If Bossi is the Big Daddy of the downtown corporate dining scene — a serious place for seemingly serious people — Gilt is the mischievous socialite with a penchant for a cheeky martini at lunch. Gilt offers everything you’d expect of a well-oiled, buffed-until-it-shines Josh and Helen Emett restaurant: impeccable service, a broad menu that offers something for everyone, lots of beautiful spaces (capacious banquette seating for rowdy groups, discreet two- or four-person tables for a proper catch-up, jaunty bar seats for a quick and casual lunch with your shopping bags at your feet), an impressively extensive and varied wine list and classy but potent cocktails. 

But it also has a lightness about it — a sense of fun and frivolity, as though the sun streaming through those big windows banishes dreary shadows and replaces them with rainbowy Cobb salad. And there is definitely something a little tongue-in-cheek about the menu, as though the Emetts are trying to remind us that good food doesn’t have to be fussy or inaccessible. 

Take, for example, the entrées list, which features throwbacks like seafood cocktails and a triple-cheese soufflé. The negroni rigatoni (say it out loud) is a creamy, lip-smackingly tasty plate, perfect for a light lunch. Many delicious mains are on offer, but it is hard to go past anything with frites — roast duck with sauce l’orange or the minute steak with entrecôte sauce. Either would provide a highbrow way to satisfy a not-so-highbrow craving for thin, crisp fries. And don’t forget the extensive range of decadent desserts and cheeses, including a charming wreath of Paris–Brest pastry filled with chocolate mousse and hazelnut crémeux, or a crêpe slathered with preserved cherries, buffalo curd and vanilla ice cream.