This week Sam Sifton files the first four star review of his nearly year-long tenure. If you're in the restaurant industry, this is a big fucking deal. His precious stars go to Mario Batali's Del Posto, which is the first Italian restaurant to get a four-star ranking in The Times since John Canaday’s review of Parioli Romanissimo in 1974. And this makes Del Posto one of only seven restaurants currently ranked four star by the Times. Sifton's predecessor Frank Bruni gave Del Posto three stars when it opened in 2006, and Sifton says, "Del Posto is now among the very best restaurants in New York City... [Chef Mark] Ladner’s pastas are insanely good." (Last night, Batali tweeted, "Holy shitaly!!! We just got 4 stars from the NY TIMES for del Posto!!")

In his review of Dutch restaurant Vandaag, the Village Voice's Robert Sietsema reveals, "I've always believed there's no such thing as Dutch cuisine. As a Dutch-surnamed American, I've had to live with that... 'This place smells like airline food,' my companion sniffed as we walked in the door... On subsequent visits, my fellow diners and I began to understand Vandaag better, and even came to love its inherent quirkiness. Out of curiosity, we began digging for stuff that was actually Dutch. Bitterballen ($10) sounds like a love act with a perturbed partner, but it's really a quartet of spherical oxtail croquettes—dabbed with a mustardy sauce, and quite delicious." Sietsema's Voice colleague Sarah DiGregorio loves just about everything at Xiao Ye, particularly the Poontang potstickers.

Time Out gives three stars to Thistle Hill Tavern, "the most recent addition to South Slope’s growing culinary cosmos...At first glance... it appears to be another example of the borough’s navel-gazing nostalgia. The cozy interior feels like a temple to turn-of-the-20th-century Brooklyn (dark wood, antique maps, black-and-white photos), and the seasonal New American angle—with its earnest balance of meat, fish and vegetarian-friendly offerings—is a predictable match. What’s not predictable, however, is the accomplished food—at her best, chef Rebecca Weitzman, an ’inoteca alum and winner of Food Network’s Chopped, produces dishes that are too good to be bound by a single zip code."

Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton wonders, "What kind of fairy-tale world begat Nuela, a glitzy, global-Latin mess hall that dabbles in South American, French, Italian and Asian cuisines?" But here he enjoys a "milky" whole hog for $250, and "a mind-numbingly good paella, undercut by a mind- numbing absurdity: Mathematically challenged staff, perhaps to instigate fights over the last bite, brought three dulce du leche cookies as a parting gift for my party of two, then four cookies for our party of three, then zero on a final visit, which was for the best because they’re tooth-achingly sweet."

And Oliver Strand at the Times likes lunch at midtown's Onya, which "functions like a fast food joint. Order, sit, slurp and be back at your desk before your computer logs you off. The efficiency plays well in Midtown, but the pace obscures the craft that goes into each bowl. The udon are made fresh with Japanese flour and cooked until koshi — the supple yet elastic texture of the ideal noodle."