« May 2004 | Main | July 2004 »
June 30, 2004
Hot Dog roundup
Hot Dog roundup: Dog Days
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Wolfgang's Steakhouse, Del Valle, Seoul Soondae, 10 Pell Chinese Restaurant.
NYTimes Restaurants Frank Bruni gives Wolfgang's Steakhouse two stars (4 Park Avenue; 212-889-3369):
Wolfgang's does not refer to Wolfgang Puck but to Wolfgang Zwiener, who for many decades was the head waiter at Luger, the most celebrated steakhouse in New York City.
His long service there gave him some access to the Luger secrets for making beef taste so great. He and his co-owners, including one of his sons and two former Luger waiters, endeavor to replicate this process at Wolfgang's, where steaks hang in a dry-aging box in the basement for weeks, then are cooked under a high-temperature broiler that produces a deeply charred exterior.
As at Luger, the porterhouses at Wolfgang's are sized as Steak for Two, Three or Four and served on a tilted dish that lets blood and butter form a healthful dipping pool at one end. But Wolfgang's also tries to correct Luger's perceived inconveniences and limitations. It is simultaneously Luger-minus and Luger-plus, its sire's influence obvious in each deviation from, or genuflection before, the original.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Shrimp cocktail; Canadian bacon; steak for two, three or four; rib-eye steak; sirloin steak; grilled tuna; German potatoes; onion rings; creamed spinach; cheesecake.
