Writing for the Times, Frank Bruni calls the wine and charcuterie restaurant Bar Boulud (pictured) “a terrine machine, a pâté-a-palooza, dedicated to the proposition that discerning New Yorkers aren’t getting nearly enough concentrated, sculptured, gelatinous animal fat” and awards it two stars. Bruni also revisits Fiamma and calls the owners out for jacking up prices by 20% just days after he rated it three stars.
The Post’s Steve Cuozzo says the critical raving about the new Upper West Side restaurant Dovetail is all hype, “just for being on the Upper West Side, a district long regarded as culinarily barren. [Dovetail's] featureless, cramped and noisy dining rooms have the appeal of a broom closet.” About the clam chowder that Adam Platt of New York magazine declared the best in town, Cuozzo “quit after a few viscous spoonfuls with an ominous undertaste.”
And speaking of hype, the Times spot checks the trend toward increased chef-diner interaction, as exemplified by the new David Chang 13-seat restaurant Momofuku Ko, where diners sit at a counter as Chang experiments with a “service-free” environment. But there are complications with that, as Chang concedes his “chefs haven’t yet figured out how to serve wine or guard the door,” or, apparently, manage the internet-only reservation system, which crashed yesterday during its debut.
