Café d'Alsace

Crowded restaurant that handles attention well. La moelle (bone marrow; $8.75) oozed decadently across thick-sliced grilled bread; I could quibble that the salt wasn't coarse enough and the parsley, too stinting, but it left me with a glow nonetheless. Grilled truite au Riesling ($19.50), with buttered spinach, was light and flaky, well-paired with a sauce flavored by the namesake grape.

A gateau au fromage blanc (Alsatian-style cheesecake; $8) was topped by a lemon zest confit and surrounded by a generous moat of tart raspberry coulis.

On a return visit a year later, the trout was still very good, as were the choucroute with fish and the cassoulet, but the presentation was artless — verging on clunky, in the case of the trout.

Café d'Alsace
1695 Second Ave. (at 88th St.)
212-722-5133