Rangole (CLOSED)

Here’s a rarity: an Indian lunch buffet restaurant that entices you back for dinner a la carte. Tucked beneath Rockefeller Center’s iconic skyscrapers, Rangol is a midday magnet for midtown shoppers and paper-pushers with big appetites. Surprisingly, there’s a decent dinner crowd as well, perhaps drawn to the elegant, neutral-toned dining room. Dishes are distinctively engaging: Chicken hyderabadi, not often seen on these shores, is hot with mustard seed and chilies. Offerings from the tandoori clay oven include tender quail, whole pomfret fish and a yogurt-and-ginger–marinated lamb chop served sizzling in their own juices.