Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Review Roundup

This week the Times's interim chief dining critic Pete Wells takes a hammer to deservedly acclaimed chef Michael Psilakis, whose latest venture, Gus & Gabriel, is inspired by the culinary tastes of his son, TGI Friday's, and whiskey. Wells's review is disastrous, which means it's a fun read: "When three children under age 10 leave their milkshakes almost untouched, you know there’s trouble." The restaurant's "colossal misfires are almost impossible to believe and harder still to explain." Specifically: "Almost every chef in town is experimenting with techniques for building a better burger. Mr. Psilakis may be the only one to have perfected a new technology that magically strips out all the taste. The skin on what is advertised as 'crispy chicken' was as crisp as a balloon, and the biscuits on the plate were wet and doughy, as if the cook had decided halfway through that he would rather make dumplings."

The New Yorker's Leo Carey also files on Gus & Gabriel. His review skews positive, but begins with a manifesto: "No more gastropubs!... As a term, 'gastropub' is in danger of coming to mean 'food for reasonably affluent young people who don’t really care about food (or their waistline).' That said, Michael Psilakis’s new gastropub, tucked into a tricky space just off Broadway, is far better than many." Meanwhile, Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice says the food at Flushing's Golden Palace is pure gold: "The minute the free bowls of spicy pickled daikon and oiled bean sprouts hit the table, feeling very much like Korean pan chan, you know you're in for a culinary treat of major proportions."

New York's Adam Platt gets around to The Standard Grill (photos) and finds that "as restaurant factories go... it's an impressive operation... The chef is Dan Silverman (formerly of the defunct Lever House restaurant, uptown), and he has cannily constructed his one-page 'American Bistro' menu to suit a range of currently trendy tastes... I saw Ben Stiller poking at his radishes one evening. The next night there was Anna Wintour, resplendent in a watermelon-colored cardigan, waiting stoically for her friends in the same crescent-shaped banquette." However! "The life expectancy of a chic food factory in the meatpacking district is notoriously short, and despite its ingenious design, the Standard Grill is already showing signs of trouble. If you sit outside, the wait between courses can last into the evening, and the clamorously narrow bar area is generally uninhabitable after 6 p.m."