Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Review Roundup

"Some restaurants are time machines," writes Times critic Sam Sifton in his perceptive two star review of the elegant "modern French, Asian-accented" restaurant SHO Shaun Hergatt, which opened in 2009 down the block from the New York Stock Exchange. "SHO Shaun Hergatt, the strange and occasionally terrific restaurant on the second floor of a condominium building in the financial district, even looks like one, down to the elevator that whisks you up from the lobby. Diners enter this simple metal box in 2010, talking about the beating Goldman Sachs took in the markets on Friday. They emerge in the late 1990s, Goldman still privately held, the economy booming in a city where restaurants reflected the excess. This calls for Champagne!" Meanwhile, Ligaya Mishin at the Times checks out the new location of No. 7 Sub in the Ace Hotel lobby. She says the sandwiches are, "for the most part, delicious—exhilaratingly so."

"Have you ever loved a restaurant that was—how shall we say it?—not quite up to your standards of hygiene?" asks the Village Voice's Robert Sietsema. "Such was the case with the old Pies-N-Thighs... While the old Pies-N-Thighs seemed frowsy and downright filthy, the new place is totally spick-and-span, with cream-colored walls, red wainscoting, and a décor that—were you set down blindfolded by a spaceship—you'd think was in some North Carolina town... First things first: The fabled fried chicken at Pies-N-Thighs remains superlative ($10, with a biscuit and one side). "

Time Out's Jay Cheshes gives three out of five stars to Pies-N-Thighs, conceding that "a good deal of the cooking lives up to the hype. But the sub-par barbecue and the setting—harsh lights and cramped seats don’t invite lingering—may leave you wondering if the buildup to opening might have been better spent. For now, the new Pies-N-Thighs, like the old one, might be best experienced as a takeout spot."

Sietsema's Voice colleague Sarah DiGregorio files on the Upper West Side's Tangled Vine Wine Bar & Kitchen, which "looks like a nightmarish Greek restaurant in a suburban mall. But the place has two things to recommend it: First, a thoughtful old-world wine list that focuses on sustainable, organic, and biodynamic bottles, and second, some very fine Spanish-accented cooking by Dave Seigal, formerly of the Catalan restaurant Mercat. The food is not particularly ambitious, but it's pleasurably simple, wine-friendly, squarely hitting those salty-rich-tart-fresh buttons."

"The concept of small plates is a nice one: you get to share a bunch of things and maybe spend a little less money," asserts The New Yorker's Andrea Thompson. "In practice, you rarely get the table space to accommodate all those dishes, or a staging of courses that is precise enough to keep flavors from getting muddied and food from getting cold, or, once the waiter suggests two or three items per diner, the diminutive bill that you hoped for. Still, at Recette, which took over the Jarnac space in the West Village, the opportunity to range over the inventive menu is welcome, even if you wind up employing balletic skill to keep a plate from sliding into your lap."

And Torrisi Italian Specialties, a casual Italian-American restaurant on Mulberry Street, gets a rave review from New York: "Nothing could have prepared us for dinner at Torrisi Italian Specialties. For one thing, the four-course, Sunday-supper-ish meal is served six nights a week—a feat that even Grandma in her prime couldn’t pull off. For another, after it’s all over, you won’t find yourself drifting off into a dyspeptic slumber on a plastic-wrapped couch in front of the television; instead, you’re compulsively checking the website for the next night’s menu. At $45, dinner’s a tremendous bargain, and a serious delight. In the realm of red-sauce cooking, it’s nothing short of revolutionary." And now you can seriously forget about getting a table!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on April 21, 2010 9:04 AM

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austinscottbrooks

I recently had a chance to eat there. I thought the food was great. I recently wrote a blog post about it on New York City neighborhood blog check it out!