Yesterday Ryan Sutton gave three stars to Nick Kim and Jimmy Lau's new sushi restaurant, Shuko. Now here's a roundup of the rest of this week's restaurant reviews.
Pete Wells is duly impressed by Enrique Olvera's Mexican hot spot, Cosme: "Get something like the fried pork skin, as big and brown and open as a catcher's mitt, covered with sliced radishes and avocados. It doesn't sound like much, but it's sensational. So are the duck carnitas, slowly braised in the meat's own fat with orange and Coca-Cola." He awards it three stars. [NYT]
Joshua David Stein takes an early look at Santina, the newest restaurant from the Torrisi boys. He's impressed: "The broccoli and pecorino rice ($15)...certainly looks like a risotto but doesn't a cement block one's stomach make. (The trick is in thoroughly washed tamaki gold rice, a clever cadge from the omakase world.) Sheep's milk-filled tortellini sorrentina ($16), one of the five pastas, nearly float in a pleasantly aqueous tomato sauce." Four stars. [NYO]
Stan Sagner likes the food at Dirty French, but is not a fan of the scene: "All of Torrisi and Bertinetti's work is undermined by an out-of-control dining room that is closer to the 6 train at rush hour than a relaxing place to dine. Ducking a handbag now and again is sometimes the price you pay for eating at a hot restaurant – but no one should ever have someone else's hem in his fromage blanc." Two stars. [NYDN]
Zachary Feldman checks out Florian, Shelley Fireman's new Midtown Italian restaurant: "A massive osso buco lasagna arrives with a marrow bone as big around as your arm plunked in the middle of herb-rich veal pasta. Shareable and only $24, it's an undeniable steal. There's a lobster pizza, but a better choice is the massive calzone, a Frankenstein's monster stuffed with creamed spinach and artichokes whose outer edge is studded with Roman-style fried artichokes." [VV]
Adam Platt also reviews Cosme, and he like the food, but has some concerns about the service: "The poor souls bumping shoulders in the dimly lit bar zone may object to paying $17 for a single, not-very-large uni tostada to go with their margaritas. However, if you've obtained a seat in the dining room, you may notice that the blue corn in said tostada has been milled to an exceptional powdery lightness and that the uni is mingled, ingeniously, with chunks of avocado and barely visible bits of bone marrow." Three stars. [NYM]
THE ELSEWHERE: Amelia Lester likes the small dishes best at Cosme. Ligaya Mishan dines on Filipino food in Elmhurst at Sariling Atin. Gael Greene declares Marta her new favorite pizza place.
THE BLOGS: Andrew Steinthal says Mission Chinese Food is better than ever, Chekmark Eats likes the Mexican food at the Black Ant, NY Journal wishes Bar Primi offered more entrees, The Food Doc chronicles a Super Bowl Sunday meal at Momofuku Ko, Restaurant Girl files on the Goa Taco pop-up, Chopsticks and Marrow loves the fish tacos at La Esquina del Camaron Mexicano, and NYC Foodie thinks Kappo Masa deserves more than the zero stars Pete Wells gave it.