The Other Critics

Wakiya Earns a Second Bagel; Meehan Mistreated at BarFry

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]

Wakiya Earns a Second Bagel; Meehan Mistreated at BarFry