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Oceana
"Those crab legs are ridiculously good," says Sifton. "Those who order carefully can partake of fabulous meals... But if the Oceana of old was a pleasant, shipshape room with elegant food and a caring touch, the new version is a high-functioning luxury mill, designed to service pre-theater crowds and to celebrate corporate success on expense-account dimes. It is in some ways a very good restaurant. But the room ensures that it is not entirely a pleasant one."
Meanwhile, Ligaya Mishan at the Times says Umi Nom in Bed-Stuy "serves artfully composed small plates of Asian comfort food, elevated by technique but primal in appeal."
The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema is in his element in Flushing, rhapsodizing about the Chinese M & T Restaurant on Kissena Boulevard, which serves cuisine from Shandong, a northern province "that had once harbored a German 'concession.'... Corn is a surprise component of the menu, represented by 'sautéed pine nuts and corn'($7.99). 'I can't believe I'm eating Chinese,' exclaimed one tablemate, as she eyed a mountain of yellow kernels, toasted pignoli nuts, Kirby cukes, and red bell peppers that might have been mistaken for American succotash...Every visit to M & T proved a revelation."
The New Yorker's Andrea Thompson expects more from West Village Italian wine bar Quinto Quarto, where "everything is taken as a sign of authenticity. There are tables full of Italian speakers; the manager sends off regular customers with a kiss on the cheek and 'Buona sera'!...Yet if appearances point mostly to excellence—particularly the atmospheric space, previously occupied by AOC Bedford, with its cozy brick and old-Italia artifacts—there are occasional unsettling portents. The waiter who disappears halfway through service. Dishes that suddenly become unavailable. The pizza-delivery guy who shows up with two large pepperoni pies for the staff. Perhaps it was fatigue—Friday night, nearly closing time—but the food appeared alarmingly slapdash."
Steve Cuozzo at the Post raves about A Voce Columbus (photos), the new Time Warner Center location of the Flatiron district A Voce: "[Chef Missy] Robbins brings rare, exacting discipline to every dish. Even so, her liberated way with what pretentious 'experts' want 'Italian' food to be drives them batty. They won’t allow Italian chefs the interpretive license expected of French and Japanese ones. Last week, the Wall Street Journal snidely sniffed that halibut, on the menus of A Voce and Marea, 'does not swim in the Mediterranean.' Well, it doesn’t swim in the Seine, either — but are Le Bernardin and Restaurant Daniel not legitimately French because they serve it along with Maine lobster?"
And Time Out's Jay Cheshes gives Chelsea's Travertine three out of five stars: "While so many restaurants these days are scaling back on propriety, Travertine amps it up. A waiter in a quirky bow tie (more Alex P. Keaton than Jeeves) delivers an amuse-bouche (silky butternut squash soup) to begin and petits four (house-made truffles) to finish. [Chef Manuel] Trevino has exacting aesthetics that are aligned with this brand of pretense; though the food’s pretty simple, his presentations are intricate."
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