Pete Wells Slaps One Star on West Village Hotspot Anton’s for ‘Inconsistency’

Nick Anderer’s throwback European restaurant Anton’s only managed to score one star in Times critic Pete Well’s latest review, where he writes that he mainly found “inconsistency” over the course of multiple visits to the West Village establishment at 570 Hudson Street, at West 11th Street.

The more dishes he tried, the more uncertain he became about the overall taste of the food being served at Anton’s.

As a critic, though, I pressed my luck. I ordered the thin, weak ragù with overcooked lasagna noodles. I went for the roasted cauliflower, too, and wondered why the random scattering of chopped apricots, almonds and olives sounded so much more interesting on the menu, where it is called a relish. The onions under hanger steak Lorenz, supposedly “melted,” were still quite solid, and kind of strange. The roast chicken and some other main courses were flat-out dull, and the schmaltz potatoes didn’t taste like much of anything, not even schmaltz.

He also took issue with the service: At times, he found it “jovial,” but other times, his food just didn’t show up.

But Wells did enjoy some of the dishes and praised Anton’s reliance on old-school New York dishes like the whitefish salad inspired by Jewish appetizing shops — he calls it “almost luxurious” — and the angel-hair francese, a take on the chicken francese with angel-hair pasta at the nearby 101-year-old restaurant Gene’s.

Anton’s opened in November last year and marks the first solo venture for Anderer, who previously worked as head chef at Union Square Hospitality Group’s Italian restaurants Marta and Maialino. The restaurant has been one of the hottest tickets in town since its opening, and Eater critic Ryan Sutton writes that its $26 steak is one of the best new beef dishes in the city. One star

• At Anton’s, Appetites Shaped by an Older New York [NYT]