Fonda and Brabant Belgian Brasserie Open FONDA Roberto Santibañez is replicating his three-year-old Park Slope Mexican restaurant in the East Village, in a space that's about 50 percent larger. It has 60 seats and a menu of richly flavored regional dishes, including Yucatan shrimp, a Guajillo-style burger, and chicken from the north with Chihuahua cheese. Mr. Santibañez said the Manhattan restaurant will have more bar food. He is depending on cooks who have been with him for years. "For Mexican food, your prep cooks are the most important; they're the ones who mix the moles and pipians, and those are not last-minute sauces," Mr. Santibañez said. (Opens Tuesday): 40 Avenue B (Third Street); (212) 677-4096. BRABANT BELGIAN BRASSERIE If beer defines brasserie, this new contender is right on target, with 50 Belgian beers by the bottle and 10 more on tap, and with a dedicated glass in which each is served - 60 different beer glasses, many of them stamped with logos. There is a big Belgian menu by Armand Vanderstigchel, who is Belgian. The restaurant does not have that spacious beer-hall look but is divided into several areas on two levels. (Monday): 316 East 53rd Street; (212) 510-8588. BUDDHA BEER BAR How about a bar snack of fried brussels sprouts with that beer? Along with the veggies there are about two dozen taps for craft beers and 30 beers by the bottle. Other bar food is tweaked: the beef in the burgers is grass-fed, tacos come with Korean or Mexican fillings, and fried pizzas are like calzones: 4476 Broadway (191st Street); (646) 861-2595. OSTERIA MORINI What was Michael White's Due Terre has reopened as the first Osteria Morini outside Manhattan: 107 Morristown Road, Bernardsville, N.J.; (908) 221-0040. LOTUS BLUE RESTAURANT BAR From the owner of a Lotus Blue in Beijing, where the food is Thai, comes what might be the first Manhattan restaurant that specializes in the food of the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, on the border with Burma and Laos. "Yunnan is a melting pot," said Jeffrey Lim, a partner, adding that unlike elsewhere in China, fresh herbs like mint are significant. Among the dishes are a salad of spicy chrysanthemum and greens, and another of banana blossoms and mango. The chef, Kian Lam Kho, is from Singapore. The name, Lotus Blue, refers to an elevated state of mind in Buddhism: 110 Reade Street (West Broadway); (212) 267-3777. VUCCIRIA This replacement for the Film Center Cafe focuses on Southern Italy, especially in the pasta department. Squid ink orecchiette, spaghetti with sardines and fennel pollen, and long pasta with clams, saffron and bottarga give you some idea: 635 Ninth Avenue (44th Street); (212) 262-2525. This California-based chain opens its first New York outpost for tacos, burritos and salads, some Asian-flavored. (Monday): 333 Park Avenue South (24th Street); (212) 466-3330. MISSION CHINESE FOOD A high-profile San Francisco dive is opening on the Lower East Side this spring. Danny Bowien, the chef, is moving to New York, and the cooks from the San Francisco restaurant will work here on a rotating basis. Mr. Bowien said the menu would be similar to that in the original restaurant, where the food is recognizably Chinese, reasonably priced and eclectic. As in the original, part of the price of every dish will be donated to charity: 154 Orchard Street (Stanton Street). Dani Garcia, a Michelin two-star chef from Andalusia, has joined with Yann de Rochefort, the owner of the Boqueria restaurants, to open a Spanish restaurant later this year: 345 Park Avenue South (26th Street). FPB François Payard will open a third bakery-cafe in the spring, with soft ice cream: 3 Columbus Circle (58th Street). Michael Laiskonis, the pastry chef who left Le Bernardin at the end of last year, will join the Institute of Culinary Education in March as creative director.