Steve Cuozzo Is Pissed About the Lack of Bread Baskets at Loft Urbo Near Times Square

Steve Cuozzo braves the new $29 million mega dining complex Urbo on what was once "Manhattan's sleaziest corner" to check out a couple of the five "eating and shopping zones" that span the two-story complex. Downstairs at Urbo Kitchens things are "straightforward, fine and cheap":

Beet-and-ricotta salad was right in the ballpark. Plump shrimp in silky corn chowder tasted fresh. A spicy pulled pork sandwich was the best I've had since North Carolina 25 years ago.

Upstairs at the fine dining restaurant Urbo Loft, the critic is seriously peeved about the lack of a bread basket and the tiny portions:

"Charred octopus, sweet potato, fermented pear, almond milk" turned out to be a microscopic crescent of items with barely enough cephalopod to fill a tablespoon. After downing four measly morsels of $30 monkfish tail, I was as hungry as when I arrived....It would be a shame for $29 million to go down the drain before you can whistle "42nd Street," for want of a few loaves of bread.

Perhaps he would have been happier down the street with Olive Garden's unlimited salad and breadsticks.