The Odeon’s main currency isn’t food or location but lighting. Once you pass under its red neon lintel, which lets you know that in the 30s it was a steam-table cafeteria, you realize that most restaurants are either blitzed with light or suffering from a drought of it. But in the Tribeca brasserie, sconces, pendants, candles, and the mirrors that bounce their glow around the room have been rigged in arcane proportions since the 80s, adding another layer of polish to the burnished wood and butter walls. Coupled with food that will make you feel grateful but not greedy, it’s enough to make you stay for so long that hanging around until breakfast won’t seem like such a bad idea. —Nathan King

Nathan King is a Deputy Editor at AIR MAIL