: If you enjoy being challenged while in pursuit of a nice hearty meal --- and who doesn't, these days? --- you'll like the Chop Bar. Intensely popular with the under-35 crowd (and the occasional celebrity or politician), this hipster mecca is often packed, ensuring long waits and deafening noise. Rustic wooden walls, high pipe-accented ceilings and minuscule tables too close together in this converted industrial space further the faux-working-class ambience; prices and pretentiousness tell another story. Bold ingredients --- oxtail, trotters, house-made gravlax, ancho orange broth --- enrich intelligent, highly self-conscious comfort food that sometimes (but only sometimes) soars. A remarkably un-creamy butternut-squash risotto was basically sauced rice; a roasted cauliflower-fennel salad sported too few roasted veggies and way too much black pepper. Plump, scrumptious burgers are a tad tiny for the price. Velvety mac ‘n’ cheese is a standout; oxtail poutine with rich gravy and Fiscalini cheddar is winning a whole new generation of tail fans. A few international dishes --- banh mi, breakfast burritos, Yucatecan chicken --- augment mainly American bistro fare. A lively bar boasts globe-spanning beers, wines on tap and cocktails. We ordered the latter. They were weak.

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