The Other Critics

Two Angles on Cafe Cluny; Meehan Devours ‘Avian Oddities’

Loud, crowded and unimaginative, Cafe Cluny still hews closely enough to the Balthazar mold in both the front and back of the house to earn one star from Bruni. [NYT]

Paul Adams likes Cluny even better, calling the food “impressive,” and laying off the cultural context. He’s just here for the duck. [NYS]

Meanwhile, Peter Meehan is fascinated by the “avian oddities” served at all-chicken spot Yakitori Torys and writes enthusiastically, though not exactly convincingly, of the joys of eating chicken bones and necks. [NYT]

Cuozzo visits Metro Marché, has easy fun at the expense of the “drab, cyclopean depot” that is the Port Authority. The food? Sure, it’s okay. [NYP]

The New Yorker’s Leo Carey likes Boqueria more than he expected, dwells on the atmosphere, which, for New Yorker types anyhow, is “lively to the point of insanity.” [NYer]

Randall Lane gets spotty service, high prices, and itty-bitty portions at the Russian Tea Room but praises chef Gary Robins’s cooking as “flavorful, gorgeously plated and packed with original touches.” [TONY]

TONY short takes: Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar is a “perfect little East Village date spot“; Cafe Clunycrowded and chaotic” with high prices and solid French bistro food; and BLT Burger a cynical hustle that happens to serve a Kobe burger that was “begging to be bitten into over and over again.” [TONY]

Two Angles on Cafe Cluny; Meehan Devours ‘Avian Oddities’