Les Halles - 212 679 4111 - between 28th and 29th on Park Avenue

Les Halles is a man's restaurant dedicated to good red meat. It starts with the butcher shop near the entrance with hunks of beef properly drying behind the glass and it continues with the closely packed rows of tables in the dark paneled dining room . Women are welcome, of course, and they do have dishes besides red meat, but the lunch time crowd is mostly men with their steak frites and other red meat.

The cooking style is French bistro - good basic preparations. The meat is excellent and this includes the beef. We loved the porterhouse and hanger steaks, served with refreshing green salads, hot, crusty french fries, and onion confit. The merguez lamb sausages, spicy and sizzling make a great appetizer. You may as well start with meat and keep going. If there is too much red meat, you can go for the chicken or the other white meat with wild boar chops or their charcuterie platter, which is basically pork served four ways: salami, Bayonne ham, rillette, and in a terrine.

With all this meat, you'll need the French antidote, so have a few glasses of the hearty red wines served by the glass, but save a glass for the wonderful cheese tray.

Our advice: go for it and remember, Les Halles serves ALL afternoon, so you can drop in and satisfy that wild red meat craving without having to wait for dinner.

New York Restaurants