NYCs rotating Times Square restaurant is back and the food is as good as trendy downtown spots

It’s the most surprising Times Square miracle since the first New Year’s Eve ball dropped in 1907. The View — a rotating, notoriously awful restaurant atop the Marriott Marquis hotel (1535 Broadway) — has good food for the first time since it opened in 1985.Make that VERY good food.Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group has taken over the previously unloved eatery that closed five years ago.

Meyer is one of the city’s most savvy restaurateurs, but still I couldn’t believe that he could bring a menu this fine to The View.Am I dreaming? Pinch me.

Executive chef Marjorie Meek-Bradley, who previously was corporate executive chef for Stephen Starr’s empire and recently consulted at the white-hot Corner Store downtown, knows what tourists and business travelers want — an accessible, steakhouse-and-American bistro lineup with something for everyone.But, she also knows how to satisfy sophisticated locals brave enough to journey to Times Square — and up to the 47th floor.

A beef tartare-obsessed friend proclaimed The View’s lean, hand-chopped tenderloin iteration ($24) — classically seasoned with onions, capers, Worcestershire sauce and mustard — the best she’s ever had.I was quick to agree, taken with its multi-layered flavors and seductive mouth feel. Silken tuna carpaccio ($26), decorated with arugula and rarely-seen finger limes, rivaled anything similar at Meyer’s Union Square Cafe or Gramercy Tavern, while a succulent, jumbo lump blue crab cake — a $34 starter substantial enough for a main course — took on a satisfying spark from spicy remoulade.The waiter deftly removed the paper from black bass en papillote ($32) to reveal a generous, saffron-seasoned cut as moist as it was firm.

I had to ask myself: Was I really at The View, where I once had fish too old and smelly for an alley cat?Nicely crusted prime rib “au jus” ($68) for once came with a lot of jus as well as horseradish cream.I ordered it “medium-rare-...