The Other Critics

Bruni Closes the Book on Tailor; Allen & Delancey Gets Good, Not Great, Notices

Bruni waited to be the last one to pronounce on Tailor, and his review pretty much recapitulates, albeit in wittier prose and with some much-appreciated Grub Street love, what everyone else has said: erratic brilliance, wee portions, and a killer cocktail program. The result: one star. [NYT]

Allen & Delancey keeps impressing the critics, at least with chef Neil Ferguson’s meat mastery. His fish, though, is strictly from hunger, according to Restaurant Girl. [NYDN]

Randall Lane offers one of his most thoughtful and precise reviews of Allen & Delancey, finding fault only in flavor balances and the fact that the place has to close up at midnight. [TONY]

Paul Adams appreciated what Alex Ureña was trying to do in his eponymous modern-Spanish restaurant, but he appreciates Pamplona too and doesn’t consider it a compromise at all. In fact, he seems almost smitten with the place. [NYS]

How did it take so long for Robert Sietsema to get to West Village pig-foot palace Hakata Tonton? Actually, he was probably there the day it opened. And, predictably, he likes it a lot, from pig-foot buckwheat noodles to pig-foot spaghetti carbonara. [VV]

The Times offers up a trio of wan mini-reviews, finding neither Toloache nor Kingswood nor 5 Ninth that bad — or that good. [NYT]

Ryan Sutton, first on the spot as always, gives a nice present to Danny Abrams, reviewing both of his new restaurants. The Mermaid Inn is a “meh,” but he positively love Smith’s, singling out both the pork and the lobster as the best of the year. [Bloomberg]

The New Yorker has gotten around to reviewing BLT Market but wastes so much space going on about the BLT brand and the room that there seems to be no verdict on the food. [NYer]

Bruni Closes the Book on Tailor; Allen & Delancey Gets Good, Not Great, Notices