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The Modern is centrally located in New York City at 9 W. 53rd St. between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan. The restaurant sits directly next to the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, one of the world’s preeminent art museums. A wildly popular spot, The Modern offers French-American cuisine and a chic space that has drawn New York’s elite since opening its doors in 2005. Steps from shops on Madison Avenue, theaters on Broadway and one of the world’s finest collections of art, The Modern will satisfy visitors looking for a quintessential New York dining experience.

With neighbors like the Museum of Modern Art, The Modern emphasizes design and ambience. Based on the Bauhaus movement, the restaurant boasts a modern elegance that provides an artistic escape from New York City’s Midtown neighborhood. The designers, Bentel & Bentel, divided the space with a three-quarter-high wall into a plush dining room and the bustling Bar Room. Guests in the main dining room sit alongside floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, which rotates works from Picasso, Matisse and other great artists. The Bar Room focuses on an enormous photograph of 270,000 papered leaves by German artist Thomas Demand. Nearly replicating the interior architecture of its museum neighbor, The Modern is a fabulous treat for modern art and modern food lovers alike.

Service at The Modern is proficient and extremely knowledgeable. Team members pride themselves on knowing every detail of every menu at the Four-Star New York City restaurant, and they will enthusiastically explain dish composition and recommendations for inquiring guests. With a strong focus on tableside service, staff members steer a decanting cart, a carving cart, a cheese cart and a chocolate cart around the main dining room during dinner service each night — a thoughtful and fun throwback to classic New York service.

Gabriel Kreuther is the chef at The Modern, New York City’s trendy and tasteful fine dining restaurant in Midtown. Born in Alsace, France, Kreuther fuses French and American cuisine and techniques to create one of the best menus in the city. James Beard Award winner for “Best Chef: New York City” in 2009, Kreuther is revered as one of the top chefs in New York — and even in the country. Before heading the team at The Modern, he served as executive chef at Atelier in the Ritz-Carlton Central Park and chef de cuisine at Jean Georges.

The menu at The Modern features French-American cuisine in two formats: prix fixe in the main dining room and à la carte in the Bar Room. The main dining room at the Four-Star New York City restaurant, which overlooks the MoMA’s compelling Sculpture Garden, offers guests the choice of a four-course prix fixe menu for $98 or a seven-course tasting menu for $140. You can also opt for a tailored wine tasting for an additional $115. In the more casual bar area, guests can choose from appetizers, mid-courses and main courses at a more frugal price.

The Modern offers different bread and butter service in its main dining room and Bar Room — and both are delightful. The bar at the Four-Star New York City restaurant, which is a constantly full of business people and socialites alike, serves butter from the Vermont Dairy and Cheese Company. The much more formal main dining room, offers Smiling Hill Farm salted and unsalted butters, along with whole-grain and kalamata baguettes. The Four-Star restaurant, which sits right in the heart of Midtown New York, pulls out all the stops when it comes to its service — beginning with the addictive bread and butter offerings.

The Modern’s inventive desserts are a decadent way to finish your lunch or dinner at the Four-Star New York City restaurant. Offered as part of the four-course prix fixe and seven-course tasting menus in the main dining room, the desserts range from exotic — think caramel parfait with mango ravioli, coconut-lemongrass tapioca and ten flavor sorbet — to the expected, like the coffee and vanilla sundae with roasted pecans. Though some creations are more experimental than others, none of the items on pastry chef Marc Aumont’s menu fail to impress. For an additional treat, spoil yourself via the chocolate cart that features 16 different types of chocolate preparations, including chocolate lollipops, chocolate candies and molded chocolates.

The food presentation at The Modern is clean and focused with artful plating. Influenced by its location within the world-renowned Museum of Modern Art, the Four-Star New York City restaurant pays careful attention to each and every ingredient. In both the Bar Room and the main dining room’s dishes, a constant sense of whimsicality emerges without feeling cloying or joking. Everything on the plate is edible and contributes to the taste and texture of the dish. Served in stylish serving vessels, the bold cuisine creates a sincerely fun and interesting dining experience.

The bar at The Modern is one of the most popular spots in Midtown New York for both hobnobbers and young business types. Offering a completely separate and less formal menu from the Four-Star restaurant’s main dining room, the Bar Room gives guests a chance to dine on smaller plates in one of the most spectacular spaces in all of New York. Mimicking the interior design of the adjacent Museum of Modern Art (or MoMA, as the locals call it),The Modern feels chic and elegant without being stuffy. Stop by the bar for an appetizer or a full meal; or you can come here early for a cocktail before eating in the main dining room.