This week the Times's Pete Wells (filling in before incoming chief dining critic Sam Sifton takes the reins) reviews Hotel Griffou, the trendy speakeasy-style restaurant from veterans of the Waverly Inn, Freemans and La Esquina. He finds the plating "scattershot" and the service "wildly inconsistent." But the place "does have its allures. Each dining room has a different motif, as if the restaurant were trying to ignite a collect-them-all frenzy. A friend described the Library as 'very man-cavey,' outfitted with wooden ducks, a manual typewriter, a fiddle, a saddle, shelves filled with law books, a football that looks as if it was in play when F. Scott Fitzgerald was at Princeton, and four fox pelts." The Times also has a roundup of the new street food vendors, just in time for the Vendys this weekend. more ›

In his farewell from restaurant critic duties, the New York Times' Frank Bruni offers answers to reader question questions: For instance, in answering, "What's the best sushi place? Masa is the "absolute best" but acknowledging the $400/person price is steep, he offers Sushi Yasuda where you can have "a wonderfully intimate, pampering omakase experience...for under $100 a person... Still a major treat, but much, much more manageable." Steakhouses: For "a certain corny, musky ambience," go with Sparks for its strip; for a contemporary ambience, go with Porter House New York or BLT Prime; Keens has a great mutton chop; and while Peter Luger's has an "outstanding porterhouse, but the lights are always too bright and the service usually too gruff." more ›

La Taverna: This unpretentious new Italian-Mediterranean restaurant, located in a former Polish bookstore, opened on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint over the weekend. Owner Robert Tripak, who doubles as the hotel manager at the Da Vinci Hotel in midtown, tells us he came to New York from Poland as a teenager, and his place is the fulfillment of a dream to own a restaurant "that can be affordable and still provide great service." No liquor license yet, but there is an espresso machine behind the bar, and the menu is definitely "affordable"; the only entree over $10 is the grilled steak served with roasted potatoes ($12.95). There is also a mussels marinara, sautéed in a marinara sauce over linguini pasta ($8.45); pork chops stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto, served with mushroom sauce ($8.95); and among the pizzas there's a Mediterranean Pie with spinach, plum tomato, kalamata olives, pesto, feta and parmesan cheese and basil ($6.95/$9.95). 946 Manhattan Avenue; (718) 383-0732 more ›