Wakiya’s brief flirtation with the possibility of success seems to be over, now that Frank Bruni has concurred with Adam Platt by handing the restaurant what seems to be a well-deserved bagel. How long before it goes down for the dirt nap is anybody’s guess. [NYT]
Alan Richman, by the way, hates the place even worse. You don’t even have to look beyond his subheads: “Preening.” “Small Portions.” “Incomprehensible Menu.” The bottom line? The place is wildly expensive and “Wakiya suffers from an absence of delights.” To say the least. [Bloomberg]
Peter Meehan, though taking care to praise Josh DeChellis’s cold dishes, had what sounds like a series of awful experiences at BarFry, with terrible service issues. Talk about picking the wrong guy to leave stranded with bottles in his hands! [NYT]
Danyelle Freeman wasn’t especially taken with Accademia de Vino, blaming its lusterless performance on a too big menu. [NYDN]
Centro Vinoteca earns the respect of Paul Adams for its pastas, far more so than its more noted piccolini menu, which he considers something of a ripoff. [NYS]
Someone stop Randall Lane before he gives out five stars again! This time the lucky recipient of his celestial eruption is BLT Market, a fine restaurant which no one has mistaken for an all-time great. [TONY]
Is Robert Sietsema running out of restaurants? His review of a pedestrian-sounding Greek taverna called Plaka in Bay Ridge hardly makes the place seem worth going to, even if it were down the street. [VV]
Andrea Thompson hated Gemma, the food and the phoniness equally. [NYer]