A week after the Sun declared that “disappointment is deeper” at Bar Milano, the Denton brothers’ (Lupa, 'ino, and ‘inoteca) trendy and noisy northern Italian place (pictured) in Gramercy, the Times’s Frank Bruni has seconded the emotion by quipping that “an Italian restaurant that bungles its pasta dishes is like a Las Vegas resort that doesn’t let you gamble. There’s still plenty to enjoy, but you’re likely to feel that the essential point and signature pleasure of the place have been lost.” Still, he drops two charitable stars, despite the fact that “Bar Milano is like a cellphone with constantly bad reception.”

Speaking of the Sun, Paul Adams has a review of Elizabeth, the “easy comfort food” restaurant in Soho, where crowds of drinkers “mill precariously around customers eating at tables in the middle dining room.” Sounds fun, right? It’s a mixed bag, but at least there are plenty of “comped desserts, by way of apology for grievously sloppy, backlogged service.” On another planet, Robert Sietsema visits Cedars Meat House in Astoria, where “plumes of white smoke shot up from a gas-fired grill in the background, attended by a wise-cracking guy who charmed the pants off us immediately.”

Also in the Voice, Sarah DiGregorio slams the Rusty Knot, that newish “70s-rec-room-meets-sailor-bar” on the west side that’s due for a beatdown: “The tiki drinks were subpar and expensive, and the food was uneven, and so despite the skillfulness of the concept and the crowds and the celebrities, I'm sad to say that the Rusty Knot has no clothes. It's a place that dazzles with its big names and its too-cool-for-school cleverness and fails to deliver a very enjoyable experience.”

The Times's Julia Moskin goes in-depth on Jamaican masters of jerk chicken and pork in Brooklyn, where the owner of Boston Jerk City in East Flatbush tells her, “My jerk is all natural, and a gift from God, and I give it all respect.” And the Post’s Steve Cuozzo has fun laying some tough love on Brasserie 44 in the Royalton Hotel. Headline: Pain in the Brasserie. If you liked his Palm Court pan, you’ll enjoy this.