Reviews for The Clocktower, Gabriel Kreuther, Dirt Candy, and More

Eater senior critic Robert Sietsema finds much to like at Kings County Imperial, awarding the new take on Chinese American cooking three stars. Ryan Sutton has the week off but here are where the other critics ate this week:

Pete Wells reviews Jason Atherton and Stephen Starr's The Clocktower. He doesn't love the room or the bar scene, but Wells is taken with much of the menu. He concludes: "[T]here is very little egotism in Mr. Atherton’s cooking. He seems to have the peculiar idea of cooking to make other people happy, not to reflect his own glory." Two stars.

Adam Platt files a twofer this week, reviewing East Village Indian/Aussie newcomer Babu Ji and Amanda Cohen's Dirt Candy 2.0. He enjoys the grab-bag quality of the service and most of the menu at the Babu Ji. But the critic ultimately ignores his wife's exhortation to "give this place three stars," in part thanks to a lamb rogan josh that was "as hard as vulcanized rubber." Two stars.

Platt is less enamored with Dirt Candy, filing a curt two paragraph report. Although he praises the restaurant for serving the "best of the neo-veggie comfort-food cooking," Platt notes that he "won’t be reordering the $28 'corn boil' (which requires you to eat a lot of slippery roughage wearing a plastic bib.)" One star.

Steve Cuozzo stands up for fine dining in his review of Gabriel Kreuther's eponymous restaurant. He finds both the room and the food to be very appealing: "The year's most beautiful dish is surely a sliced, raw, marinated sea scallop floating atop jalapeño coulis. The ceviche-esque apparition is served in a flying saucer-like crystal bowl that the waiter plugs into a pedestal. The scallop seemed born to the interplay of sweet, salty and spicy notes from Meyer lemon, paper-thin radishes, crunchy tempura and Espelette pepper." Three and a half stars.

Gabriel Kreuther [Nick Solares]

The Elsewhere: Shauna Lyon of Table for Two raves about Andrew Carmellini's Little Park. The critic thinks the "vegetable-focussed food is so good, so gorgeous and seasonal," but she writes that the room is "incongruously dispassionate." Zachary Feldman also reviews Gabriel Kreuther noting the "high wire haute cuisine" generally succeeds and that the "impeccable" service is "equal parts attentive and unobtrusive." Christina Izzo visits sushi hot spot O Ya and while the omakase can't maintain the "momentum of a stunning start," it never the less garners three stars (out of five).

The Blogs: Joe DiStefano totally digs Happy Stony Noodles in Elmhurst. Immaculate Infatuation visit Bar Chuko, awarding the izakaya spin-off of their favorite Brooklyn ramen shop 8.4. Follow The Chef feels Sessanta "performs solidly." The Food Doc visits Virginia's in the East Village and finds an upscale restaurant masquerading as a neighborhood joint.