Anthos Gets a Rave; More Knocks for MorandiRandall Lane gives Anthos its first full-out rave, granting the restaurant five of six stars and writing about it in adoring terms. It’s a rare move for Lane, and a good omen for the more powerful critics still to come. [TONY]
At times, Alan Richman likes the food at Morandi a lot, but when it’s late and the place gets busy, he considers it to be a kind of restaurant hell. He won’t be going back after 9 p.m. “any time in my life.” [Bloomberg]
Paul Adams felt much the same about Morandi, calling out its fine fried foods but dissing its heavy pastas, “theme park” atmosphere, and lousy entrées. It’s unanimous: The critics all dislike Morandi. Meanwhile, Keith McNally is crying all the way to the bank. [NYS]
Related: Not So Bene [NYM]
The Other Critics
‘New Yorker’ Backs Up the Chowhounds; Sietsema Uncovers a FoodThe New Yorker discovers Sripraphai, and though baffled by its vast and uneven menu, admits that the chowhounds were right to glorify the place. [NYer]
Sietsema provides his readers with a major service this week, guiding them through one of the city’s best and most baffling food courts in the Flushing’s J&L Mall [VV]
Rosanjin gets the two-star Bruni treatment in its first review, and seems to only have missed a third star by reason of anticlimactic later courses. Still, an auspicious start. [NYT]
The Other Critics
Everybody Loves Sfoglia; Meehan Loves All BBQBruni two-stars Sfoglia, the latest victory in a series for the Nantucket import, including nods from Adam Platt and Gael Greene in our Best of New York issue. The food is simple and rustic (frittatas, simple pastas), but it works for Bruni. Imagination can get you two stars, as the Ssäm Bar review showed last week, but so can execution, even if it isn’t very elaborate. [NYT]
Peter Meehan surveys nearly all the area’s BBQ restaurants, finding a lot to like: the pulled pork at Pies-N-Thighs and the burnt ends at RUB, to name two. Still, no revelations here. [NYT]
Sietsema hits up a Senegalese restaurant in Harlem: “Predictably, the dibi is awesome.” You said it, Bob! Has Sietsema ever met a foreign lamb dish he didn’t like? [VV]
Openings
New Restaurants? Why, Yes, I’d Like to Hear About Those
Rob and Robin round up an intriguing set of openings this week: Rosanjin, the Kyoto-themed sushi restaurant whose delivery service we wrote up in October; Kobe Club, the steakhouse that wound up not hiring Josh DeChellis, as we reported a couple weeks back; and wine-centric Varietal, tony Dennis Foy, and Gus’s Place, which just has a new location, as well as two others we’ll let you discover.
Restaurant Openings: Rosanjin, Varietal, Dennis Foy, Kobe Club, Gus’s Place, Fireside, and Brooklyn Label [NYM]
Openings
Haute Japanese Puts Delivery Cart Before Restaurant Horse
It’s no great hardship living in Tribeca and points south, but the quality of life just inched up even further thanks to a new high-end Japanese delivery service, Rosanjin, which debuted this month (call 212-346-7999). In a novel marketing twist, the service presages a restaurant set to open at 141 Duane Street in a few weeks, and the food is in fact excellent. The Kyoto-style dishes are very good — notably a sushi roll wrapped in a diaphanous egg crêpe, and a standout piece of braised freshwater eel. And the vessels, made from folded oribe paper and Japanese cedar, are a cut above. The sales patter on the Website, though, is a little over the top:
“Rosanjin is a Japanese food service that encompasses all that is beautiful and pristine about Japanese cuisine … Our Authentic menu caters to those who desire a traditional Japanese dining experience that is served in ceremonial splendor … Rosanjin delivers each meal wrapped like a gift to reflect the beauty of the food. It is a wonder to taste and see.”
Okay, Rosanjin, we get it! We’re peeling off 100 dollar bills now. But even Tribeca millionaires don’t want to be leaned on that hard.
Rosanjin, 151 Duane St., nr. W. Broadway, 212-346-7999.