The Other Critics

Sifton Hands Star to Purple Yam; Alan Richman Favors the Bar at Maialino

Purple Yam is a perfect neighborhood restaurant,” writes Sam Sifton. “The menu is studded with the sort of offerings that inspire craving. (Cravings are a key component to a successful neighborhood restaurant.)” [NYT]
Related: Openings Preview: First Look at Purple Yam

“Not only do I like the food at Maialino’s bar more than I like the food at any of [Danny Meyer’s] other bars, it might be my favorite bar food in New York,” declares Alan Richman. [Forked & Corked/GQ]
Related: A Closer Look at Maialino, One Day In

Sushi Uo “doesn’t provide the almost intimidating flawlessness of the best midtown sushi temples, but its food’s quality is consistently higher than that of almost any comparably priced establishment and far removed from that of ordinary neighborhood joints,” says Leo Carey. [NYer]
Related: First Look at Uo and Its Secret Sushi

“I feel my time machine has landed in the innocent Fifties. I imagine I see the ghosts of ladies who lunch in hats and men in seersucker suits,” Gael Greene writes about a visit to Yura Catering’s Square Meal restaurant on the Upper East Side. “Since Square Meal’s time warp does not exclude three times a week excursions to the Union Square market, of course the menu changes.” [Insatiable Critic]

“With a name meaning ‘golden’ in Bengali, Sonali Cuisine is the latest small dining establishment to arrive on the Sunnyside stretch of Queens Boulevard, which has gradually developed into one of the city’s best food neighborhoods,” declares Robert Sietsema. [VV]

Sifton Hands Star to Purple Yam; Alan Richman Favors the Bar at Maialino