The New Yorker's Lauren Collins gets around to paella hotspot Socarrat, which you may recall Frank Bruni swooning over some months ago. Collins's praise is comparatively muted: "The paellas are meant for two or more, depending on how big you like your piece of the pie. The Valenciana version suffers a bit for its lack of saffron and a surfeit of grease; here, the nuggets of rabbit loin are the buried treasure." And Brett Stetka at the L Magazine is reasonably satisfied with Carroll Gardens newcomer Watty and Meg, although, "as a general word of caution, avoid the seafood: the salmon with quinoa couscous is boring, and our garlic shrimp had an unidentifiable chemistry lab tingle to it. BUT, all this is moot, because you should really just get the burger, which was better than anything else we tried."

GQ's Alan Richman reviews three new pizza restaurants: Emporio in Nolita, Tonda in the East Village, and Ignazio’s in Brooklyn, where things do not go well: "We asked for two pies, and 25 minutes later the waitress came by and told us our order had been misplaced and the cooking was about to begin. The good news: She said our root beers were on the house. The bad news: The pies finally showed up. The crusts were hard, flat, bland... The bacon was flavorful and crunchy, the tomato again disappointing, and the cold avocado slices particularly inappropriate. They sat aloof, wanting nothing to do with the other ingredients. I could sympathize. I wanted nothing to do with Ignazio’s."

NYMag's Undergound Gourmet loves Williamsburg Argentine restaurant El Almacén. Take "the avocado fries, for one thing. These generously panko-crumbed morsels are butter-soft inside, with an audibly crunchy shell, and are served with a sauce that tastes, in a good way, like chile-spiked ketchup. They’re as toothsome a snack as you’ll find anywhere." And Danyelle Freeman at the Daily News adores Bubby's in Tribeca, which just began operating 24/7: "The real fun of eating at Bubby's these days is eating late at night. On a recent Wednesday night, every bar stool was taken by young, downtown types. One guy sitting at the bar - done in soda counter-style with swivel stools and a copper-surfaced top - was having a martini and a meat loaf."