Big summer opener Prospect, which Mr. Bauer has given a full two and a half months to come into its own, couldn’t have hoped for better with their Sunday Chronicle review. Bauer raves about Ravi Kapur’s food — even though the headline credit for the restaurant still goes to co-owner Nancy Oakes — saying that he “soars” and that all the dishes show a “brilliant marriage of fine ingredients and inspired technique.” He loves starters like the buffalo carpaccio, black cod, pig trotters, and potato dumplings, and he gives equal praise to the shorter list of entrées, like the halibut, “generally a boring fish on its own, [but it] becomes a star, thanks to its pad of fried green tomatoes, a scattering of Zebra tomatoes and a thick cap of tomato hollandaise.” Before bestowing the big three-and-a-half-star prize on the place — the best a non-fine-dining venture can hope for — he writes, “It’s as if Boulevard has sired a beautiful young colt. If this were a horse race, Prospect just might win the Triple Crown.” [Chron, Menu slideshow, Unterman’s take, Kauffman’s take]
