The second coming of The John Dory—Chef April Bloomfield's and Ken Friedman's The John Dory Oyster Bar at the Ace Hotel—wins plaudits from Sam Sifton at the Times. "The John Dory Oyster Bar is in all a much better restaurant than its forebear, more fully realized in its open, clattering space behind giant windows, with excellent service and a marvelous wine list," Sifton says. "And the food is more sophisticated despite its simplicity: elegant and focused. Ms. Bloomfield is cooking well enough to hold her own against any seafood-centric kitchen in the city." However, a third of the review is devoted to his issues with their no-reservations policy, which results in wait of at least an hour. "All this greatness comes at a cost, which is the time and dignity lost waiting for a table... That tariff rankles. It leads here to exclusivity disguised as populism. Manhattan in a nutshell."

The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema brings word of a good bodega cafe called Cholulita on Broadway, on the border of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick: "While the restaurant's roster of taco fillings is relentlessly meaty, quesadillas ($4), reflecting their proletarian origins, are often stuffed with vegetarian ingredients, including mushrooms, white cheese, refried beans, squash blossoms, and the corn smut called huitlacoche, which has the appearance and texture of squid squirming in its own ink." Back in Manhattan, Time Out's Jay Cheshes is let down by a lack of adventurousness at Shea Gallante's Italian venture Ciano, where the "new menu’s rib-sticking pleasures may be easy to like, but they’re just as easy to forget."

New York's Adam Platt thinks Ciano is fine, but expensive. "'I guess the recession really is over,' said one of my chef friends at the table as we surveyed the selection of pastas, which seemed to grow more elaborate and accomplished (and pricey) each time I dropped in for dinner... The truffle-soaked gnocchi were gummy and overcooked when I ordered them (and $28), but nobody had any complaints about the seafood-rich 'cortecce' noodles (scattered with toasted bread crumbs)... Some of the entrée creations tip inevitably into the realm of the baroque." And Platt likes the food but not the layout at Millesime at the Carlton Hotel on Madison Avenue, "another mellifluously named Continental-minded restaurant."

Ryan Sutton at Bloomberg News deliberately visits chef Michael White's Ai Fiori while White is overseas, because "one of the best measures of an eatery is how well it runs when the globetrotting cook is AWOL... Good thing they know how to recruit an all-star team of deputies. It was Chris Jaeckle, a veteran of Morimoto, who prepared my veal agnolotti, chubby little sachets of beefy bliss counteracted by a smear of butternut squash... Pair them with brown butter-infused rum, courtesy of Eben Freeman, the avant-garde bartender late of the now-closed Tailor. This is all a luxurious, Monte Carlo-esque hybrid of Italian and French Riviera cuisines."

And Dave Cook at the Times throws a spotlight on Gottscheer Hall Tap Room in Ridgewood, where "you can eat well without eating heavy. My first meal was a link of krainerwurst ($5.50), a hot-smoked beef-and-pork sausage, cradled in a slice of rye and topped with house-made sauerkraut — not the stuff of stadium dogs, but a gentler version cooked with onion, bacon, apple and white wine. That accompaniment dresses a crisp schnitzel sandwich (chicken or pork, $6.50), too." The review is accompanied by a terrific photo by Chester Higgins, Jr., so be sure to click through.