NYC: Review Roundup

Today's review roundup includes: David Burke & Donatella, Bohio, Public, Del Valle Restaurant & Deli, La Bottega, Matsuri.

NYTimes Restaurants Marian Burros gives two stars to David Burke & Donatella (133 East 61st Street; 212- 813-2121):

Crisp and angry lobster. "Bronx style" filet mignon of veal. A cheesecake lollipop tree with bubble-gum whipped cream.

New York culinistas will know immediately that those off-the-wall menu items can be the work of only one man, David Burke, the chef who first gave us swordfish chops and pastrami salmon.

Mr. Burke, recently unleashed from the constraints of corporate chefdom, is now performing his high-wire act twice daily not far from his old stomping grounds at the Park Avenue Cafe. In December he opened David Burke & Donatella with Donatella Arpaia, a lawyer turned restaurateur who owns Bellini. While she keeps things calm and happy in the dining room, he whizzes around the kitchen preparing complex dishes of immense fussiness that really shouldn't work, but do. There are some definite misses — and let me quickly say that bubble-gum whipped cream is one of them.

But overall, diners here are in for terrific savories, a reasonable and unusual wine list and excellent people-watching.

. . . It takes an entire paragraph to describe one of his dishes, but unlike other chefs who play with their food, Mr. Burke seems to know what he's doing and when his complex combinations work, the depth of flavor in the dish is a joy.

A lobster flan, made with Sauternes, is topped with miniature home fries and lobster meat ragù. This accompanies a shiitake dumpling and a boned leg of quail with a shiitake filling, the quail wrapped in pasta, the drumstick bone serving as a handle. Next to it sits a quail breast, coated in Asian spices with a dusting of dried orange peel. And that's just one dish.

RECOMMENDED DISHES Blue crab ravioli; lobster flan; market salad; parfait of tuna and salmon tartares; sashimi tuna; day-boat sea scallops; foie gras terrine; pastrami salmon and smoked salmon mousse; Dover sole; garganelli pasta; wild mushroom cavatelli; seaweed-water-soaked roast organic chicken; gingersnap barbecued squab; ginger-rubbed salmon; mustard-crusted tuna.

And Citysearch says:

The perplexing menu comprises rich dishes with dubious tweaks, like excellent foie gras terrine with superfluous breaded grapes, and tender scallops gussied up with quail eggs, chorizo oil and lobster foam. A delicious salmon filet benefits from sauteed greens in housemade XO sauce, but not from cloying Chinese sausage. Simple--though still unctuous--pasta with mushrooms is a refreshingly uncomplicated choice. The over-the-top desserts include cheesecake lollipops with a bubblegum-scented dipping cream.

NYTimes $25 and Under Eric Asimov reviews Bohio (4055 Broadway, near 171st Street; 212-568-5029):

Bohio's reach may sometimes exceed its grasp, but its ambition offers a welcome alternative to the steam-table Latino restaurants that dominate the neighborhood. These places, which can all make cafe con leche blindfolded with their hands tied, typically offer flavorful, if warmed-over, dishes at extremely low prices. If I wanted a great skirt steak or roasted pork in Washington Heights at 2 a.m. after a night of dancing, there would be no better place than El Presidente, on Broadway near 165th Street. But if I wanted a meal before the party in a place with low lights and a warm atmosphere, I wouldn't hesitate to pick Bohio.

. . . In fact, many dishes are cooked a little bit more than I would choose, not surprisingly. One night I took my friend Raphael, who is part Dominican and has made a close personal study of Dominican cuisine. "Dominicans like everything well done," he said, as we cut into a piece of flank steak ($16) that had been ordered medium rare but was just a bit pink. Nonetheless, the chewy beef had plenty of flavor.

If you like meat fried until it can be fried no more, the parrillada for two ($25), is perfect. It includes carne fritta, or long twists of beef fried to the consistency of jerky, chunks of pork fried until crisp, mild yet irresistible longaniza sausage, savory fried yuca, and, best of all, pica pollo, pieces of chicken fried until the crust is crisp and crackling, yet full of flavor. At lunch, you can order the pica pollo ($7) separately, with rice and soupy, fragrant red beans.

BEST DISHES Roasted pork shoulder; pork chops; pica pollo; bollitos; flan; pumpkin fritters.

NYMetro Adam Platt reviews Public (210 Elizabeth Street; 212-343-7011):

Happily, this oddly forced décor is transcended, for the most part, by the cooking of the American-born, London-trained chef, Brad Farmerie. Australasian cuisine, as he defines it, is an agreeable mishmash of American structure (everything’s arranged in a Portale tower), farm-fresh ingredients, and global (mostly Southeast Asian) spices and tastes.

The inventive kangaroo dish (the falafel was laced with a lemon tahini, and the tangy green-pepper relish tasted of Bobby Flay’s New Mexico) was accompanied to our table by a nourishing bowl of parsnip soup flavored, in the Indian style, with cumin and coriander, plus a rogue sprinkling of dried barberries. These were followed by a succession of Southeast Asian fusion recipes like seviche done in the manner of Thai seafood salad (with bits of squid, crisped shallots, and a spritzing of coconut water), a Thai-style green-papaya salad with tea-smoked salmon, and two fine raviolis flavored with pea shoots and pickled shiitake mushrooms and stuffed with a mixture of braised oxtail and escargots.

Seafood, in fact, is a big strength at Public, a mild surprise considering the Southern Hemisphere’s outsize reputation for beef and lamb. But my order of lamb was cut in an unnaturally smooth tenderloin (called a “chump”), instead of the more traditional (and tasty) chop, and the grilled venison I sampled was tepid to the point of being cold. The seared striped bass, on the other hand, was fresh and tender and spiced with nam prik num (a Thai condiment made with chilies and green eggplants), sweet pickled cucumbers, and a dusting of samphire, which, in case you didn’t know, is also called sea fennel and has a passing resemblance to Japanese hijiki. There’s also a straightforward serving of New Zealand snapper (plated with fingerling potatoes and watercress), and an impressive tower of grilled Mayan prawns (served with black beans, crabmeat, and a dollop of Bobby Flay–style tomato-chili jam), which turns, as you disassemble it, into a kind of spicy-sweet seafood stew.

Village Voice Robert Sietsema reviews Del Valle Restaurant & Deli (665 Tenth Avenue; 212-262-5173):

If you want great Mexican in Manhattan, head straight for Hell's Kitchen. A rash of microscopic eateries have recently appeared—often carved out of delis and bodegas—that offer southern Mexican cooking in very modest surroundings. Del Valle Restaurant & Deli is named after Tulcingo Del Valle, a rural village a few kilometers north of the Oaxacan border, in southern Puebla. This impoverished and drought-stricken area depends on payments called "remittances" from immigrants living in the U.S. for much of its cash flow.

For a place with only four tables and little in the way of decor, Del Valle mounts an impressive 203-item menu, comprising American and Mexican breakfasts; tacos, tostadas, and other antojitos with an impressive range of fillings; Tex-Mex specialties like fajitas and burritos; and sandwiches made from Boar's Head cold cuts, though a careful examination of the glass case under the counter reveals that the logs of American cheese and olive-pimiento loaf remain untouched. Meanwhile, the kitchen in back is a beehive of activity. Tender and oily cow tongue reigns supreme among the fillings that can be deposited in tacos ($2), or the Pueblan favorite, massive rimmed and shoe-shaped huaraches ($5.50), the local version of sopes. But my advice is to order from the chalkboard, which lists daily home-style specialties. On a recent afternoon, the fiery chicken stew called tinga was already exhausted, but lucky for me, there was chicken with mole pipian remaining. This green gravy of pumpkin seeds and tomatillos doesn't look particularly appetizing, but it's extremely delicious, inundating the plate in verdant liquid. The mole itself is the message, not the bird, and you'll need every warm tortilla provided to scoop it up.

Citysearch recommends La Bottega (363 W 16th Street; 212-242-4300):

Standouts among appetizers include a trio of smoky grilled sardines and a silky plate of ruby carpaccio showered with bits of black truffle and shavings of Parmesan. An almost flaky-crusted pizza features dabs of creamy robiola cheese and a whiff of white truffle oil; succulent lamb shank nestles into creamy polenta and greens in a deep earthenware bowl; and a side of garlic-laced broccoli rabe is a blissful B-vitamin booster. Only a couple of dishes fall short: The rather dry homemade ravioli needs more butternut squash stuffing to plump up the tender pasta pockets, and chocolate torta is just an ooze of hot batter encased in a very thin chocolate skin.

NYPress reviews Matsuri (369 W. 16th Street; 212-243-6400):

In charge of Matsuri’s kitchen is a Japanese chef who cooked at La Caravelle; the press-release storyline is that he’s bringing the essence of French technique home. Indeed, Matsuri’s menu descriptions point to a Provençal flair applied to elemental Japanese delicacies. Yellowtail sashimi is bathed in green yuzu-pepper sauce ($12), cured salmon gets a sprinkle of ginger-vinegar ($7) and raw tuna is cubed and stacked with sticks of mountain potato ($10).

The reality of these precious-sounding combinations is that the fish is good and so are the extras. But together they amount to nothing the least bit revelatory, while the portion sizes seem to insist they’re supposed to. Yuzu-pepper sauce ain’t truffle butter! A few more slices of that clean sashimi in its place would’ve been welcome.

. . . The only way to feel ripped off, though, when situated in a prime spot in Matsuri’s main dining room, would be to try. Patrons get a bird’s-eye view of the space upon entering, as the restaurant’s lobby and bar are lofted a full story above. The lighting is from gargantuan Japanese lamps, which evoke a visionary, dreamlike quality that brought to mind the banquet of the gods in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. The ceiling is a single arch of inlaid wood. As one descends Matsuri’s wide, wooden staircase, the ceiling design’s magnificent acoustic effect adds to the otherworldly atmosphere. The room is big, busy and quiet.

Comments

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Good place to AVOID--RUDE/ARROGANT over 2 1/2 hr wait in huge crowded singles bar/overbooked/rude/disorganized trying to use GOOD BUZZ to get business will die in 6 months! Needs to understand client
service/fire current staff/ use Brian McNallys
skills be fashionable but kind to customers
Park Ave crowd will NOT stay-trendies will move on!