As far as luxury department store restaurants go, Fred’s is the most popular and bustling. Rather than being an overpriced afterthought or resting place for bag-laden social x-rays and other ladies of leisure who pose rather than eat, Fred’s is an actual destination for midtown executives, tourists or said ladies, but more often than not with some friends, kids or deserving husband in tow. Of course, this is Barneys and, as Ja...

As far as luxury department store restaurants go, Fred’s is the most popular and bustling. Rather than being an overpriced afterthought or resting place for bag-laden social x-rays and other ladies of leisure who pose rather than eat, Fred’s is an actual destination for midtown executives, tourists or said ladies, but more often than not with some friends, kids or deserving husband in tow. Of course, this is Barneys and, as Jack said in an episode of “Will & Grace,” a place where it can be amusing to “watch ladies with big lips eat soup.”

On the top floor of the famed Madison Avenue shopping mecca, Fred’s is surprisingly down-to-earth and populist. The American food is solid and the portions are generous and not at all what one would expect: pasta, burgers, fried calamari and pizza share the menu with salads and grilled fish and chicken.

A convivial place—if anything, you’ll see those ladies with the big lips eat soup.