Pete Wells Still Loves Mission Chinese; Chefs Club and Sutton Inn Both Get High Marks

Yesterday Ryan Sutton gave two stars to Lupulo, George Mendes casual Portuguese restaurant in Midtown. Now here's a roundup of the rest of the week's restaurant reviews:

Pete Wells is a fan of the new, more nuanced Mission Chinese Food: "The perfume of dill, mint and basil rises up from a bowl of cellophane noodles in deeply aromatic lamb soup. Grassy, astringent matcha is sprinkled over cold green-tea noodles with scallions and ginger. Fried rice with sweet and tender lumps of lobster is fragrant with coconut oil." Two stars. [NYT]

Tejal Rao is impressed with the food at Chefs Club, where the menu works despite being the work of four guest chefs: "The four chefs aren't in the Chefs Club kitchen every night—the one that is would be Didier Elena, an imposing Frenchman who previously cooked for Alain Ducasse. He sends out blushing mid-rare lamb chops with white beans and endive, as well as hot, smarmy tangles of carbonara—two dishes from Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson, a Colorado-based chef. And he bakes warm biscuits to accompany sliced Iberico ham, a generously portioned snack from Linton Hopkins in Atlanta." Two stars. [Bloomberg]

Michael Kaminer is surprised and impressed by the food at Sutton Inn, a restaurant on the far east side of Midtown: "We worried [chef Scott Grewe] might have overreached with pastrami-spiced short rib ($43), which arrived nearly black and arid-looking. The joke was on us; luscious, almost unctuous flesh nearly falls off the fork, its sultry seasoning a spiky contrast to earthy, mineral meat. Ramps and trumpet mushrooms seem weird choices as sides until you taste the bright seasonal touches they bring." Four stars. [NYDN]

Zachary Feldman lists the 10 best restaurants in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay, which include Randazzo's Clam Bar, Brennan & Carr, Delmar Pizza, and a number of Eastern European restaurants like Nargis Cafe: "Find generously filled samsa, pastries stuffed with chicken, lamb, or vegetables, as well as fluffy rice pilaf and lagman noodles. Don't miss kitchen specials, like chicken drumsticks surrounded by a layer of ground chicken and baked dough. Dumplings like manti and chuchvara, plump with ground meat or mashed potatoes, make for hearty main courses." [VV]

THE ELSEWHERE: Ligaya Mishan loves the Japanese breakfast (served into the afternoon) at Okonomi. Gael Greene tries out the new Untitled downtown.

THE BLOGS: The Infatuation deems Red Hook's Brooklyn Crab better for hanging out than for food, the Food Doc is very impressed by Rebelle, Restaurant Girl checks out new breakfast sandwich spot BEC, Chekmark Eats loves the scene at Charlie Bird, Chopsticks + Marrow loves the fried squid at Flushing's Shanghai 33, Gothamist is deeply disappointed by barbecue pop-up Pig Beach.