Today's review roundup includes: Matsuri, The Biltmore Room, Temple
NYPost Steve Cuozzo reviews Matsuri
(369 W. 16th St., at Ninth Avenue): MATSURI, the booming new Japanese brasserie in the Maritime Hotel, calls itself a "contemporary, truthful interpretation of Japan." But it's more true to family-friendly Las Vegas. What's a great chef like Tadashi Ono doing with sirloin steak and soy sauce?
. . . Matsuri's Japan 101 menu plays it so safe, you'll have a more daring time at many a local sushi joint. Shrimp tempura, anyone?
. . . The best dish is a Nobu knockoff, grilled black cod ($15) lent a distant smokiness by sake paste marination. Juicy, sliced duck breast roasted with wasabi sauce and chives ($16) arrives gloriously pink with crackling skin.
But every time I sensed the real Ono revving up, we came up snake eyes. Sushi is wound with nori as limp as soba noodles ($12). The latter come with "grated mountain potato" - a Japanese yam, an acquired taste I have yet to acquire.
NYTimes Restaurants William Grimes gives The Biltmore Room three stars (290 Eighth Avenue (near 25th Street)):
. . . The general drift is still Asian, with dishes that jet-hop from Japan to India to Thailand, but Mr. Robins shows himself a citizen of the world, easily slipping into a Moroccan or Italian idiom, or slyly reworking a Maryland crab cake. The results, in almost every case, are dazzling.>. . .Here and there, a single, ingenious touch energizes and transforms an otherwise straightforward dish, like the red-pepper crostini that accompanies a simple salad of heirloom tomatoes, served with a little fennel and arugula, and drizzled with olive oil. A scoop of ginger sorbet brings fire and spice to bluefin tuna, chopped finely like a tartare and gently heated with cayenne pepper oil. Mr. Robins weaves flavors expertly, and he has a gossamer touch with spices and seasonings.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Squash blossom with crab; tuna tataki; heirloom tomato salad; Indian-spiced salmon; Algerian rack of lamb; plum tart; chocolate torte.
NYTimes $25 and Under Eric Asimov reviews Temple (81 St. Marks Place (near First Avenue)):
Ku jol pan refers to a glossy tray divided into nine compartments. In the center dish is a pile of delicate palm-size pancakes strewn with sesame seeds. Surrounding the pancakes are little dishes of food, to be wrapped in the pancakes and dipped into a tangy soy-and-wasabi sauce. It is easily enough for two, and possibly three or four.
The fillings, which are excellent, include omelet, flattened and cut into exquisitely wrought strips like linguine; thin slices of squid; bits of beef marinated in a sweet soy sauce; marinated mushrooms; sweet-and-sour radish; mushrooms; pepper strips; cucumbers; and carrots. It is fun and delicious, and if it showed up more in restaurants it would be a perfect third-date meal, when you are ready to feed your partner.
BEST DISHES Ku jol pan; potato pancakes; seafood pancake; bulgogi with soft rice cakes; pork or beef bulgogi; broiled squid; kimchi stew.
