The Other Critics

Anthos Misses Its Mark; Provence’s First Rave

Unlike Adam Platt, who thought Anthos inferior to Dona, Frank Bruni likes it better; he seems almost pained to have to deny the place a third star. But the drab room and overwhelmed fish keep Michael Psilakis’s dream of a three-star Greek restaurant from coming true — yet. [NYT]
Related: Greek Revival [NYM]

Time Out’s Randall Lane hits Williamsburg BBQ Fette Sau and is struck by how good some of the meats are, and how unbelievably bad the sauce is. That’s pretty much in keeping with what everybody else has said, but Lane is the first to make much-needed points about the effect of keeping pulled pork exposed in a chafing tray, and how ill-fit pork belly is for the smoke treatment. [TONY]
Related: Fette Sau’s Weird Williamsburg Barbecue Palace [Grub Street]

Moira Hodgson’s rave makes the relaunched Provence sound really, really good — a great omen for their future critical reception. The old Provence was good, but neither the service nor the food was on a level you would want to face a battery of critics with. [NYO]

Peter Meehan, holding up his end of the Times’ high-and-low arrangement, gives a ringing endorsement to a taco truck on West 96th Street. [NYT]

Paul Adams sees potential in Tasca, and even singles out a few dishes for praise (snails, beef ribs braised in sangria), but on the whole finds “the dishes are often ponderous, even when their concepts are sprightly.” Adams blames a lack of focus, which might be solved by the time the next reviewer comes. [NYS]

The New Yorker takes a 90-degree turn, reviewing the relatively unknown, way-hip brown café in Chinatown. Prior to this, we only read about places that had been written about everywhere else months earlier; now we’re psyched to try it, although Lauren Collins’s descriptions of the average-sounding food seemed out of sync with the excitement. Which is probably a good sign. [NYer]

Bloomberg’s Ryan Sutton is using his sneak-attack style for good, visiting Perilla and Sandro’s in their first weeks and writing highly complimentary descriptions of the food and cost. [Bloomberg]
Related: Sandro’s Latest Restaurant Is As Good As His Last One [Grub Street]
‘Top Chef’ Winner Finally Gets in the Game [Grub Street]

Robert Sietsema visits Il Brigante, a Calabrian restaurant at the Seaport, which he credits with having the most perfectly authentic Napoletana pizza in the city — even more so than Una Pizza Napoletan, which is practically a shrine to the form. It better be good — Sietsema makes it clear that the non-pizza parts of the menu are strictly for hunger. [VV]
Related: New Restaurant Not Just for Lonely Mountain People

Anthos Misses Its Mark; Provence’s First Rave