Pete Wells Gives Two Stars to Gotham West Market

Pete Wells is impressed by the array of great food options at Gotham West Market in Hell's Kitchen. He praises the noodles from Ivan Ramen, the tapas from El Colmado, and the charcuterie at The Cannibal. Wells also digs Little Chef, the new stand from Saltie's Caroline Fidanza:

Little Chef's menu expands a bit on Saltie's, adding soups and spirited juice blends. (I'm a fan of the carrot and fresh turmeric cocktail.) The core mission is the same, though: lavishing care on breakfast and lunch with a modest roster of eggs and sandwiches. Simplicity is luxury in the Ship's Biscuit, a raft of creamy scrambled eggs and ricotta on very fresh focaccia studded with crunchy sea salt.

[Ristorante Morini by Daniel Krieger]
Steve Cuozzo thinks that Michael White's Ristorante Morini is a winner: "While I've had a few wobbly dishes at Marea and Ai Fiori lately, I had only one among 20-plus at Ristorante Morini. From lemon-lilted, cured sardine crudo to deceptively simple shellfish spaghetti in rarefied olive-oily shellfish broth, it was one ooh- and ahh-inducer after another." Cuozzo gives it three stars. [NYP]

[Mission Cantina by Daniel Krieger]

Alan Richman gives two stars to Danny Bowien's Mission Cantina. On the rabbit: "The legs are steamed in a banana leaf with a delicate coffee-hibiscus mole, and the loin and rib meat is rolled with collard greens and topped with a salsa verde. Now you understand why this is much more than a taqueria. There is always genius somewhere in Bowien's cooking. At Mission Cantina, it's the rabbit." [GQ]

[Contra by Bess Adler]
Ryan Sutton gives two and a half stars to Contra on the Lower East Side. On the chicken: "Poultry — the final savory course — might appear as a clean breast, anointed with obscenely crispy skin and communion-like mushrooms rounds. If those flavors are too delicate, a swath of blood pudding lies on plate's left edge. It tastes like iron and oregano and it makes the entire dish look like an abstract rendition of continental drift." [Bloomberg]

[Daniel Krieger]
Daniel S. Meyer likes a lot of the dishes on Alexander Smalls's menu at The Cecil in Harlem: "The menu frightens at first glance with its cross-cultural abandon; there's fried rice next to burgers next to gumbo, like at a mall food court. But there's a method to this madness. Smalls is cooking from the far-flung larder of the African diaspora, charting its influence on global cuisines from Asia to the Americas." [TONY]

The Robs are fans of new Chicago-style pizzeria Emmett's: "Taken on its own terms, Emmett's deep-dish is both audibly crunchy and pleasingly bready, zesty with herbs and exceptionally filling. It is a stiff round of golden dough smelling faintly of yeast, rising high and thin on the rim like an English pork pie, cradling a blanket of chewy mozzarella and a slick of aggressively seasoned sauce in which optional toppings are distributed so minimally they might seem invisible." The critics give it three U.G. stars. [GS/NYM]

[Empire Diner by Krieger]

THE ELSEWHERE: Gael Greene is a fan of Robert Aikens's British fare at The Shakespeare in Murray Hill, Restaurant Girl tries the uni dishes at All'onda, Ligaya Mishan is impressed by the seafood plates at Bergen Hill, and Amelia Lester has a great time at Empire Diner in Chelsea.

[Mountain Bird by Bess Adler]
THE BLOGS: Serious Eats editor J. Kenji Lopez-Alt digs the French-style poultry dishes at Mountain Bird, The Food Doc likes the entrees more than the pastas at All'onda, Goodies First samples the non-traditional tapas at El Born in Greenpoint, Chris Stang of Immaculate Infatuation encounters some hits and misses at M. Wells Steakhouse, NYC Foodie checks out The Monarch Room, Eat Big Apple has a great meal at The Palm, and NY Journal finds a lot to like at The Cecil in Harlem.

· All Coverage of Reviews [~ENY~]