Since the 1930s, Buntyn has had a loyal clientele of regulars from the surrounding neighborhood. However, these days you'll also see people from all over the city and all over the world crammed into the crowded restaurant. What everyone comes for is the good, old-fashioned home-cookin' just like Ma used to make. Service is quick, and a basket of corn muffins and big homemade Southern-style biscuits appear on your table as soon as you sit down. Whether you order the calf's liver smothered in onions, fried chicken, homemade meatloaf, catfish steak, or maybe chicken and dumplings, you can be sure the portions will be large. Meats come with your choice of two vegetables from a long list that includes fried okra, turnip greens, purple-hull peas, and lime-cream salad. A trip to Buntyn is truly an old-fashioned Southern experience.

One of the best new restaurants and bars to hit the downtown area in recent months is this Cajun/American/Asian amalgam run by the folks at On Teur, another favorite eatery in Midtown. Succulent sandwiches, salads, and fish dishes are specialties. The lively decor, with its floor-to-ceiling portraits of blues greats B. B. King and W. C. Handy, is pure Delta funk -- a cross between Highway 61 and Route 66. But one bite of the creamy, Cajun crawfish macaroni-and-cheese, and you'll think you've died and gone to heaven.

Reservations: Reservations recommended for parties of 6 or more

Walls painted to mimic crumbling adobe, Mexican folk art, and leopard-print booths provide a casual setting for this neighborhood restaurant in the Cooper-Young area. A full bar in the back is usually crowded with neighbors toasting each other with cervezas, and in the summer, there's a very popular back patio. Along with the usual Southwestern standards -- enchiladas, chimichangas, fajitas -- there are specialties such as cowboy steak, served with beer-battered onion rings and pico de gallo, and shrimp diablo (shrimp sautéed in chile butter and beer).

Reservations: Reservations recommended

Located on busy Union Avenue, the restaurant is decorated with samovars, Russian dolls, and wall murals with Russian folk themes, but it's the vodkas and Russian gypsy dancing on Friday and Saturday that really put you in the mood for the owners' authentic Russian cooking. It's tough to choose between the borscht, a heady beet-based broth bursting with cabbage and chunks of meat, and the silky seafood bisque. With a hunk of bread, this is the most delicious lunch downtown. To sample variety, begin an evening meal with zakuska, an appetizer plate that includes eggplant, kidney bean salad, herring, chicken-liver pâté, pkali (beet salad), and marinated mushrooms. Russian favorites such as beef Stroganoff, Belorussian blinis (crepes filled with chicken), and piroshki (pastries filled with chicken and vegetables) are all hearty, richly-sauced dishes that rarely disappoint.

Reservations: Reservations not required

Named after a Parisian cafe, this lively bistro has a vague country-inn feel about it and is a popular ladies' lunch spot and pre-theater restaurant. As in a French cafe, you'll find convivial conversations at the small bar and outdoor seating on the street where you can sit and people-watch. Start out with some French onion soup or honey-baked brie, followed up with the likes of salmon with a sesame- and poppyseed crust or braised lamb shank with a pear brandy and walnut glaze. Lunches are reasonably priced and offer a chance to sample some of the same fine food that is served at dinner. There are also monthly four-course wine and food tastings for which reservations are required.

Reservations: Reservations recommended