The Russian Tea Room

On our list of the best special-occasion restaurants in New York.

Founded in 1926 by dancers from the Russian Imperial Ballet, the Russian Tea Room still serves under a gold-leaf ceiling, with Picasso and Chagall pieces on the walls next to reproductions and scarlet banquettes built for watching the room. Beef stroganoff, the signature dish, comes in a cream sauce built from thirteen kinds of mushrooms, and a caviar martini arrives with Hackleback roe balanced on a cucumber slice. Afternoon tea runs from late morning to mid-afternoon, and servers will split a course between two people who ask.