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Chef Elias Ghafary"s nearly 20-year-old institution was once the only restaurant in New York offering high-end Lebanese fare. But a move to new contemporary digs (see the blingy chandelier up front) feels like a disconnect from the formal food. The menu hasn"t changed a lick: We enjoyed meze like tender, spicy beef links fragrant with coriander and cumin, and muhammara,{/I} a potent spread made with walnut, red pepper and pomegranate molasses. Entrées were heavy and monochromatic, but it"s the dismal service that could run the place into the ground: Our waiter was neglectful verging on absent.

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