Wednesday Food News: Early Edition

Bruni starts off the new year by two-starring Drew Nieoporent's Vietnamese/Asian-influenced Mai House. He finds the menu "rife with surprises and out-and-out delights." Chef and co-partner is Michael Huynh, formerly of Bao 111. Bruni doesn't like the sides or desserts, but finds most appetizers and entrees pleasing.

And Eater starts the year by putting the money on one star, but taking two themselves. Well, they got half of it right.

In $25 and Under, Peter Meehan goes to Pardo, a new West Village offshoot of a chain restaurant in Peru and Chile. He's suspicious and apprehensive (it's a chain, after all) but finds a restaurant that "makes the best of the country’s indigenous larder." Service is good, and the spit-roasted chicken, fantastic.

In the Post, Cuozzo bemoans the closing of Dona and the "remorseless sword of real estate development" that caused the shutdown (the building that housed it was sold). Donatella Arpaia and chef Michael Psilakis hope to reopen elsewhere.

And Paul Adams visits Gordon Ramsay at the London for the New York Sun. In what's getting to be a familiar complaint, he finds "the experience never rises far above its baseline of unimpeachable adequacy." The food and service are impeccable, but nothing in particular stands out. Ouch.