Bruni hits Jean Georges' "fringe players," Mercer Kitchen and Vong. Between the two, Vong emerges victorious with one star: "you keep wondering if the food they deliver is really as it should be and all that it could be, if the restaurant is receiving Mr. Vongerichten’s most considered judgments . . ." while Mercer Kitchen rates a mere "satisfactory": Bruni calls their menu an "ethnically indistinct assortment of dishes with enough pro forma salads and......

I tend to go to restaurants soon after their grand openings expecting to see good indications of the future of a place. I have long believed that if a restaurant is open and accepting money you should be able to expect that you will get your money's worth. I just don't accept "we just opened" as a reason for poor execution. There are many ways a place can control chaos as they get up to......

From April 18 through April 22, Brooklyn will have its own restaurant week with 3-course meals priced at $18.98, a nod to 1898, the year Brooklyn joined Manhattan. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said of the 93 restaurants (from 20 neighborhoods) participating, "Trust me, when any of these restaurants see me coming in they have a smile on their face - and that's not because I'm the borough president, if you know what I mean."......