Week in Reviews Archives
Week in Reviews: Dovetail Gets a Tres
Kalina, 12/26/07
His majesty the Bruni graces Dovetail, the newcomer taking the Upper West Side by storm, with a whopping three stars this week. It's not just that the food is oh so good or that the menu draws in the crowds in the unadventurous and "fussy" UWS. It's that the place is crafty as well:
Both he and his pastry chef, Vera Tong, come at their cooking with intellect and wit, but they seldom get too cerebral, too cute. Leaving quotation marks out of the titles of dishes, they leave it to you to make certain connections...But what does Bruni think of the drab design, maligned by other critics and reviewers?: "The inconspicuousness of the restaurant’s entrance may be bonkers or in fact brilliant, a subtle signal of Dovetail’s confidence in its inner strength. The carpeting and padded walls in the back definitely make sense. They keep noise in check." It's settled then—three stars all around. [NYT] Bar Boulud to the third power, Madaleine Mae, and the Elsewhere up next.>>...you find yourself not only enjoying but also comparing the two kinds of seafood. Then you notice some seared foie gras, which may or may not be another inspired bit of culinary free-association, inasmuch as monkfish liver has been presented as the foie gras of the sea...And the real point is that such crafty plotting of a composition seems entirely plausible, given the amount of energy Mr. Fraser lavishes on his dishes.
Week in Reviews: Le Cirque Gets Its Tres Back
[Kalina, 6/12/06.]
Frank Bruni takes the opportunity of his review this week to three-star Le Cirque, giving Sirio Maccioni back the star he swiped from him in 2006. The piece reads not only as an assessment of the restaurant and the new chef Christophe Bellanca, but, per the headline, in defense of decadence:
At Le Cirque you will indeed eat too much food, of a kind that neither your physician nor your local Greenpeace representative would endorse, in a setting of deliberate pompousness, at a sometimes ludicrous expense. The ravioli, all three of them, are $35. But that has long been the way of certain restaurants, which exist to be absurd, to speak not to our better angels but to our inner Trumps, making us feel pampered and reckless and even a little omnipotent, if only for two hours and three courses with a coda of petits four...The kitchen doesn’t produce meals on a par with those from four-star chapters in the restaurant’s storied past. Le Cirque isn’t quite as reliable as other three-star restaurants.But the quality of its French-Italian food has improved to the point where it sufficiently complements, and doesn’t undercut, the rest of what makes this restaurant such an haute hoot."
And while Bellanca gets his nods, too, most of the swooning is over the one and only Sirio: "What he’s selling isn’t so much one evening of pleasure as a whole history, a whole legend, of privilege and pampering." [NYT]
Week in Reviews: Onespot for Ilili
His highness the Bruni has one star for Ilili the Lebanese restaurant above the Flatiron District. The review is probably soft enough that it won't move the needle one way or the other—a considerable problem for a venue of this size and ambition:
In this theater of more than 300 seats, about a third of them in an amber-glowing main dining room whose walls resemble a network of illuminated cubbyholes, Lebanese food gets the sort of stylish trappings accorded to Thai at Kittichai, Chinese at Buddakan and Japanese at Megu, Matsuri and so many other mega-restaurants around town...So's the place any good? Eh: "...you’re in for a very good night, provided you can relax in a setting this vast, this potentially noisy and, in terms of the service and the flow of human traffic, this occasionally confused." [NYT]All the meats I sampled — the lamb loin; the beef with foie gras; chicken — were juicy, smoky and flavorful. Despite missteps elsewhere on the menu, Mr. Massoud is running a kitchen capable of discipline and finesse.
The absurd suggestion that Michael Bao has something to do with Bun and Robert Sietsema on Peter's Since 1969, up next. >>
Week in Reviews: Mesa Grill Downgraded to One Star
Frank Bruni issues a summons to Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's long-neglected Flatiron flagship, in the form of a one star smack down. It could have been a lot worse, but:
[O]n balance Mesa Grill presents only flickers of the excitement it did in 1991, when it opened, or in 2000, when William Grimes gave it two stars in The Times...It’s an overly familiar, somewhat tired production. More to the point, it’s an inconsistent one.As to the matter of why this review, and Flay's performance, matters: "...the margin for clumsiness at Mesa Grill is narrower than ever. The restaurant can no longer lean on novelty; its Southwestern swirl of peppery rubs and smoky glazes, of tropical sweetness and desert fire, has been popularized to the point of cliché. It informed the menus of Chi-Chi’s, Chili’s and Chipotle." [NYT]During one dinner the three slivers of chicken in the appetizer tacos were among the most shriveled, desiccated pieces of meat I’ve seen outside a bodega buffet at 3 a.m. No measure of the nifty peanut-thickened, chili-spiked barbecue sauce with them could save the day.
At another dinner the chicken for these tacos was plump and juicy, but the tacos shouldn’t have even been there.
Dovetail loving, Bar Blanc hating and more, up next. >>
Danyelle Freeman calls a car service to Williamsburg for Vinas, a spanish entry good for a RG deuce: "The chef, Henry Lopez Jr., is Puerto Rican. Other than a six-month stint as a line cook at Ola, Lopez has spent little time training in prominent kitchens. Yet, if you tasted his expertly poached escolar, you'd never know it. The snowy-white hunk is sauced with a blood orange mojo, and sits above a crunchy mountain of coconut rice. Even a swine snob would find his braised pork belly fetching. [NYDN]
Week in Reviews: Blue Ribbon Pulls a Deuce
Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill, by the Kalina
Frank Bruni bestows an unlikely two stars upon Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill, the Bromberg brother's latest Blue Ribbon enterprise, this one up at 6 Columbus Circle.
With about 115 seats, it’s the biggest of the five Blue Ribbon restaurants —six if you count the market on Bedford Street — in Manhattan. (Another two abut each other in Park Slope, Brooklyn.) With more than 100 cold and hot dishes, chops and fillets, and sushi and sashimi tableaux, it’s also the deepest, broadest grab bag of the bunch...But it’s of a piece with its predecessors, which speak in the unpretentious voice of the unbound Brombergs...The full read also gets you an overview of how the Brombergs are doing at their other establishments as well. Downtown, try the pu pu platter. [NYT] The Smith, Brasserie 44, Ilili, Bacaro and more, up next. >>In terms of pure quality, Blue Ribbon’s sushi and sashimi aren’t among the very best in town...In terms of basic deliciousness, the fried chicken, made with matzo meal in the crunchy coating and seasoned with paprika and sansho pepper, may well be...
Week in Reviews: Onespot for Barbuto
Barbuto. Shot by the Kalina, circa 2004.
Frank Bruni takes the opportunity of his review this week to upgrade Barbuto, Jonathan Waxman's West Village Ital, from $25 and Under to one star. Let's be crystal clear: it's all about the chicken and nothing about Jonathan Waxman pimping his book, "A Great American Cook," on the menu.
I’ve had the roasted chicken at Barbuto when snow was blowing against the restaurant’s glass walls, and I’ve had it when summer sun streamed through. I’ve had it before 6:30 p.m., when the restaurant was just stirring, and after 10:30, when it was at full tilt.That's the opening of the review, but he's not done yet. In sum: "The chicken is Rule No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 of eating at Barbuto. It’s Rule No. 4 as well." [NYT]I’ve had the roasted chicken when it came with the salsa verde, which leans hard on parsley and basil, and I’ve had it with a mixture of lemon and juices from the roasting pan, which is how Barbuto serves it around this time of year.
I’ve had it after a salad, when I was ravenous, and after spaghetti carbonara, when I wasn’t.
None of this made any difference. I’ve devoured it every time, because it’s always been terrific: crunchy, meaty, tender, glossed with oil.
Up next, Richman: "Should you be led downstairs, run for your life..." >>
The RG, back and better than ever for 2008 (note: unconfirmed), has but 1.5 stars for Lunetta, new to the Flatiron: "Lunetta arrives in Manhattan a watered-down version of the original. Though it has the promise of a fine chef, it hasn't yet mastered its inflated, new domain. Perhaps it should take some kitchen cues from its older, wiser sibling." [NYDN]
Week in Reviews: One Star for Irving Mill
Smith's; by Kalina, 11/16/07.
Frank Bruni kicks off the new year with a one star, mostly unenthusiastic review of Irving Mill, the restaurant widely tagged a lesser version of Gramercy Tavern. And 2008 is underway:
Short of hayrides from the curb to the coat check, there’s not a whole lot in the way of farmhouse allusions that the new restaurant Irving Mill doesn’t try...I spotted two metal watering cans before I reached the host station, one of them perched near an antique bin brimming with pomegranates. The restaurant’s floors, wainscoting and tables bring to mind barn wood...Final word, Frank Bruni, all rights reserved: “Green Acres” goes to the Greenmarket, with a lilt in its gait but some bramble on its path." [NYT] Bruni on Gordon Ramsay, up next. >>Apart from the quail and the ravioli (on their good night), I couldn’t find an appetizer to get too excited about. I enjoyed chicken liver crostini, but it’s rare that I don’t. Octopus had vaulted past tender to mushy, and a soup made with roasted garlic, white beans, sheep’s milk ricotta and rosemary somehow managed to be boring, not to mention sludgy. This is a menu that reads more flavorful than it tastes...At least the lamb itself was superb.
Week in Reviews: One Star for Shorty's.32 and Smith's
Kalina, 11/16/07.
Mr. Frank Bruni finishes off the year with a two-fer, one-starring both Shorty's.32 and Smith's, "...the kinds of restaurants, gentle and comforting, that you want to fall into at the end of a shivery winter day."
Shorty's "...has its flaws, little elbowroom and big noise among them. The main decorative feature — more than 20 colorful shades on low-hanging lighting fixtures — goes a tad overboard...But this restaurant deftly works its way into your affections." Try the chicken and the sides.
Smith's: "With more than 60 seats, Smith’s is larger than Shorty’s, and its menu is longer. But many dishes are minimal-fuss affairs: bibb lettuce with buttermilk dressing; arugula with apple and Parmesan; sautéed brussels sprouts with almonds; roasted eggplant with piquillo peppers and much too much vinegar...You’re better off with the fantastic lamb or with lobster, out of the shell and splashed with a lobster reduction that has cinnamon, clove and orange. It’s a sauce like sunshine, appreciated around this time of year." [NYT]
Continue reading "Week in Reviews: One Star for Shorty's.32 and Smith's"Week in Reviews: One Star for Primehouse
Kalina, 9/29/07.
Frank Bruni one-stars Primehouse New York, Steve Hanson's new steakhouse on Park Avenue South. The bow tied around this particular steakhouse is that all the meat comes from the offspring of a single bull, Prime, a fact not lost on The Bruntastic. We have some extra time today, so we'll go Good News/Bad News style. Good news:
"Serious money went into this place...And serious ambition goes into its steaks, starting but not ending with the restaurant’s vaunted Secretariat of sirloin. Primehouse ages its beef on site, in a climate-controlled underground room tiled with Himalayan rock salt. You can gaze at the dangling flesh, if you like, through an enormous window. Dinner meets diorama...This process yields steaks that are reliably appealing and occasionally exceptional.But. Hello, Trouble: "...there are some oddities afoot..." >>
Week in Reviews: Two Stars for Allen & Delancey
Kalina, 10/5/07.
Frank Bruni puts another two star venue on the Lower East Side today by awarding chef Neil Ferguson's Allen & Delancey the deuce:
It’s easily one of the prettiest, most comfortable places I’ve been introduced to in a while, a reminder of how crucial to an evening’s enjoyment the right visual trappings, the right amount of elbowroom and the ability to have a conversation without shouting can be.While our betting slump continues, so does Mr. Bruni's general trend of generosity. And as a special Bruni bonus, he refers to Ferguson's former boss Gordon Ramsay as, "that famously unexcitable introvert." [NYT]Its three dark, candlelit rooms — they’re perhaps better called chambers — feel like a scruffily elegant splice of antiques store, speakeasy and literary salon, what with all the frayed volumes on the shelves above the semicircular booths in the back, all the oil paintings and vintage photographs. If Stevie Nicks were the host of a weekly book club, its meetings would happen someplace like this.
And the food at Allen & Delancey is at once sophisticated and accessible, reliant on fail-safe luxuries deployed in a modestly creative and occasionally playful manner. It’s not entirely unlike what Mr. Ferguson was doing uptown, but context is everything.
We've got your Richman, Meehan, Platt and more, right this way. >>
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