The White Room

The White Room is a listed monument first and a restaurant second — the gilded, stuccoed 1885 dining hall of Hotel Krasnapolsky is the oldest restaurant room in the city — and yet the starred kitchen refuses to coast on it: chu-toro with shiso, langoustine, a rendang course that bridges Dutch-Indonesian history, champagne-and-cherries to close. Saturday lunch is the affordable way under the chandeliers. For diners who want their star with a sense of occasion and a century of context, nothing else compares.