The Other Critics

Cuozzo Hammers the Shake Shack; Much Hodgson Love for Insieme

Steve Cuozzo uses his bully pulpit in the Post to come down hard on the Shake Shack, calling the place out for insanely long lines and “a hamburger that’s an also-ran at best.”
[NYP]
Related: Kyle Dureau Wants Shake Shack to Be Open 24/7 As Much As You Do [Grub Street]

Having weathered a major two-star review by Adam Platt, Insieme finally gets its first three-star one, from Moira Hodgson, who is impressed by how perfectly executed every dish is, lavishing special praise on one of the place’s more overlooked features, co-owner Paul Grieco’s wine list. [NYO]
Related: Italian, Old and New [NYM]

The Times gives Katz’s the full Frank Bruni treatment, and the place comes out of it with one star, much loving description, and an eerie semi-confirmation of our earlier report that the place might be sold. [NYT]
Related: Mother of Mercy! Is This the End of Katz’s? [Grub Street]

The Sun’s Paul Adams weighs in on Wild Salmon, which he sees as spiritually related to Kobe Club, with its “tireless hype about the supremacy of the main ingredient.” The problem is he doesn’t much like the main ingredient. [NYS]

Time Out’s Randall Lane likes it more, giving it four of six stars, even though, like most of the critics, he found the other, non-salmon, entrées banal or worse. Still, no one has as yet accused the place of mishandling its title ingredient, as at Kobe Club. [TONY]

Crain’s Bob Lape finally gives Chris Lee’s Gilt the four stars it’s been after since opening. [Crain’s NY]

Overall, despite his praising a few dishes, we get the impression that Robert Sietsema wasn’t that crazy about Boqueria. Like most of the other critics, he notes the noise and crowds; unlike them, he seems less than taken with Seamus Mullen’s Spanish cooking. [VV]
Related: Boqueria’s Renowned Rectangle of Rich Suckling Pig [Grub Street]

Peter Meehan encounters “the finest stir-fried dish” at a Brooklyn Hong Kong place named Lucky Eight. [NYT]

The New Yorker reverses its course of reviewing late in the game and is among the first to get in on Mercat; the result, inevitably, is an encounter with wildly uneven food. The brief write-up ends on a down note, about which the new restaurant can’t be happy. [NYer]

Cuozzo Hammers the Shake Shack; Much Hodgson Love for Insieme