No Sam Sifton review in the Times this week, but that doesn't mean that most of New York's food critics aren't still on duty, which means we've got some restaurant reviews to parse! Over at the Post Steve Cuozzo dines at Daniel Boulud's latest biggie, Boulud Sud, and leaves the Mediterranean restaurant with a two-and-a-half star review. "There are more flubs than you expect after three months, such as sloppy, sticky baby goat orecchiette," but over all the restaurant is a pleasing, grown-up experience. The decor is "sheer Manhattan-modern" and makes "all look young" and the food? Well "Forget 'Mediterranean'—this is modern-American cookery at its chameleon best, the fish serving as a platform for uncompromised seasoning that doesn't nullify the main event."
The big surprise of the week comes out of the Voice, where Robert Sietsema checks out the food at The Trilby in the Cooper Square Hotel and found its fare to be "unexpectedly grand." After the space floundered under Govind Armstrong and Scott Conant it seems to have found its footing without a celebrity chef. And the food at breakfast, lunch and dinner really ain't bad. The oyster service is "sterling," the carrot cake blows a person away, and the breakfast (think "a stack of blueberry pancakes that easily beat IHOP's, served with a goose egg of good butter and maple syrup") is really good. Only problem seems to be that the service is, well, lacking.
Meanwhile Time Out's Jay Cheshes crashes The Beagle in the East Village and finds "a restaurant that only looks and feels like a bar." All in all though, chef Garrett Eagleton gets three stars from the critic thanks to the fact that the space has "plenty of good things to eat." He explains that the Portland chef's "food embodies all the latest gastro obsessions connecting New York to its soul sister out West—birthplace of Stumptown Coffee, future home of a Frankies Spuntino—celebrating our shared obsessions for house-cured charcuterie and offbeat animal parts, for accessible luxury and things locally sourced." But there are some downsides, as "Eagleton's talents can seem as inconsistent as the Beagle’s premise." So if you go? Skip the fluke, but get the brick-cooked chicken. It is a "blockbuster dish, hiding under its succulent flesh and crackling crisp skin an explosive mix of foie gras, fresh sage and artisanal cheddar."
Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton is a fan of the food at SoHo Spot Niko (it "is downright great") but the place itself? "Eating here can be a deeply unpleasant experience because [owner Cobi] Levy and his team seem to go out of their way to make commoners feel invisible." Want some water? "You must hail Niko's waiters like taxi cabs." Still, the food really is good. "Niko, like Megu and Nobu, is an uber-izakaya of sorts, specializing in anything Japanese and somehow doing it all pretty well, service notwithstanding."
Finally the New Yorker wanders over to the Midtown Korean restaurant Danji for fare that is "neither orthodox ethnic nor smarty-pants fusion. It’s not K-town or Nobu. It’s comfortized Korean served in well-presented tapas portions, by friendly people, in a clean, well-lighted place with a well-tended bar."
