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Get yourself some popcorn, because this week Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni is taking the hammer to big shot media power-lunch nest Michael's. Turns out dinner there is an overpriced joke: "I thought Michael’s prided itself on produce. Then I had its appetizer of peekytoe crab with spears of white asparagus, which might as well have been spears of white wax for all the flavor they had....[Michael’s] certainly charges like a serious restaurant, levying a tariff of $35 for a lunchtime burger that’s not Kobe and doesn’t ooze foie gras. So it should perform at the level of a serious restaurant. These days, it usually doesn’t." He pauses to lavish some kind words on an omelet, but then it's back to bashing: "Shouldn’t a diner paying $38 for sea scallops get more than two, situated at opposite ends of a long hillock of sautéed snow pea leaves? Maybe that’s enough for a businessperson having a light lunch on a big expense account. For anyone else, it isn’t." Kill the rich! Zero stars!
Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice tries out Curry-Ya, a "slightly upscale" Japanese curry restaurant in the East Village. (The review comes with two interesting paragraphs on the history of Japanese curry: "It was brought to the island by the British sometime after 1869.") To Sietsema, the place is a "curry laboratory" that unevenly "deconstructs" the cuisine. But it sounds fun, because "each set meal comes with four miniature glass beakers containing substances to be strewn over your curry." Also in the Voice, Sarah DiGregorio enjoys Peaches Market, a Southern-style cafe in Bed-Stuy: "Although the food could be better, it is also, on balance, just good enough to let the place work its charm. Happily, if there's one thing the kitchen excels at consistently, it's deep-frying."
For NY Mag, Adam Platt chimes in on Tudor City Italian restaurant Convivio, lauding the "pyrotechnics of the meal... It’s in the realm of pastas that Chef Michael White demonstrates why he’s become known, in certain Rabelaisian circles, as midtown’s answer to Mario Batali. Like Batali, the rotund, gregarious chef is a voracious scholar of regional Italian cuisine. And like Batali, he has the ability to take classic recipes and imbue them with his own combination of lightness and soul." Danyelle Freeman at the Daily News has a great review of La Superior, the new Williamsburg Mexican joint that took over the space vacated by the abysmal Kate's Brooklyn satellite. She calls it "sublime Mexican street food with the luxury of a roof and a scattering of small tables."
The Sun's Paul Adams is also on the street food beat, filing a mixed review on haute Latin street food restaurant Macondo: "Every item on the menu is priced in a narrow range of around $10, but some are mere nibbles, while others are dinner-size... It's a fun menu to explore. For all its stylistic variation, the steady repetition of elements such as beef, figs, and mushrooms can get a little dreary, especially in the absence of bright, spicier complements. But this is a party-minded snacking restaurant, not one for deep study."
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That's Michael's review is hilarious.
Michael's was never seen as a good restaurant or a serious restaurant: it was always expensive and exclusive, known more for who ate there than what was on the menu. (Name a single Chef of note who cooked there.) Some people with more money than taste will always prefer that kind of place.