Forget museums, NYC’s greatest art is just above your dinner table

Recent years have seen restaurants stripping down their décor to casual, fuss-free effect. But a fun few still offer eye candy along with the entrees. In fact, some of the city’s best eateries feature suspended art installations that draw diners’ eyes from their plates up to the ceiling. Here, we’ve rounded up a handful of our favorite displays:

Art, ahoy!

The beachy bathroom at Red Hook Lobster Pound, 284 Van Brunt St., Brooklyn; 718-858-7650

“We wanted to keep things really fun and a little tongue-in-cheek,” says owner Susan Povich of the Red Hook Lobster Pound’s recent nautical revamp by designer John Kole. Most notable is the topsy-turvy bathroom featuring a cloud-painted ceiling, a massive beach umbrella and even beach chairs. “The funniest comment about the bathroom that we’ve received is that people keep saying, ‘Oh my God, this is the most relaxing place to pee,’ ” says Povich.

Lick it up

Gigantic salt rock at Chefs Club, 275 Mulberry St.; 212-941-1100

“Some people think that it is a giant piece of Parmesan cheese!” says Louise Vongerichten, who handles Chefs Club’s business development, of the 1,300-pound Himalayan salt lick encased in a vitrine. “When we let them know that it’s actually salt, they sometimes ask if the chefs are using it to cook.” Of course, the chefs don’t use it to season the eclectic fare at the Soho restaurant, but it definitely adds some spice to the place.

Play nice

Antique toys at the ‘21’ Club, 21 W. 52nd St.; 212-582-7200

Well-heeled tourists, celebrities and city folk alike flock to the classic Bar Room at the ‘21’ Club for a cocktail or a bite beneath the playful and vibrant collection of toys, such as vintage cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes and helmets, draped canopy-style across the ceiling.

Look sharp

Cheese-grater chandelier at Little Muenster at Brookfield Place, 225 Liberty St.; 212-786-0186

Little Muenster owner Adam Schneider and his wife, Vanessa Palazio, have a cheese-grater chandelier in their home made from 168 graters, but when they opened in Brookfield Place last year, they wanted to go bigger. So Schneider built this one featuringw some 200 cheese graters welded to a steel frame and fitted with light sockets. He’s often asked if he lost a finger building it, a question he says isn’t far off. “The cheese graters are very sharp and not the most forgiving.”

Just spooning

Whisk-and-spatula chandelier at Buvette, 42 Grove St.; 212-255-3590

Diners have marveled for years at “our beloved lighting sculpture” says chef Jody Williams of the whirling dervish of kitchen tools and lights hanging in the dining room of her Parisian-by-way-of-the-West Village gastroteque. The piece was crafted by Warren Muller, an artist reknowned for transforming mundane objects like bowling pins and perfume bottles into lighting pieces. “He made it specially for Buvette,” boasts Williams.