Your form has been saved The Upper West Side has changed over the past few years. It's gone from a mini baby stroller city to a bustling bar hopping scene. Head to Amsterdam Avenue after work for some happy hour drinks, some spots even offer it past the usual 7 pm curfew. Invite some friends and make it an impromptu bar night. If you have time before the bar, you can stop into cute boutiques and stores around Broadway and Columbus at 72nd. Summer House's Stephen McGee Talks Montauk & TV Show SecretsFinding Balance & Beauty With CómoComo's Fernanda De La PuenteDe Maria: The Artsy All Day Cafe Cool Girls Are Flocking ToOf Rare Origin: The Statement Jewelry Line For Everyday It GirlsSetting The Social Scene With Dylana SuarezWhen it comes to dining on the Upper West Side, one must acknowledge that it’s an older neighborhood, whose charm is in the sustain, not the attack. And so it is with its best restaurants, which rely on a sense of history and place rather than innovation.

1. Shun Lee West43 W. 65th St., nr. It’s been 35 years since Michael Tong opened this Lincoln Center offshoot of his upscale Upper East Side Chinese restaurant, Shun Lee Palace. The sense of time is both seductive and deceiving. There can be little doubt that the restaurant — with its bow-tie-and-vested waitstaff, glowing dragons, and elaborately folded napkins — speaks to another era, when knowledge of Chinese regional cuisine was limited by the fact that most Americans weren’t aware China had regions. At the same time, even in 1981, Tong was channeling the much more ancient flavors of Yangzhou, Sichuan, and Shanghainese cuisine and those delicate balances found in the push-pull of hot-and-sour soup, for instance, or the mellow sweetness of red-cooked short ribs, Hanghzhou style. 2. Cafe Luxembourg200 W. 70th St., nr. Ever since Tom Valenti’s Ouest shuttered last year, seriously good French food has been hard to come by around these parts. Haute cuisine it isn’t, but Lynn Wagenknecht’s excellent bistro belongs to the proud lineage of Upper West Side French spots like La Caravelle and La Poullailer (and Le Quercy and too many too long gone to name).

The 90-seat restaurant is everything a neighborhood bistro should be. The menu reads like a Sondheim revue of bistro classics, but the greatest hits here are truly great: a perfectly executed steak-frites with an exoskeleton of char, a silky au poivre sauce, and salty fries; and a crock of French onion soup that, like the aproned waiters, has a warm heart under a crusty exterior.new age wine denver 3. Awadh2588 Broadway, nr. wine bar la table sp Lucknow, the capital of Awadh, the state in Uttar Pradesh from whence Gauruv Anand draws culinary inspiration, is like the Upper West Side of India: ancient, elegant, and refined. best wine bar wanchaiIn the 18th century, Lucknow was the seat of the Nawabs, an aristocratic bunch whose love of luxury was so great they lost all of their teeth, which — good news for us — resulted in the development of the galouti kebab, a patty of leg of lamb, minced six times and then tenderized with papaya and mixed with masala.

Awadh, the bi-level restaurant on Broadway, is the only place to get true galouti kebabs in the city. Among the other revelations at Awadh is dum pukht, a genre of cooking wherein the protein is sealed under a layer na’an, immersed in clarified butter, and cooked slowly. What goes on under there is alchemy, as dishes like Sufiana murgh biryaani, a mixture of creamy chicken and aromatic basmati rice, handily prove. 4. Boulud Sud20 W. 64th St., nr. The Lyonnaise chef Daniel Boulud is a shape-shifter: stuffy on the Upper East, cool on the Bowery, transactional in midtown, and here, in the Upper West Side, pure comfort. The space at Boulud Sud — gently curved ceiling, colorful banquettes in Harlequin stripes, white tablecloths — radiates monied calm. The menu, which spans Arabic flatbread to Ibérico ham, is like a Carnival Cruise calling on all Mediterranean ports. Executive chef Travis Swikard is as at ease with the muscular flavors of octopus a la plancha as he is balancing the subtle flavors of a spring-pea risotto with Maine lobster and lemon verbena.

5. Absolute Bagels2788 Broadway, nr. And then there’s Absolute Bagels, the only bagel store worth the line. Let the fancies have Black Seed or Sadelle’s. Absolute Bagels is a filthy little store with sublime bagels. Owned by Sam Thongkrieng, who emigrated from Bangkok in the 1980s, Absolute channels the recipes of yesteryear (Thongkrieng learned his craft at Ess-a-Bagel) to form bagels of both ineffable softness and satisfying crunch. Their outsides are substantial but ultimately yielding. Their interiors are soft and voluptuous. As for the coffee — the Abbot to a bagel place’s Costello — it is widely understood as a waste of time. Go with a Thai iced tea and a fresh egg bagel.Welcome to the EnotecaBill Telepan spent the '90s cooking in some of the most respected restaurants in New York: Le Cirque, Le Bernardin, Gotham Bar & Grill. Since then, he's published a cookbook and opened his own Greenmarket-inspired rave-reviewed restaurant, Telepan, and there's buzz that he might be opening another.

On top of that, he somehow finds the time to improve the food in city school cafeterias as Executive Chef of Wellness in the Schools. So when does Bill hang out with his family? It helps that his wife loves the Telepan burger. And he and his daughter share similar taste in fast food, which they sample together all over the Upper West Side. Pizza (slice): My daughter Leah loves Pizza Pete's. I like La Traviata for cheese or pepperoni; I think it's the best slice of pizza on the Upper West Side. We don't have a Joe's here, so this is the next best thing. I also love the bacon, spinach, and tomato slice at Freddie & Pepper's. The spinach makes the cheese silky, and they bomb it with bacon—it's so good. Pizza pie: Dean's is an offshoot of Patsy's, so it's a good place to go. They have a square Grandma pie that's really good, and their pepperoni is good. Celeste is a sit-down Italian restaurant with great pastas, chicken, wine by the glass, and a wood-burning pizza oven. I know the owners, so sometimes if I want a white pie with prosciutto and artichokes, they'll make it for me.

Their pies are thin crust, and the wood oven gives it char. I can get a pizza and a chicken dish there and be full for days. Burger: My daughter and I like going to the Island for burgers. They stopped selling chips, which is a little disappointing, but we like going there because their burgers are decent and they have great shakes. I go medium rare, with bacon, caramelized onions, and cheddar. Coffee: I generally brew at home, but I go to Joe the Art of Coffee a few times a month, since they make a great latte. I always add an extra shot. It's a long line, but it's worth it. Bagel: We get Absolute Bagels at [Telepan] for brunch (the mini ones, with our smoked salmon plate), and I think it's the best in the city. I get scallion cream cheese on an everything or sesame bagel. If I'm there, I don't toast, I get it warm out of the oven. : We generally go to on a Sunday. If we go and eat there, I get bagels, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs or egg salad. If we take home, I get the pastrami and egg sandwich.

It's a toasted everything bagel, buttered, plus pastrami and egg, which is already a nap inducer. Chinese delivery: I've been living on the Upper West Side for 21 years, and Cottage has been consistent all that time. The dumplings, fried rice, the sesame chicken, and the broccoli or string beans in garlic sauce are all great. They make the most amazing scallion pancakes—even delivered, they're crispy. I call them and hang up the phone, and the door rings. It takes three minutes—how is that possible? It arrives super hot and delicious. Sushi: Haru is our go-to sushi place. We've been ordering from there since they first opened. I like the fluke, wild striped bass if they have it, and soft shell crabs if they're around. They make a good spicy Hamachi yellow scallion roll. My wife gets a lot of edamame because she likes salt. Dive bar: Emerald is this little bar right near the restaurant. If a cook's leaving, we'll generally go there for beers and burgers. The bartender will take his break and come to us for a margarita, so we know him.

It's the classic Irish bar, and they have good enough gin that you can have a martini or a gin and tonic. Nicer wine, beer, or cocktail bar: Beverly and I like the bar at Cafe Luxembourg. It's a perennial up here; we've been going for years. We don't usually like to sit at a bar and eat, but that's the one place we will. It's a cool zinc bar, and they make a good martini, or you can get a good bottle of wine. Otherwise, I like Barcibo. It's bigger than your regular Upper West Side wine bar (which are usually tiny), and they make a good negroni for a wine bar. They have good snacks too, like salami and panini. Ice cream/gelato: There's not really an ice cream place up there, so we go to the Ben & Jerry's on Broadway. Otherwise it's all frozen yogurt places up here. At least Ben & Jerry's, they have good stuff. Lately, I like the peanut butter cup. My daughter likes Screme for gelato; I get a chocolate hazelnut if I go with her. Falafel: I like the hummus at Hummus Place, so I'll get their falafel, which is pretty good.

Sido makes a good falafel sandwich, on a pita with a little tomato, tahini, and extra hot sauce. Tacos: There's this taco truck on 96th between Broadway and West End, on the corner of Broadway. They have all kinds of meat. I get carnitas or a pork taco. You stand there and eat, you rail down a taco and they're delicious. They're open pretty late, and on the weekends. Date night: I love all of Daniel Boulud's restaurants up here. I like going to Boulud Sud for snacks, and they have a great bar selection. I've eaten so many things there, and they're all oh-my-god good. My wife loves profiteroles, and Cafe Luxembourg makes great profiteroles, so sometimes we'll sit at the bar and get those. Can't-miss neighborhood spot: Getting cookies from Levain is the one Upper West Side thing you have to do. When my wife and I go to someone's house and don't feel like baking, we bring these and they're never a letdown. The chocolate chip or chocolate peanut butter cookie is the shit. They're these huge cookies, and if you get it when they're warm, you could eat them in three seconds.