The Mark Restaurant, another venture from chef/brand Jean-Georges Vongerichten, is a "welcome addition to the Upper East Side," writes Times critic Sam Sifton in his two star review. Located in The Mark hotel, the dining room "lies behind a small bar filled with low-slung pony-skin chairs. Older men unsure of how they’re going to get out of them sit there, pondering the issue over vodka as cubs and cougars banter and text. Dinner seems unlikely. Past them, though, down a dark corridor that doubles as a modernist wine cellar, a very good restaurant blooms."

Vongerichten's other new local restaurant, ABC Kitchen (located inside ABC Carpet & Home on 18th Street), gets even more love from other critics today. Time Out's Jay Cheshes awards it five out of five stars, deeming it "a stunner... Though the restaurant’s sustainable ethos is outlined on the back of the menu like an Al Gore polemic, the cooking, based on the most gorgeous ingredients from up and down the East Coast, delivers one message above all: Food that’s good for the planet needn’t be any less opulent, flavorful or stunning to look at. It’s haute green cuisine." The Post's Steve Cuozzo (or as he's known among the Lakota, "He Who Yells at Clouds") is less enraptured (he hates the "flimsy" chairs, the "leathery, juiceless, joyless" pork chops) but declares that ABC Kitchen could make a tyrannosaurus — or even a carnivorous critic — give up meat and fish. Its best dishes contain neither."

The Village Voice's Sarah DiGregorio says The Fatty 'Cue, Zak Pelaccio's smoky new joint in Williamsburg, is "simple but ingenious—quality meat smoked low and slow, plus Southeast Asian ingredients like lemongrass, chilies, palm syrup, fish sauce, galangal, and so on." But such small portions! "Yes, these ingredients are thoughtfully sourced, and the meat comes from responsible, eco-friendly purveyors, but from a customer's point of view, it feels like a rip-off, especially when the vibe of the place is so pointedly casual." Meanwhile, her colleague Robert Sietsema says Murray Hill restaurant Talent Thai Kitchen is "one of the city's best Thais."