restaurants

In NYC, more and more restaurants are incorporating bar seating, whether to create a pleasant waiting area for diners or simply to add more seating options to allow them to cater to more casual eaters in addition to the prix fixe crowd. New York Magazine has the scoop on some of the poshest stools and where in the city you'll find them.

1. Designed by AvroKO and made of hot-rolled steel with a soft vinyl seat cover. Found at Quality Meats.
2. Birillo bar stool designed by Joe Colombo has an extra-wide seat and extra-small backrest. It retails for around $2,800. Found at Centovini.
3. Award-winning LEM Piston Stool from DWR, redone in silver calf leather. Retail is $700 each. found at Gilt.
4. Super comfy and almost shabby chic, these stools have soft cushions and multiple footrests. Found at Boqueria.
5. Designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon, these red leather and chrome stools are exclusive to L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon and other global Robuchon restaurants.

Adam Platt, the restaurant critic for New York Magazine, has just put together a list of the ten most decadent dishes available in New York City. With short descriptions provided, we can assume that the dishes probably speak for themselves once they're on your plate. They include:

• Foie Gras Shabu Shabu, Masa
• Roast Suckling Pig, Eleven Madison Park
• Kobe Beef, L'Atelier De Joël Rubochon
• Truffled Gnudi, Dona
• Chicken Kiev With Foie Gras Sauce, Picholine
• Caviar Pasta, (Royal Osetra Caviar on Tagliolini With Bacon Carbonara Sauce), Le Bernardin
• Duck and Foie Gras Meatballs, A Voce
• Butter Poached Lobster, Per Se
• The Chocolate Dessert Tasting, Del Posto
• Iranian Special Reserve Caviar With Buckwheat Blini, The Russian Tea Room

If you're planning on visiting the city this year, any one of these will be worth the trip, although you'll probably enjoy it even more if your New Year's resolution didn't involve the word "diet."

Paris Hilton claimed that she was broke when she first moved to Los Angeles. Not too many people believed her at the time, so hopefully that is not going to be her excuse as to why she skipped out on a $7.70 bill at Sloanes Cafe in Sydney. Apparently, at the restaurant (which is worth a stop if you're in Paddington) Paris' publicist paid for a couple of burgers, but not the mineral water and frappe that Paris decided to add to her meal. The heiress waltzed out with her crew -- without paying for the drinks.

One of the biggest trends in find dining over the past year has been the continued interest in molecular gastronomy, the food movement in which the chef is recast as a scientist (or the other way around) and prepares familiar flavors in startling forms or creates familiar forms with unexpected flavors. Think foods like hot ice cream and solidified sauces complementing a liquid poached pear. The world's most unusual restaurants include some of the bastions of molecular gastronomy, such as England's Fat Duck, and NYC's WD-50 but also includes Ninja in New York, where ninja servers perform magic while serving you expensive sushi, Dinner in the Sky and Annalakshmi, where you only pay what you feel like paying.

Chef Gordon Ramsay, the Michelin-starred owner of ten restaurants and star of multiple TV shows, including Hell's Kitchen and The F-Word, is opening his first restaurant on American soil today. Actually, it's more accurate to say American cement, since Gordon Ramsay at The London is located in New York City at the London NYC Hotel. The restaurant is unique in that it has both a casual dining area and an upscale one, although the French-influenced food is excellent for all diners. The more formal part of the restaurant, which seats 45, will feature a 7 course tasting menu. The more casual area, called The London Bar, will serve small plates and will offer a daily changing menu of seasonal specials.

Good luck getting a reservation, though. We hear that it's booked up at least two months in advance!

Using data compiled by the Zagat survey, Forbes has produced two lists naming the year's most expensive restaurants. One list deals with only US restaurants, while the other compares the prices (in US dollars) of places all over the world. For the global list, the final cost was considered to be the price of one main course, one (alcoholic) beverage and tip, while the US list was not limited to a single main course and included options such as prix fixe tasting menus. Both only priced dinner for one person, but due to the difference in standards, there are many prix-fixe only restaurants that didn't make the global list but might be a good deal more expensive, but here are the top three from each list as they stand:

Global

• Aragawa (Tokyo): $368
• Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée (Paris): $231
• Gordon Ramsay (London): $183

US

• Masa (New York City): $446
• The French Laundry (Yountville, CA): $254
• Alinea (Chicago): $168