Earlier this week, New York Mag’s
Adam Platt panned star chef Alain Ducasse’s Benoit (pictured), declaring it an “ersatz” brasserie and concluding that “French cuisine, as we used to know it, is deader than we think.” Now the Times’s Frank Bruni takes his turn, and while he disagrees that it’s “a throwaway restaurant,” he does concur that “Benoit is selling a dining experience so familiar it’s almost a cliché… And what of the ‘Parisian salad’? The city it’s referring to must be Paris, Tex. That’s a more likely cradle of this humdrum, deli-caliber mix of chicken, ham, cheese and lettuce.” But the veal appetizer (poached tongue and foie gras) “is worth the trip.”

For the Sun, Paul Adams slams Union Square’s Cafe Society, which “feels like a restaurant desperately in search of a personality… Customers can meander among mediocre representatives of Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and other cuisines, piecing together a patchwork meal.” The Post’s Steve Cuozzo has the first review of the two-week old Alloro, that “creative Italian” restaurant on the Upper East Side with the interior so green it could be used as a CGI backdrop. Cuozzo’s piece is more profile than criticism, but he swears the “five pasta dishes I had there just might be the best five I've had at any one place this year.”

And Danyelle Freeman opines on Hundred Acres for the Daily News. She's disheartened that the Greenwich Village restaurant doesn’t live up to Provence, the owners’ previous iteration in the same space: “There are too many disappointments. Even though the Southern fried rabbit is excellent, the Southern fried chicken is downright ordinary. The pretty pea-paved halibut is nicer to look at than to eat. The grits were swamped by too much olive oil. And speaking of swamped, the dandelion salad should probably be served with a life preserver.” Chefs get no respect!

Photo of Benoit courtesy Ryan Charles.