This week Mr. Bauer brings us his official thoughts on Parallel 37 — the new haute-casual replacement for the Dining Room at the Ritz about which he had previously, unofficially, complained about the noise level. In stark contrast to Josh Sens’s rave of last week, Bauer sounds fairly disappointed overall, though he praises several of chef Ron Siegel’s new dishes and says the place is good for “a competent — no, make that a pretty good — meal.” He calls the slow-roasted pork a “great dish” and says he loved the black-truffle risotto with beets and ordered it twice. But the desserts aren’t all that, the portion sizes are stingy on some dishes, cocktails are overpriced, the service was “awkward,” and he can only bring himself to give the place two stars overall. In his biggest dis, he says the redesign “looks more like the Marriott than the Ritz,” and has a “quasi-Las Vegas feel.” Ouch. [Chron]