Photograph of Mark Simmons, Top Chef contestant and sous-chef at Public, and WD-50 chef and owner Wylie Dufresne The festive factor was running high at last night's Taste of the Lower East Side, the 8th Annual fundraiser for the Grand Street Settlement. Forty neighborhood eateries pitched in to benefit Grand Street's programs that assist low-income Lower East Side residents, and they showcased some of their best dishes for the crowd of well over 1,000......

This week in the Times, Bruni two-stars Allen & Delancey. Loves the atmosphere; says “the food at Allen & Delancey is at once sophisticated and accessible, reliant on fail-safe luxuries deployed in a modestly creative and occasionally playful manner.” Says that in some ways it’s similar to what he did uptown (at Gordon Ramsay at the London) but it works much better in this context. In $25 and Under, "> Peter Meehan goes to Food......

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Sam Mason’s Tailor. Loves the design of the place, and—along with everyone else—the pork belly, the arctic char and the drinks. Overall? “[Mason’s] infatuation with his own imagination doesn’t leave room enough for a self-appraisal of the results… a duck-and-eel terrine in a chocolate consommé tastes like cat food splashed with Yoo-hoo.” Hee. In Dining Briefs, Bruni goes to Toloache. Calls the upscale Mexican restaurant a “welcome addition”......

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Alex Ureña’s Pamploma, gives the restaurant two stars. “Pamplona is Ureña [the chef’s former restaurant] with an attitude adjustment,” he says. “His best dishes are more than memorable enough to redeem Pamplona’s shortcomings.” In the Post, Cuozzo goes to BLT Market, where he finds “Tourondel’s first fully-composed dishes since Cello.” Says the restaurant revives the corner of Sixth Ave and Central Park South, and “What BLT Market......