Ciano, the East 22nd Street Italian restaurant helmed by chef Shea Gallante (Cru) gets an enthusiastic two star review from Sam Sifton in the Times this week. Sifton says Gallante's food "is ambitious, beautiful and flavor packed, a kind of Italian home cooking made grand and attractive, rich as Berlusconi, not as oily. It is less precious, less purposefully fancy, less aggressively upscale than what he was putting forth at Cru, where he cooked until 2009 and which closed last year...He isn’t trying so hard. And Ciano is exciting for that." Sifton also notes that the restaurant's policy of selling half bottles of wine "offers exciting possibilities. It is a tricky business, though, like getting a deal on a car. It does not favor the amateur or the neophyte. Those half bottles sold, after all, lead to half bottles that need to be sold."

Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice praises Caliu Tapas for its "low noise level and unexpectedly low wine prices... The deep, narrow room boasts a small bar up front, a larger dining room in back, and an open kitchen where nothing much ever seems to happen. As if some Satanic mass had just been interrupted, votives flicker eerily on every surface and in niches. According to a definition scrawled on the wall, the name means: 'Hot ashes. The feeling of warmth. What's left from a feeling, passion, or affection,' which makes it sound like a great spot for breaking up."

The Post's Steve Cuozzo has mixed feelings about hot new Thai restaurant Lotus of Siam. In a review headlined, "Lotus In A Good Position," Cuozzo says he's had "the best Thai dishes I've ever had in New York. Electrifyingly spiced and boasting quality raw materials rarely seen in local Southeast Asian restaurants, they lived up to their promise as spawn of chef Saipin Chutima's Las Vegas original." However! "I also tripped over what seemed like Thai Takeout 101... Dim lighting isn't romantic, it's depressing. Certain corners are Stygian, making it impossible to appreciate, or see, the colorful dishes." New York's Adam Platt is also on the scene, and declares the food "transcendent."

Ryan Sutton at Bloomberg is satisfied with the John Dory Oyster Bar. Chef April Bloomfield "could easily have drawn a packed house with fried calamari, lobster rolls and burgers," says Sutton. "Instead she challenges the senses with idiosyncratic, ingenious dishes that disregard borders. This is the chef whose only burger comes with Roquefort at The Spotted Pig and who serves beef pies spiked with pungent Stilton at The Breslin. So it goes that her reincarnated The John Dory in the Ace Hotel doesn’t dumb down seafood to make it taste like steak. Here, fish tastes like fish." Time Out's Jay Cheshes is even more impressed, rating it four out of five stars.

And Dave Cook at the Times pens this week's $25 and Under column, recommending Astoria's buffet-style eatery Point Brazil, which on the first Saturday of every month serves street food specialties from Bahia, the coastal state in northeastern Brazil. The "enticing hot and cold buffet, however, is offered all month long... The buffet’s greatest strength is not vastness — though there’s plenty to choose from — but freshness. Rarely does a pan run low."