Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Reviews

This week Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni re-reviews Momofuku Ssam Bar, part of chef David Chang's New York empire, which you'll recall includes the impossible-to-get-into Momofuku Ko. There's a new chef at Ssam since Bruni awarded the place two stars in '07, and now he bumps it up to a lofty triple. The opening paragraph sums up his case: "If you’ve had just about all of the fawning over David Chang that you can take, think about how those of us dishing out the praise feel. We’d love to move on to a more original object of adoration and would be happy to pronounce him overrated or just plain over...But he won’t let us."

Besides reviewing Ssam, the Times Dining section attended the Lewboski Fest two weeks ago and now drops a deluxe feature explaining to the square community why the White Russian's so hot right now. (Fun video.) For the Village Voice, Robert Sietsema reviews the NYC outpost of the Óbiká Mozzarella Bar in the atrium of the IBM building. The cheese is fine, the location not so much: "Just like the Roman Óbiká, the New York place is situated in a paved courtyard—but one that causes us to reflect on how joyless the city's modern public spaces are as compared to those in Rome." And Sarah DiGregorio at the Voice says BarBao, Michael Huynh's new Vietnamese restaurant on the Upper West Side, is "interesting to look at" and Huynh's "vibrant cooking...gives the place soul." The Post's Steve Cuozzo was similarly "thrilled on every visit."

Danyelle Freeman at the Daily News bestows four out of five stars on the gorgeous (see for yourself), health-conscious Rouge Tomate: "There are 393 calories in the rabbit Fleischnacke at Rouge Tomate. The nutritionist counted. How many restaurants do you know that have a nutritionist?" NY Mag's Adam Platt enjoys Carroll Gardens's bourbon and smoked meat mecca Char No. 4 (The New Yorker, too), but slams David Bouley's Secession (which Freeman adored): "If you remember the great chef from those glory years, you might want to avoid this tired, connect-the-dots performance altogether."