2012 Top 10 New Restaurants in the U.S. "

It's no surprise that some of the country's best new restaurants are run by big name chefs. In the West, we see molecular artistry displayed from the likes of Dominique Crenn, while star chefs Michel Richard and Wolfgang Puck bring their polished magic to top hotels. To the East, David Bouley has teamed up with a chef from the Far East --- Yoshiki Tsuji of the Tsuji Cooking Institute in Osaka --- to open a rarified Japanese spot in TriBeCa. Despite challenging financial times, or perhaps because of them, we can look to these ten exceptional new restaurants to help stimulate our imaginations, our appetites and our gastronomic passions.