"Fancy restaurants are kind of the norm in Midtown. But there aren’t many places where you can sit in a crumbling, Gilded Age mansion and fantasize about being a nineteenth-century millionaire over a bowl of hot soup. Despite its historic setting, Nasrin’s Kitchen is a casual, homestyle Persian restaurant, where dried rose petals, framed calligraphy and lute music add to the old world charm. Share a few appetizers and a stew or kebab entree, which come with a plate of tahdig-topped rice. Nasrin’s closes at 8pm, so stop by for an early dinner and some black tea, served with a chunk of crystallized saffron sugar, before a walk in Central Park." - bryan kim, sonal shah, kenny yang, carina finn koeppicus