The Other Critics

Barbuto Saved by a Chicken; Fiamma Comes Up Short

The wildly uneven Barbuto earns a single star from Frank Bruni, almost entirely on the strength of a well-roasted Bell & Evans chicken. To quote Winston Churchill, “Some chicken!” [NYT]

Alan Richman was appalled by how small the portions were at Grayz, how much they cost, and how shady most of them were, except for the magnificent, world-beating short rib: “In complexity and satisfaction, this dish reminded me most of the Gray Kunz of Lespinasse, the chef we miss so much.” [Bloomberg]

Randall Lane gets that Fiamma’s Fabio Trachocchi is cooking in a grand, Continental style and doesn’t hold that against him, but the food is too rich and the service too sloppy to give him the five or six stars the place would have liked And so they have to settle for four. [TONY]

Paul Adams knew going in that Back Forty was no Savoy, but he never thought he would get cold doughnuts and beignets. He does like the burger though. [NYS]

The burger was the focal point for Peter Meehan at Seymour Burton, too, but what really got our attention was the part about the un-Frenched lamb chops. The review is evocative, enthusiastic, and makes us want to go. [NYT]

The Manhattan version of Lunetta is made to sound only about half as good as its Smith Street original in the 718 — Restaurant Girl hated the meatballs and the pork belly and thought the linguini with clam sauce was too fishy. [NYDN]

Ryan Sutton hits Dovetail and the new Pop Burger: Both are overpriced, but only the latter is an out-and-out ripoff. [Bloomberg]

Robert Sietsema is back on his game in Astoria, where he hits two Bosnian restaurants for grilled meats and bureks (filled pies). Stari Most has good cevapi (skinless sausages), but the other place, Ukus, has better bureks, so it sounds like we’ll be trying the latter. [VV]

Peri Ela, from the sound of Nick Paumgarten’s New Yorker review, has two things going for it: pretty good Turkish food and the advantage of being in a lousy restaurant neighborhood. [NYer]

Barbuto Saved by a Chicken; Fiamma Comes Up Short