For some reason, the arts and fine dining don't seem to mix. the theater district has long been a byword for bad food in New york, and the Lincoln Center area has only recently begun to show signs of culinary life, with gems like Picholine getting a little company, Sapphire, a new comer in the Lincoln Center neighborhood, may not be the last word in Indian Cusine, but it is good enough and good-looking enough to advance the cause.

The extensive menu includes the usual hit parade of samosas, curries, tandoori treats and even mulligatawny soup. but it also includes some sleepers like chutney idili, and small cake of steamed lentil and rice flour topped with coconut curry, Spicer and just as good as kadhi pakoda, another appetizer. Balls of cumin spiced lentil flour are deep-friend and served with a mustard-flavor yogurt sauce. I found the lamb to be tough in the several dishes. .

I tried, like achari lamb and lamb xacutti (prounced ESH-uh-coo-tee). Chicken, on the other hand, was unfailingly moist tender and flavorful, Especially the chicken Nizami, a masala dish with cashews, coconut and sesame seeds. Two breads deserve special mention, the nan stuffed with garlic and kulcha, another soft flatbread backed in the tandoori oven, this one stuffed with crab meat

Sapphire has a pleasingly understated opulence, with ornately carved Mohgul-period wooden doors and windows, brought over from Rajastan, and embroidered panels of Jodhpur silk hung from the ceiling like small banners.