The Sun’s Paul Adams is the latest critic to get around to Hundred Acres (pictured), the meticulously-sourced, farm-to-table restaurant which used to be Provence. While the Daily News was haunted by the ghosts of the old restaurant, Adams says “the transformation is a delightful blast of fresh air. A sultry Southern accent marks the restaurant's menu… where "seasonal" isn't just a buzzword, but where you actually look forward to returning season after season to see what new ideas are blossoming.”

For the Times, Frank Bruni rhapsodizes about the fiery Szechuan Gourmet, not just another Chinese restaurant in midtown: “Sichuan’s inimitable heat is a big part — for me, the main part — of what makes this cuisine such a riveting adventure. It’s fickle, tricky, fierce. It can light a match to your tongue, numb your lips, snap you to attention and do a job on your stomach that lasts a good long while.” Also for the Times, Betsy Andrews reviews three vegetarian lunch options for under $25 (‘SNice Brooklyn, Crisp and Maoz) and sides with the carnivores: "A Reuben is sinful fun even without the corned beef. But here, stalwart tempeh crashes the party like a cop. Swap the Swiss for soy cheese, and you’ve deputized the remaining bad boy; the good times are all gone from the plate."

The Village Voice’s Robert Sietsema “passed the Pharoh (sic) Café in Ridgewood several times before finally deciding to stop.” But once he gave it a chance, he found the Egyptian restaurant/hookah lounge worth the 45 minute wait. There was a nice babaganoush… the meat, too, was on the money, including an oniony beef kufta.” After dining, Sietsema and company “succumbed to curiosity about the hookahs. The smoke was cool and sweet, and we soon slid into a nicotine reverie, dreaming of bidets.”

Danyelle Freeman at the Daily News has a rave about Sheridan Square, the newish “globally influenced American” restaurant in the West Village that recently lost its chef, Gary Robins, who she simply adored at the Russian Tea Room; his resignation makes her review pretty much obsolete: "So once again, the question is: Where in the world is Gary Robins?" And the Post’s Steve Cuozzo wants to know where all the other chefs are, too: “Chefs are now like travel magazine editors-in-chief: rarely in their offices, but out doing more important things like global junketeering, which in the restaurant world is called ‘sourcing.’”

Photo courtesy Ryan Charles.