May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Buddha Bar is the second Buddha-based restaurant to make its debut in New York's meatpacking district this spring.

First came Stephen Starr's 16,000-square-foot, 320-seat Buddakan, which opened in early March on the corner of Ninth Avenue and 16th Street.

Since last week, there's the 15,000-square-foot, 564-seat Buddha Bar on Little West 12th Street. Somehow, a way of life that espouses the denial of material pleasures has been transformed into a marketing gimmick for large, expensive, ostentatious restaurants. (There's also Tao, the 12,000-square- foot pan-Asian eatery in midtown Manhattan whose Buddha statue is only a foot shorter than the Buddha Bar's 17-foot giant.)

Buddha Bar competes with Jean-Georges' Spice Market for darkest restaurant in New York. In the sexy, ruby glow of the red chandeliers, it's almost impossible to read the menus or discern your $18 tuna tartare without repositioning the candles on your table.

The lighting is more conducive to canoodling than to eating. Over the course of two visits, I saw couples French kissing in the dining room, lounge and -- less predictably -- at the sushi bar.

Saturday Night Scene

On Saturday night, a global crowd of tall, skinny women in little black dresses and dark men in jeans and sports jackets crammed into the lounge.

Buddha Bar has 564 seats but can hold as many as 1,000.

Standard New York conversation lines like ``It was an Internet company -- before 9/11'' and ``I'm actually an eye doctor'' could be heard.

Cocktails are $13-$15, pricey but not out of step with nearby venues. Sofas, ottomans, coffee tables and even a few beds were strewn about the lounge.

As a cocktail waitress explained, you are permitted to occupy any piece of furniture until it is reserved, which requires a purchase of at least two bottles of wine, sparkling wine or hard liquor. Bottles of sparkling wine start at $75 each -- cheaper than at many clubs; bottles of Grey Goose vodka cost $325 apiece -- about average for bottle service.

My friend and I, along with other patrons, were ejected from multiple ottomans to accommodate clientele with deeper pockets.

Expensive Buddhism

The price of my meal at Buddha Bar is much more memorable than the well-executed but generic pan-Asian cuisine I ate there. Diners should expect to pay $100 per person, tax and tip not included.

Portions were minuscule; two colleagues and I were barely full after three appetizers, a sushi and sashimi course, three entrees, and three desserts.

Our dinner last Tuesday, which included a gin martini, tuna tartare, slices of raw fluke, ``crispy spun'' shrimp, assorted sushi and sashimi, braised short ribs, an undercooked sablefish, a whole grilled branzino, a calamansi tart, fudge cake, a Thai ice-tea mousse cake, two glasses of Chardonnay, and a $35 bottle of semi-dry Riesling cost $313.

Saturday night cocktails -- two lychee martinis and two Wings of the Dragon that involved ginger syrup, Bacardi O, Red Bull and a splash of lime juice -- cost $68.

Buddha Bar, owned by Jean-Yves Haouzi, is a spinoff of the original Paris location that opened in 1996. Additional Buddha Bars have opened in Beirut and Dubai.

Buddha Bar is at 25 Little West 12th St., (1)(212) 647- 7314.

Dressler Warms

If Danny Meyer ever decides to open an outpost of his immensely popular Gramercy Tavern in Brooklyn, he will have to compete with Dressler, a 75-seat Williamsburg venue that had its debut in mid-April.

Like Gramercy, Dressler's menu mirrors the season: expect fiddlehead ferns, escarole, ramps, favas and peas to pepper the menu this spring.

Dressler has the same warm, crowded feel of Gramercy, but its ambience more closely resembles that of a French bistro than an American tavern's. A zinc bar has a cooler feel than Gramercy's wooden version. Tile floors are worn and faded. Iron chandeliers give off a warm glow.

When we arrived on a Friday night, every seat in the restaurant was filled around 9 p.m. No one was wearing a suit. If you have a tie, take it off before entering; the serious yet casual food will taste better.

Dinner for two, which included pea- and fontina-stuffed ravioli, artichoke and white-bean salad, roasted chicken with ramps, a rib-eye steak with spinach, a creme brulee infused with kaffir lime, a chocolate cheesecake, and a $38 bottle of Cassis Bagnol, an aromatic white wine from Provence, cost $124.

Colin Devlin, Dressler's proprietor, also owns DuMont and DuMont Burger. Chefs Polo Dobkin and Cal Elliott head up the kitchens at Dressler and at Devlin's other two restaurants. Both are Gramercy Tavern alumni.

Dressler is at 149 Broadway, between Driggs and Bedford avenues, Brooklyn, just down the block from Peter Luger Steakhouse, telephone (1)(718) 384-6343.

To contact the writer of this column: Ryan Sutton in New York at rsutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 4, 2006 11:57 EDT