Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Review Roundup
The John Dory (Katie Sokoler)
Frank Bruni revisits Daniel for the Times after its facelift, and lets the restaurant keep its status as one of only five places in town deemed worthy of all four stars by the paper of record: "Daniel...is the most universal member of this exalted clan, to the extent that 'universal' can be applied to any restaurant charging $105 for three courses. That’s a lot of money, and not just in lean times. But you get a lot for it. In fact there are moments during a meal at Daniel when you may well wonder why it isn’t more expensive." (Ah, to have an expense account!) In the Times's $25 and Under column, Dave Cook recommends three good, affordable restaurants influenced by South American cuisine.
Steve Cuozzo at the Post grabs Jeffrey Chodorow's new "organically obsessed" steakhouse Center Cut (photos) and shakes it like Johnny Fontane: "The house needs Don Corleone to slap it silly and say: 'You can act like a steakhouse.' Center Cut undercuts itself like it's paid by the blooper." But it's not all bad: "On my most recent visit, for the first time, wine by the glass wasn't sour." And Danyelle Freeman at the Daily News loves those $13 cocktails at Macao Trading Co (photos)., the Portuguese/Chinese restaurant in Tribeca from the owners of Employees Only. The food, not so much: "Instead of a fusion of Chinese and Portuguese food, there's an uneasy negotiation between the two cuisines." But the sticky rice is good!
And Kate Julian at The New Yorker has mixed feelings about Dirt Candy, that sleek little vegetarian place on East 9th Street: "Many of [chef Amanda Cohen's] dishes are so earnest in their embrace of a single ingredient that you find yourself stopping to really think about that vegetable, as if for the first time. This is true of the portobello mousse, a dense, comforting cube topped with a pile of grilled mushroom slices. But if the candy-colored carrot risotto reminds you just how sweet and rich carrots can be, it can be exhausting for the same reason."
