The Other Critics

Lauren Shockey Wooed by Battersby; Pete Wells Unimpressed at Onegin

Julia Moskin visits Corkbuzz Wine Studio, where over 30 wines provide “something for everyone,” though when pairing menu items with wines, “it’s not easy to form a coherent meal.” Her advice? “Skip the clumsy desserts. Sip a raisin-scented Madeira or plummy Porto instead.” [NYT]

Robert Sietsema raves about Felidia, which he names as “really one of the best Italian restaurants in the city.” His favorite dishes included the tutto crudo, which he calls “unforgettable,” as well as the “dope” chicken liver appetizer. [VV]

Pete Wells was “all smiles” at Nice-influenced La Promenade des Anglais, where the prosciutto and clam croquette has a “riotously creamy, molten core that was something like a clam brandade.” Though “there are dull spots on the menu,” Wells claims that “the charms of La Promenade des Anglais are real and abiding,” and gives it two stars. [NYT

However, Wells was unimpressed by Onegin’s selection of alcohol and food, such as the “disheveled assortment of smoked fish looked as if it had been sliced with hedge clippers and dropped on the plate from a great height,” and little variation in side dishes of “cold” grilled veggies. His overall impression was that of “going to a wedding reception where the caterers had been told minutes before dinner that they weren’t going to be paid.” [NYT]

Lauren Shockey loves the American-Mediterranean cuisine at Battersby, where she enjoys chicken liver toasts and crusty flatbread with whipped ricotta, as well as the pommes puree with braised oxtail. She does suggest skipping over cauliflower soup, which she calls “slightly watery and devoid of the promised curry notes.” [VV]

Steve Cuozzo calls Kibo a “fine, party-time place that will be even better when it stops trying so hard to be a party,” and says its menu is “anything but cutting-edge.” However, he does add that most of the entrees are “merely delicious,” and “fun to share.” [NYP]

Ryan Sutton visits Kibo as well, and compares the spicy tuna rolls to “the maki I used to eat at a Columbia University cafeteria.” Crispy shrimp “could easily substitute as an appetizer at the Outback Steakhouse.” The restaurant’s redeeming quality? Menu items are on the “cheap side.” [Bloomberg]

“Tables for Two” gets a taste of London at Whitehall, where the oysters Kilpatrick “may be New York’s only example of the Antipodean speciality,” and the Honeycrisp-apple charlotte is “enough to make the nine-to-fivers feel like they belong to a different class altogether.” [NYer]

Lauren Shockey Wooed by Battersby; Pete Wells Unimpressed at Onegin