Chef Wolfgang Puck, who gained prominence after opening L.A.’s Spago in 1982, has become a worldwide megabrand, with too many restaurants bearing his name to count—in airports, amusement parks, museums, supermarkets, malls, and beyond. Cut is Puck’s steakhouse brand; the outpost at the Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown is his first restaurant in New York City. Don’t be fooled by the staid exterior: Where almost every other new restaurant in recent years has gone for the hand-crafted, artisanal aesthetic, but this Cut is far more Vegas than Brooklyn. Both the bar and dining room have dark walls, black tables, and lurid pops of color. The bar, which seats 32, is dominated by bright red bolts of neon. In the dining room, which seats 86, are deep magenta chairs, marigold draperies pulled across the window, and Puck’s lightly suggestive art collection (“Move me” scrawled in pink neon, a Barbara Kruger–esque diptych about a woman getting turned on by a chef). Spotlights illuminate the tables, but not quite enough; one patron after another uses an iPhone flashlight to read the menu. Theatrical flourishes abound: The decanters are fanciful horn-like shapes; the delicious, two-foot-tall grissini sit on the table like sculpture. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the restaurant is mainly a steakhouse, but with many other options. (Still, beware the steakhouse upcharge.)

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