After his West Village Mexican restaurant Empellón racked up some quality reviews (noise not withstanding) nobody should be surprised that former WD-50 pastry chef Alex Stupak decided to go for a sequel. And now it has arrived. On Tuesday night Empellón Cocina opened in the old Counter space on First Avenue (yup, Counter finally kicked it). But don't expect any tacos at this one. more ›

Sam Sifton may be stepping down as the Times' food critic but he's still got a few more reports to file first. So today we get a pleasant one-star review of the Pilsner Urquell-friendly Czech restaurant Hospoda that lives beneath the Consulate General of the Czech Republic. The food is good, the beer is remarkable considering there is only one type and "everything is prepared delicately, stylishly, the big flavors made demure by featherweight sizes, emphasizing modern presentation over traditional ones." more ›

Alex Stupak's West Village Mexican restaurant Empellon "needs sound-dampening fabric or ceiling panels in much the same way Greece needs cash," says The Times's Sam Sifton in his one-star review of the joint. Luckily the "The restaurant’s food and drink are a balm for nerves scraped raw by its din." Just "Spoon melted Jack cheese topped with morels and garlicky guaje seeds into a warm tortilla from the Nixtamal shop out in Queens. Eat that pillow of intense and vaguely sweet earthiness: swoon." So basically go for the food but bring earplugs. Or, as Sifton does, "Hope this place makes it"—at least long enough for Stupak to better sound proof the Counter space when he takes it over for another Empellon this fall. For what it is worth, the restaurant says the deafening noise problem should be "fixed in the next few weeks." more ›

Professional eater Sam Sifton at the New York Times is not a fan of Rogan-loving Top Chef alum Sam Talbot's SoHo fish restaurant Imperial No. 9. So much so that today he refrains from giving the restaurant any stars whatsoever. The problem, you see, is consistency. Even when a dish appears at one visit to be "a cairn stacked high in the middle of a vast moor of culinary mediocrity," on another visit, well, at least it's "not rancid!" When a restaurant priding itself on fresh ocean fare serves fish like that, there's a problem. "Not that anyone eating at Imperial No. Nine really appears to care," since "The vibe of its ficus-filled, chandelier-bedecked, glass-sculpture-bisected greenhouse dining room is more social than cultural or gastronomic." more ›

After Ryan Sutton gushed over it last week, Timesman Sam Sifton heads to the unattractive restaurant Tenpenny in the Gotham hotel and comes out with the same opinion. While it "is not the prettiest restaurant, nor does it offer diners a compelling reason to visit beyond the promise of good food in a weird environment," you want to go and and eat there so you can "imagine yourself telling friends how you used to eat the chef Chris Cipollone’s food back when he was cooking in that grim hotel space in Midtown." If Tenpenny were "in Brooklyn or on Avenue A, you might have already heard about it from your coolest friend, and you would probably have to wait in a long line to get in and pay for your meal in cash. Here in dead-at-night Midtown, at the heart of the city’s grid, you can simply call for a reservation." more ›

The Times this week sends Sam Sifton to review Alfred Portale's 27-year-old classic Gotham Bar and Grill and, for the fourth time, the restaurant walks away with a very solid three-star review. The restaurant "celebrates stability and excellence, perhaps even opulence," yet it continues to offer up surprising new twists while keeping the old standards up to snuff. For instance the seafood salad, which has been getting raves for decades, "still tastes terrific." And despite being "very expensive, almost aggressively so," the restaurant thankfully does not care to tell you the provenance of the wild arugula on your plate: "A meal at Gotham is about you and your interests, not of those who made it." more ›