High-end lunch deals

Famed Sushi master Naomichi Yasuda may have left this spare raw-fish mecca, but his disciples maintain its status as one of the country's very best places for sushi: They procure pristine seafood and serve it with the simple elegance it requires. You'll drop $200 here at dinner, but at lunch the $22.50 sushi prix fixe scores you five pieces (the rotating selection might include white slivers of rich Spanish mackerel and fresh rainbow trout) and two rolls, such as a delicate wrap of expertly cooked rice paired with tart radish sprouts.

Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has long been an advocate for the affordable lunch, offering reasonably priced, three-course prix-fixe menus at each of his restaurants. That's true of his newest high-end spot as well, a fantastic farm-to-table place serving food that is as fresh as it is beautiful. The options at the hyperseasonal ABC Kitchen change daily, but $25 might score you a bowl of bright ruby beets and tangy-sweet house-made yogurt, a wedge of silky slow-cooked arctic char dressed in a piquant carrot sauce flecked with basil, and a salted-caramel ice-cream sundae drizzled with chocolate sauce and topped with peanuts and popcorn.