Can anyone suggest a good restaurant within a reasonable driving time from JFK. We are meeting someone with a brief stopover. Italian, French, or Indian might be nice.

Lisa,
In so many words, don't try it; that is drive to a restaurant, unless your party has at least a 3 hour stopover.

From my experience - meeting people with a stopover at JFK - you just need too much time to get to/from a restaurant. Traffic around JFK, which can snarl up at a moments notice, can turn your nice idea into a nightmare for the person; and as happened to me, have your party almost miss their connection - not good for that person's digestion or a pleasant flight.

I'd recommend you try one of the airport hotels' lounges or restaurants.

Jackson Diner -- in Jackson Heights, Queens, has great (not to mention, inexpensive) Indian food -- but I'd definitely take Michaels advice and make sure you had at LEAST a three hour stop-over. A good meal should not be worth missing your connecting flight...

Lisa, if you are asking, you need to be careful in that area. We go through this area to get to my sister on LI. There is a Sherwood Diner right over the line on Rockaway Boulevard on the Island which has decent food and still has a smoking section if anyone cares. However, the other posters are correct. You need at LEAST 3 hours between getting out of airport, getting to restaurant and back. I don't know anything about JFK and the facilities, but I would venture to guess that there must be a decent restaurant in the terminal somewhere.

You'll be highly unlikely to find decent food within JFK, but one of the airport hotels would be a better bet. Most of the hotels offer free shuttle service to/fro the airport, so that should cut down on the time commitments. Once you've located a hotel, I'd suggest calling them to confirm their shuttle availability, etc. But, as everyone else has said, BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE TIMING!!! If they have 3 hours or less between flights, stay in the airport anyway.