New York bistro

Thanks to EY for these two recommendations. Pastis (Little West 12th Street) is in the increasingly hip Meatpacking district, which seems to be sprouting trendy new restaurants by the dozen. The place is absurdly popular, so if you want to enjoy Sunday brunch in more than one cubic metre of space, I suggest you get there early with a big posse and spread out. Poached eggs seems to be the thing to have: eggs benedict looks like a good choice, or for something different, try eggs à la Basquaise, which come with onions, peppers and pancetta on a bed of creamy polenta.

Eggs à la Basquaise

Incidentally, Meatpacking has some amazing buildings, particulary in the cross-streets between Washington and Greenwich Streets; many of the old naval officers' residences still have the original doorways and wood or copper cornicings. Oh, and if you were that model doing a photo shoot in a skimpy pink dress on the West Side Highway in 50F degree weather, man I was feelin' for ya.......

Further east in SoHo you'll find Café Gitane (282 Mott Street), a French bistro with North African influence. Sit at the bar for a lesson in how to run an efficient kitchen. Two cooks run through all the dishes with amazing precision in the tiniest kitchen. Soup of the day was chick pea with some great focaccia, tasty but not greasy, and the Moroccan couscous with peppers, raisins, pinenuts, humus, eggplant and merguez is excellent. If you sit at the bar you can also see their huge bread bin stuffed with irresistible baguettes, which I'm told come from Parisi bakery just down the street (198 Mott Street).

Split pea soup

Moroccan couscous with merguez