Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Review Roundup

This week Frank Bruni at the Times takes his turn with L'Artusi (photos), the plus-size Greenwich Village twin to the dainty, crowded dell'Anima. Bruni doesn't hate it like NY Mag's Adam Platt, but it's definitely a mixed review: "They have gone not only bigger—with nearly 115 seats, L’Artusi is more than twice the size of dell’Anima—but also bolder, and the uneven results are a lesson in overextension. If they turned a more skeptical eye to some of Mr. Thompson’s inventions, edited the menu to about two-thirds its current length and focused harder on the execution of what remained, they’d have an excellent restaurant. As it is, they have a fitfully enjoyable one." The New Yorker's review is also mixed, and notes that "the décor has an identity crisis."

Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice has a reasonably good time at Williamsburg's La Superior, which he thinks "represents an assimilated take on Mexican food, consciously inventing a kind of Gothamite-Mexican cuisine." Meanwhile, his colleague Sarah DiGregorio says the far side of Queens, particularly Floral Park, has some of the best Indian food in town: "It's difficult to get to Floral Park (a bus runs from midtown or from the F train's last stop in Queens), but these restaurants are worth a trip. In a hard economy, it's a pleasure to support mom-and-pop joints that cook such soulful, rooted (and affordable) food."

The Daily News's Danyelle Freeman mostly loves the "modern Spanish" restaurant La Fonda del Sol in the MetLife Building (judging strictly by the food they served at the opening party, we're inclined to agree), giving it four out of five stars: "If you want to eat really well, go to the back room. That's where you really sense [chef Josh] DeChellis' talents... La Fonda del Sol is an odd oasis in a midtown desert. People love it for what is: a convenient stop on your way to the train or a great escape after work. For me, it was a great place to rediscover a talented chef."