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Where to go, after the show, for dinner

Staff Writer

The theater district

Once the theaters let out, the dinner show begins. Here are 10 places in the theater district where you can get a bite.

Barbetta. Set in an elegant townhouse in the Theater District, Barbetta is one of the city's oldest Italian restaurants. For almost 100 years, the same family has been serving up Piedmontese specialties in a dining room graced with crystal chandeliers, Oriental rugs, and well-spaced tables. During spring and summer the garden is a great draw: a collection of tables set around an antique fountain and planted with shady trees and colorful flowers. As you might expect, tradition rules here, with a classic menu that includes dishes like grilled squab, risotto with wild mushrooms, seared chicken, foie gras, and a thick minestrone. With its romantic setting, this is a great choice for a special occasion dinner. But if you're heading for the theater, make sure you tell your waiter when you arrive. (321 West 46th Street: 212-246-9171)

Carmines. If you've ever been to an Italian family dinner, you'll recognize this scene right away: huge plates of antipasti, gargantuan servings of fish, chicken, veal, or beef, monster plates of pasta, all served family-style, so everyone gets a taste. The atmosphere at both branches (there's a second one uptown, at 2450 Broadway) is the same: boisterous, crowded, and happy. The food is surprisingly tasty, the staff does as well as can be expected, providing friendly - if not always fast - service. There's always a wait, but there's a good bar where you can while away the time until your table is ready. This is a very good-time place - bring a crowd. (200 West 44th Street;

Blue Fin. As soon as you find out where it is, you know two things about Blue Fin: It's in the W Hotel, so it will be hip. And since it's in Times Square, it probably will be brash and noisy. This is the sister restaurant to such established places as Blue Water Grill, Ocean Grill, and Atlantic Grill. Visually, it's a treat: Follow the free-floating staircase downstairs into a cool blue dining room that almost makes you feel you're underwater.

Since owner Steve Hanson buys in such huge quantities, he gets first pick from suppliers, and the fish is extraordinarily fresh. For cold food, there are a sushi bar and a raw bar, which turns out three sizes of seafood platter, ranging from the small ($28) to the grandiose ($100). Main courses include some meats to satisfy the unreconstructed carnivore, but specials like meaty crabcakes, a slab of wild salmon served with mushrooms and lentils, or a hefty piece of black bass are what the crowd comes for. (1567 Broadway; 212-918-1400)

Becco. Sibling of the more expensive Babbo, this is Joe Bastianich's reasonably priced Theater District marvel. Here's how the menu works: You order a plate of antipasti (selections change every day), and then you get as much as you can eat of the three daily pasta choices. If you're still hungry, you can add a little more to the bill and choose from an array of main courses. Wines are also a bargain: The carte offers 120 bottles. The place is friendly, and the crowd is convivial, all of which makes dinner here a pleasure. (355 West 46th Street; 212-397-7597)

Orso. This simply decorated trattoria is misleading in many ways. Spare almost to the point of being monastic, it's great for people-watching, especially after the theaters let out: That's when you see the actors, producers, and various other celebrated types who come in to wind down. What's also surprising is that for a place whose reputation has been made for years, the kitchen keeps revising its menu, improving on what was good to begin with. The food is simple: pizzas, grills, pastas, salads, and so on. But within that realm, the kitchen excels: fettuccine with duck, grilled portobello mushroom, braised lamb, grilled tuna - all have been stars here. For dessert, there's the mascarpone cheesecake that has no equal. Aside from its post-theater buzz, Orso is a good choice for a lunch in Midtown - just don't pick a matinee day. (322 West 46th Street; 212-489-7212)

FireBird. This townhouse restaurant offers the kind of opulence that would make a grand duke feel at home. Upstairs, an antiques-filled parlor is a natural setting for caviar and a glass of champagne. Downstairs, the bright red bar dispenses icy vodka and feels like a party every night. The dining rooms are awash in swank: no matter where you look, your eye falls on gilded moldings, rich color, marble, mirrors, and crystal chandeliers. The menu follows the theme: smoked salmon and blinis, mushrooms in cream, foie gras, lobster risotto, filet mignon in Strogonoff sauce. To taste it all in one luxurious sitting, a seven-course tasting menu is available for $80 per person. (365 West 46th Street,; 212-586-0244)

B. Smith Restaurant Row. From an upstairs aerie, we overlooked the bar downstairs, dominated by an enormous portrait of the restaurant's namesake. With a little more than an hour before curtain time, we managed to enjoy a comfortably paced dinner. Prices ran $8 to $13 for appetizers, $16 to $28 for entrees and $8 for dessert. We began with Saigon shrimp rolls, six crisp cigar- shaped cylinders filled with a piquant blend of shrimp and vegetables, sweet chili sauce on the side. Better still was the sesame-seared sake-cured salmon, slices of beautifully grilled fish, slightly rare on the inside, surrounded by vegetable maki rolls sprouting pea shoot plumes. Macaroni and cheese, listed as a side dish, worked just fine as an indulgently creamy appetizer. An entree called "twice- spiced ginger molasses phat duck breast" came well- done rather than rare, but we liked the garlic prawns with green gravy (actually more gold than green) over lemon linguine and found the roast chicken with potato pancakes and vegetables deeply satisfying. (320 W. 46th Street; 212-315-1100)

City Lobster and Crab Company. Sister to the wildly popular City Crab, in the Flatiron District, City Lobster offers the same hefty portions of well-prepared fish and traditional sides. It's busy, noisy, and the namesake crustacean is fairly priced and available in several incarnations, although the best (as usual) is the classic steamed version with drawn butter. (121 West 49th Street; 212-354-1717)

Joe Allen. The formula is so good, the restaurant has been copied in the most unlikely places. This long-running Broadway hit has been in place for a generation or more, still serving up simply prepared fish, steaks,salads, and pastas. But the real reason to go is the absolutely perfect cheeseburger. That, and did we mention the celebs who stop by, post-show? (326 West 46th Street; 212-581-6464)

Ruby Foos.Of course, the purists sniff that it's not authentic, but nobody ever claimed it was. If anything, this is Chinese-American food, and just as pizza with ham and pineapple is unheard of in Naples, Ruby Foo probably wouldn't go down well in Peking. Still, it's boisterous enough to be a good-time place after the theater; bring a group. (1626 Broadway; 212-724-6700)