100 Very Best Restaurants 2013: Restaurant Eve

A swingy bar, a dining room where conversation trumps tunes, and cuisine that’s serious but still fun make this lanterned former warehouse a destination. We prefer the bistro to the more formal tasting room, where chairs have the look of thrones and five-to-nine-course meals run $120 to $150. Chef/owner Cathal Armstrong has been busy this year (he and wife Meshelle opened the market/cafe Society Fair and an Arlington spinoff of the fish-and-chips house Eamonn’s). Here at his flagship, he celebrates Ireland’s gastropub culture with plates such as pork head cheese but also nods to his classical French training with throwbacks like cabbage velouté. Still, the strain of running an empire may be showing—service hasn’t been as spot-on as in the past. Don’t miss: Beer cheese with chips; beef tartare; Basque seafood stew; bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich; rib eye with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms; pork belly with kimchee turnips and pork-fat-fried rice; chocolate-hazelnut gâteau. Bistro Open: Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday for dinner. Tasting Room Open: Monday through Saturday for dinner. Expensive to very expensive.