This week Sam Sifton at the Times files an unenthusiastic one star review on the flashy Bryant Park location of Charlier Palmer's Aureole. Palmer, a restaurant impresario who made his bones in the kitchen of the River Cafe, relocated his well-liked restaurant from the Upper East Side to the new Bank of America building this summer.

The result is "meh," says Sifton. "The bulk of the business is out in the bar, which takes up much of the restaurant’s space. It’s loud out there, informal in the corporate sense of the word: men with their jackets off, their striped shirts shiny, their watches big, all of them eating burgers, sliders, fries, draining beer, smiling at clients, on the sell. It’s a tough scene. At every table someone’s either shouting or lap dancing his phone. It’s an extremely good hamburger, though..."

The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema submits a mixed review on Abe & Arthur's, the big "comfort food" restaurant in the Meatpacking District that used to be Lotus. "The lobster bisque was crustacean perfection, a deeply pink broth that the waiter poured from a pitcher over a generous wad of fluffy white meat dotted with chives," reports Sietsema. "It made you stop and wonder—how do they deliver such a bowl of soup for only $9?... You'd do well to make a meal of apps. Not that the mains aren't also good—they're just not a good deal." His colleague Sarah DiGregorio, meanwhile, discovers that Laut, in Union Square, is "actually a very fine Malaysian restaurant masquerading as a horrible pan-Asian joint."

Leo Carey at the New Yorker files on insufferably artisanal Carroll Gardens restaurant Prime Meats: "The wood panelling and large antique bar are beautifully finished, there are gas lamps, and behind the bar is a nest of antique punch bowls (the punch changes daily). Waiters look as if they’d auditioned for Deadwood; their uniform includes braces and waistcoats, and facial hair seems to be compulsory. And cocktails abound with recherché ingredients like homemade Buddha’s-hand bitters; they are a standout, even in the context of the current cocktail renaissance...The restaurant is bound to delight the Franks’ fans, but, if there’s a weak link, it’s the food."