Pete Wells Is Charmed by Huertas, Tejal Rao Isn't Sold on Root & Bone, and More

Yesterday Robert Sietsema travelled to Jersey City to review Chutneys, and gave its South Indian cuisine three stars. Meanwhile, Ryan Sutton gave two stars to Jonah Miller's Basque restaurant Huertas.

Pete Wells also reviews Huertas. On the passed pintxos: "There was egg salad on a slice of baguette, with a sweet red shrimp on top; a golden croqueta of rice with creamy mushrooms in the center; and sweet roasted piquillo peppers stuffed with a cheesy, porky froth of fresh sausage whipped into goat cheese."  Also enamored of the restaurant's set menu, Wells give Huertas two stars. [NYT]

Tejal Rao finds some good Southern dishes, but also inconsistencies at Root & Bone. On the oft-praised fried chicken: "When the chicken is over seasoned with what the servers call "lemon powder," it lashes at you with a sour candy sting of citric acid and sugar, as if the bird had been laminated with pure, uncut crystals of Country Time lemonade. The meat itself is juicy and well-seasoned but very sweet, and on two out of three occasions the fry was pale, lacking serious crunch." One star. [Bloomberg]

Zachary Feldman reviews Crimson & Rye, Charlie Palmer's new Midtown cocktail bar: "Look past innocuous sliders to find warm, fragrant corn pancakes ($13), nearly as supple as the smoked salmon draped over their browned tops...Japanese eggplant caponata is refreshing and clean; the same can be said for the raw bar's king salmon tartare, tossed with tart green apple in a Meyer lemon dressing." Although it's a bar, Feldman deems it a place best visited at lunch. [VV]

Michael Kaminer loves Chapter One, a low key new restaurant in Greenwich Village: "Monkfish ($24), that old wallflower, gets a star turn too, paired with crunchy little pattypan squash and rich roasted fennel on a bed of lusty, tangy tomato-olive vinaigrette. It's like spying someone plain all dressed up, and suddenly seeing their sexy side." Four stars. [NYDN]

Steve Cuozzo is bitterly disappointed with the Back Room at One57, the restaurant in the new ultra-luxe Park Hyatt: "A moisture-free, unseasoned veal chop ranked as the saddest dead flesh in captivity. It was $60, one of many prices that seemed inspired by One57's 1,005-foot height. Meat courses tasted not at all like their pedigrees. Generic-tasting, on-the-bone sirloin bore none of the flavor concentration that should come of 45-day dry aging." He doesn't even bother with a star rating. [NYP]

Christina Izzo is mostly bewildered by Ilan Hall's Urban Outfitters restaurant, The Gorbals: "[L]ike those racks crammed with tribal short shorts, the eccentric, eyebrow-raising menu is heavy on fads. Hall's fuzzy focus is hipster immigrant food...and that means gimmick grub like interfaith bacon-wrapped matzo balls ($9). Sans broth, the over-dilled spheres are rendered dense and grainy, paid no compliments by theflaccid, fatty strips of swine that surround them." Two stars. [TONY]

THE ELSEWHERE: Amelia Lester is a fan of the many options at Gotham West Market. Ligaya Mishan dines on broken rice and pho at Com Tam Ninh Kieu in the Bronx. Gael Greene goes on a taco crawl, starting at Taqueria y Fonda and heading north into Spanish Harlem.

THE BLOGS: Chris Stang has high praise for the burritos at Taqueria Diana, Chekmark Eats is a big fan of the chicken at Birds & Bubbles, the Food Doc gives a thorough rundown of Cochon's late night pop-up at Ssam Bar, NY Journal is impressed with the recently revamped Paulaner beer hall, Goodies First explores Queens, with stops at Kitchen 79 and Saw Shack among others, Chopsticks + Marrow breakfasts on fried chicken at Charles' Country Pan Fried Chicken, and the Pink Pig is another strong proponent of Birds & Bubbles' fried chicken.