The Other Critics

Sam Sifton Likes Missy Robbins; Le Caprice Has Its Charms

At A Voce, Missy Robbins “cooks rustic Italian food and sends it out of the kitchen looking like modernist plate paintings, little sculptures, edible art,” says Sam Sifton. But the corporate setting leads him to believe that the owner is testing a chain concept. [NYT]
Related: First Look at A Voce Columbus, Now Accepting Reservations

For the Upper East Side, Le Caprice is “jazz-age sexy … It’s buzzing all the way to the kitchen, which only needs to be good enough not to insult our palates to compete with Swifty’s and Cipriani,” writes Gael Greene. [Insatiable Critic]
Related: A Closer Look at Le Caprice, Now Serving Plebeians in the Pierre Hotel

Abe & Arthur’s is a “Meatpacking meat market whose aging scenesters may have frequented its red-hot precursor, Lotus … It’s no surprise, then, that the food is as extraneous as the soundtrack, barely audible over the conversational roar,” says Jay Cheshes. [TONY]
Related: A Closer Look at Abe & Arthur’s and Its Food

If high-end dining is theater, then Bouley is a French “Medieval Times,” minus the live horses and eating with your hands,” writes Ryan Sutton. [Bloomberg]

The décor at Ovelia is modern, but “the bill of fare remains resolutely Greek … with a handful of interpolations from other Astorian ethnicities, and a few modern fripperies,” says Robert Sietsema. And he loves the fries: “They’re well-browned, wobbly, creamy, and especially excellent if perversely dipped — for a little potato-on-potato action — in skordalia.” [VV]

Aureole “is T.G.I. Friday’s, the midtown way. The fig-thyme martini, delicious and embarrassing, is our mudslide,” declares Lauren Collins. The food “has a sugared, edgeless aspect that is maybe a little too lulling.” [NYer]
Related: First Look: Aureole Will Unleash Parallel Tasting Menu on Monday

Sam Sifton Likes Missy Robbins; Le Caprice Has Its Charms