Randall Lane made it in to Momofuku Ko and gives the place five stars, gushing, “dish after dish dazzles with class, innovation and balance.” The behind-the-counter action, with David Chang berating a girl cook for the way she wrings a dishrag, maybe isn’t “great theater” though. [TONY]
Bar Q “thrilled” Steve Cuozzo “on all visits but one,” when chef Anita Lo wasn’t around, which is too bad, since his dishes on the off night mar what might have been a rave review. [NYP]
Robert Sietsema, on the other hand, hits bar Q hard: Lo’s BBQ sauce “tastes like it’s been dumped out of a white carton from the local Chinese carry-out,” and her “pork wings” “remain flightless because they’re heavily coated with cloying Korean ketchup.” Ouch! [VV]
San Domenico has been making the same very refined, no-frills Italian food for twenty years, and Alan Richman stopped in to remark on its continued excellence on the eve of the place’s move. [GQ]
Elettaria, slowly but surely, is becoming better appreciated; this week “Tables for Two” writes admiringly of Akthar Nawab’s work there, taking time to enthuse over his swarthy good looks. [NYer]
Ryan Sutton like a few things at Bar Milano, though others sound pretty bad, but he was taken with the bar area and the cocktail program, and the things he did like were “astonishingly good.” At least, good enough to salvage a two-star review. [Bloomberg]
Let’s put it this way: Paul Adams enjoyed and admired the “flexitarian” Broadway East. “Flexibility, and attention to detail, pay off.” But he didn’t love it. You can just tell. [NYS]
Restaurant Girl seems to have liked her meal at Olana very much, at least until she got to the main courses, which “tried too hard” and sound a little ill-conceived. It was straight two-star territory for them after that, but it’s still a nice review generally. [NYDN]
