Piano Due (CLOSED)

Palio, Piano Due’s ambitious and ill-fated superswanky midtown precursor, has been closed for three years, but its spirit has been revived. The upstairs dining room, accessible by elevator through the ground-floor bar, feels (ironically) like a subterranean hideaway with its black-tie service and low ceiling. Chef Michael Cetrulo, of Tribeca’s Scalini Fedeli, delivers finely tuned northern Italian cuisine: One large runny egg–filled raviolo, drenched in butter and topped with black truffles, makes a decadent start. Shelled langoustino, dipped in a light, eggy batter, float on a puddle of mustardy cream. Main courses are enormous; the veal chop is the sort of plump juicy monster Tony Soprano might love (Cetrulo also runs two places in Jersey). Skip the seen-it-before warm chocolate cake and dive instead into the peach tart, which features al dente fruit wedges and a burnt caramel crust truly worth the pro-verbial belt loosening.