Despite the crowds, Aix's service is personable; waitresses in dowdy brown uniforms are cheerfully helpful, but the restaurant is loud, so don't expect intimacy.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's New York City 2008, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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