Recipe

With room for only around 25 diners, the Upper West Side's Recipe feels like what it is, a labor of love from the folks behind Land, the celebrated Thai restaurant next door. Sometimes this love blinds the chefs from objective evaluation, as when the honey-butter that comes with a bread-and-fig jam plate barely covers one brioche, a stinginess that's at odds with the rustic, seasonal, just-folks American atmosphere. Other times, the love elevates the simple dishes, as when a salad has more beets and goat cheese than greens, or when a seemingly plain pulled pork leaves a lingering sweetness behind.