Sik Gaek

This raffish Korean restaurant is worth a trek from Manhattan. Perfect for parties or offbeat dates, Sik Gaek is an experience, with newspaper serving as wallpaper and a grill built into each table. A cook may come out and fry you an egg as a free appetizer, then drop off a plate of crudités and a quivering casserole of egg custard, all before you've even begun to decide what to order. At the end comes a refreshing glass of cucumber juice, which helps calm the fire from spicy dishes like a hot pot studded with live octopus, beef and vegetables; fat rice noodles in sweet-hot red sauce; and crab stir-fry. Less spicy are shareable dishes of grilled assorted shellfish, clam-leek pancakes, shrimp tempura and deep-fried Korean sushi. The wide-ranging menu also includes extreme cuisine, such as chicken cartilage, beef intestines and chicken feet, but you don't have to go that way if you don't have the stomach for it.