This is Hell's Kitchen?

The scene inside the muted, flower-lined dining room could have easily unfolded in some tony Upper East Side bistro.

But no, this was Hell’s Kitchen — in a former parking garage, no less.

“When I told my friends that I was opening up a restaurant, they looked at me like, ‘You’re from Le Bernardin! What are you doing in Hell’s Kitchen?’” says Sally Chironis, co-owner of the new French-American restaurant La Silhouette, which opened in January on an unassuming stretch of West 53rd Street. “I tell everybody I changed the name.

It’s no longer Hell’s Kitchen. It’s Heaven’s Kitchen,” Chironis says of the neighborhood, which corrals 34th to 59th streets west of Eighth Avenue.

The Hell’s Kitchen dining scene has long been home to a global array of affordable eats, showbizzy hangouts and the odd culinary standout (i.e., David Pasternack’s brilliant Esca). But with fine-dining vets like Chironis — who spent a decade as general manager at Le Bernardin — and promising young culinary talent suddenly staking out the neighborhood, you’ll now find plenty of gourmet flair, too.

“I definitely see [Hell’s Kitchen] growing and becoming one of those neighborhoods you have to tick off on your list if you’re a foodie,” says Mandy Oser, whose West 52nd Street wine bar Ardesia is one of the newer bright spots.

While some arrivals promise celebrity-chef flash (see Steve Cuozzo’s review of Todd English’s Ember Room), the best newcomers emphasize fresh interpretations and quality ingredients.

And the area’s western edge is no longer a no man’s land, what with stylish new hotels, residences and businesses such as Ogilvy & Mather, Prada and Kenneth Cole fanning the flames toward 11th Avenue.

“The whole neighborhood is changing. There’s a younger crowd who likes finer things. They used to go [farther east] or downtown — now they don’t have to,” says Eric Hara, the former Oak Room chef who just opened two new restaurants on Ninth Avenue.

More high-profile venues are on the way: In June, the forthcoming Yotel hotel at 570 10th Ave. will debut a fourth-floor restaurant called DohYo, with the largest outdoor space in the city. And an outpost of London’s Cantonese hot spot Hakkasan will fling open its doors at 311 W. 43rd St. in November.

Meanwhile, the promise of a new 7 train terminal at 34th Street and 11th Avenue is luring prospectors farther south: David Waltuck, the former chef-owner of Chanterelle, is reportedly consulting on a restaurant project at 505 W. 37th St.