Today Frank Bruni reviews Adour (pictured), the four-month-old St. Regis Hotel restaurant conceived by extravagant French chef Alain Ducasse. While it’s not “rapturous” enough to merit the Times’s highest four star rating, it’s still “first-rate: polished service, a knockout wine list, beautiful oil-poached cod, gorgeous roasted lamb and exquisite desserts.” And Bruni does confirm our earlier speculation about some kind of haute bagel on the menu.

On the other side of the spectrum and the East River, the Times’s Peter Meehan says the arepas at Sachis in South Williamsburg are “the real deal: [Chef] Rodriguez gently toasts these cornmeal cakes, giving the outsides a delicate, lacy crispness and warming the center through so they exude the comforting, familiar aroma of cooked cornmeal.” Also in Brooklyn, the Voice’s Robert Sietsema stops by the Bay Ridge outpost of Agnanti, which does Turkish-influenced Greek cuisine. He reports that the kebabs misfire, but “king of the menu is a rooster stewed in tomato sauce ($16) and smothered in tiny serrated squares of pasta. Who'd believe that a tough old cock would cook up so juicy and flavorful?”

Restaurant Girl Danyelle Freeman goes on a Manhattan dessert rampage, devouring treats at 13 different establishments. Nice work if you can get it; she reveres Balthazar’s bread pudding, the pan-fried cheese blintzes “the size of logs” at Little Poland in the East Village, and the “incredibly creamy” cheesecake at Eileen’s on Centre Street. And Paul Adams at the Sun files his thoughts on Olana, the Italian-esque restaurant that has “all the charm of a suburban Radisson.” Fortunately, the food “outshines the dim environment” for Adams.

Photo of Adour courtesy Ryan Charles.