Today's review roundup includes: Cru, Kuma Inn, Kittichai, Dushanbe.
NYTimes Restaurants Frank Bruni gives Cru three stars (24 Fifth Avenue; 212-529-1700):
Up until dessert, most of the dishes at Cru are splendid. Tilting heavily toward Italy, nodding slightly toward Spain, the restaurant's chef, Shea Gallante, produces what he calls modern European food and walks a pitch-perfect line between precious and creative, busy and resourceful.
To read his menu is to feel an initial stab of alarm: do slivers of raw albacore tuna really stand to benefit from bits of caper and a sauce of black olive and espresso? Yes, it turns out, they do, because those flavors come and go: fully present one moment, less detectable the next. They give the tuna some salty, bracing character, but not too much. Mr. Gallante knows not to let the sidekicks steal the show.
If he were not on top of his game, the rieslings and Riberas del Duero would usurp him. To some extent, Cru was born from, and built on, wine. The restaurant's owner, Roy Welland, has a private collection of about 65,000 bottles. About 3,200 are on the regular list, which appears in gorgeously leatherbound, beautifully organized books, and on any given night, more than 50 wines are served by the glass and half-glass.
. . . Cru has placed itself at the crossroads of several restaurant trends. The availability of so many wines in small measures is just one example. The raw tuna appears on a section of the menu that is devoted to crudo, or slightly seasoned raw fish, which is becoming as ubiquitous in Manhattan restaurants as Jude Law is in Hollywood movies. And the first three of the four savory courses on the menu — crudo, appetizers and pastas — tap into the small-plates craze, because the pastas can be ordered in half portions.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Langoustine, Arctic char and bluefin crudo; skate wing; quail breast; gnocchi with oxtail; tagliolini with clams; lobster; turbot; veal.
NYPost Steve Cuozzo also reviews Cru this week, and gives it two and a half stars (". . . Cru deserves three stars — that is, until Will Goldfarb's smart-alecky, flavor-conflicted desserts"):
. . . It's a thrilling first taste from executive chef Shea Gallante, former chef de cuisine at Bouley. His style also reflects modern-American and northern Italian influences, with the odd squirt of foam as a nod to Spain's blender-mad Ferran Adria and his cutting-edge ilk.
Few kitchens lay on so many complimentary extras, like dreamy Kabocha squash soup with prune-puree tortellini. Equally winning is rabbit cotechino ($14), a twist on the traditional pork sausage; a trio of them perch atop a rustic quilt of Casteluccio lentils, diced liver and mustard emulsion.
Gallante's best entrees deliver flavor constellations that live up to the rich surroundings. Soft-shell (newly molted) lobster ($36), a rarity, was sweet, if slightly overdone, after slow-cooking with olive oil and butter. It was served with a complex but cohesive ensemble of garlic-braised escarole, corona beans and bacon embraced in lobster-sage sauce.
Luscious venison loin ($36) glistened under prune glaze, supported by wonderful baby beets, chestnut puree and black trumpet mushrooms — simple on the plate but by no means easy to pull off.
NYTimes $25 and Under reviews Kuma Inn (113 Ludlow Street; 212-353-8866):
His Asian tapas menu is a whimsy, but it is what you might expect from a New Yorker born to a Filipino mother and Thai father, who went to culinary school and trained at gastro-shrines like Danube, Daniel and Jean Georges. Mr. Phojanakong's kitchen inspiration comes from his mother's side of the family, so he mines the larders of Spain, China, Southeast Asia and Japan, all of which have historically seasoned food from the Philippines. That means pan-roasted sea scallops — four plump ones — swaddled in sake butter with kalamansi, a tangy citrus fruit, reduced to a sweet-sour sauce ($10). On top, a smoky shower of bacon shards; on bottom, wilted watercress.
It also means unfussy classics, like pancit bihon ($8), voluminous bowls of rice noodles in an earthy stew of carrots, bean sprouts, mushrooms and sweet Chinese sausage. It is Filipino mama food, and fantastic.
BEST DISHES Pan-fried scallops; pancit bihon; sautéed Chinese sausage; homemade pickles; steamed mussels; pan-roasted striped bass.NY Mag reviews Kittichai ( 60 Thompson Street, 212-219-2000):
Occasionally, a decent Thai restaurant will open in New York (Thai on Clinton, and Sripraphai, in Woodside, come to mind), but the talented chefs who wash up here generally move on, leaving the city to subsist on limp chicken satay and warmed-over servings of pad Thai at homogenous, newly proliferating Southeast Asian restaurant chains like Spice and the Lemongrass Grill.
But with the opening a few months back of a new restaurant in Soho called Kittichai, relief is at hand. Or at least this is the fervent hope of the Thai-food snobs I know, who have been chattering about the reputation of the restaurant’s eponymous chef, Ian Chalermkittichai. Mr. Chalermkittichai hails from Bangkok, where he served, most recently, as executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel. . .
“None of this is very Thai,” said one of the Thai snobs in a resigned, saddened voice, “although it is Thai-influenced.” True Thai or not, a lot of the food at Kittichai tastes awfully good. The gingery galangal-chicken-and-coconut soup could have been more spicy and sour and less sweet (in deference to the local palate, chef Chalermkittichai seems to skew most of his recipes toward sugar, and away from heat), but my bowl of that elusive cold beef salad dish was exceptional. This is a northern specialty in Thailand, and here it’s made with slices of tender, marinated flank steak, fresh green beans, and a dusting of roasted rice powder (crushed peanuts have been banned from Kittichai in deference to local peanut allergies), which gives the dish a pleasing crunch. Among other Thai specialties, two that everyone enjoyed were the wok-fried chicken (a gourmet version of Sichuan chicken and peanuts, only with cashews, bits of green onion, and pieces of hot chili) and the standard whole crispy fish, served atop a sweet-and-sour sauce infused with forests of coriander and basil.
Village Voice Robert Sietsema reviews Dushanbe (1915 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn; 718-336-6698):
Despite Tajikistan's rural population, the food at Dushanbe demonstrates a distinctly cosmopolitan bent, with Georgian, Russian, and Uzbek borrowings. Great pride is evident in plov ($7), regarded as the national dish of both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The large plate of oiled rice and tendrils of carrot arrives topped with concentrated nuggets of lamb. The mellow flavor owes much to the Central Asian version of cumin, with seeds smaller and subtler than its North American counterpart. Another Uzbek standard done with particular grace is mantu ($1.50), dumplings the size of a baby's fist bulging with lamb and onions and swimming in a dark tasty fluid. Soy sauce? Balsamic? Who knows?
French fries, another Central Asian staple, are treated with aplomb, heaped with crushed garlic and fresh dill. You won't get radder fries anywhere in town. As in other Central Asian cuisines, bargain kebabs ($2.99�$5) command the heart of the menu, and the rules established at Queens places like Cheburechnaya and Salut apply here as well. The way-smoky lamb rib is best, while the "chicken with bone" comes a close second. Skewered in miniature spongy nuggets, veal sweetbreads are also worth a chew. "It tastes like chicken," a fellow diner predictably enthused. Surprisingly, there are also great fish kebabs, though Tajikistan is as landlocked as a country can get. Sea bass displays a crusty texture probably attributable to a brushing of lamb fat. Lamb fat by itself is also offered, of course. Twin contrasting breads are available, lifesaver-shaped lepeshka (called "national bread" on the menu), and the parabolic, matzo-like cracker called non toki. Just be careful not to turn the breads upside down�it's considered very bad luck in Tajikistan.
