Today's Review Roundup includes: Sueños, Malecon, Hue, Dominic Restaurant/Social Club
Much of this food is available on an elaborate “chili tasting” menu as well as à la carte, and not surprisingly, some dishes are more successful than others. Torres’s superior chorizo quesadilla is spiced with chili rajas, stuffed with potatoes and hot chorizo, and decorated with tangy slices of McIntosh apple. Her pork tamale is almost as tasty (it’s a satisfying amalgam of smoky sliced pork and shrimp wrapped in a banana leaf), and my wife’s fine order of chili-rubbed goat contained enough minced garlic to rouse me from my margarita stupor. But the restaurant’s fish dishes tended to be a little bland (underdone tuna, overwet Chilean sea bass covered with limp crumblings of tortilla), and the aggressively gourmet roast-chicken enchilada (it’s filled with squash blossoms) could have been dressed with something more vigorous than pumpkinseed sauce.
NY Daily News reviews Malecon ( 764 Amsterdam Ave., at 97th St.):
. . . . I'm not claiming that the food is identical. Pampa has Argentine steaks, Malecon has falling-off-the-bone oxtail in a rich gravy that soaks into your rice and beans ($7). Pampa has empanadas, Malecon has garlicky crisp-fried plantains ($2) that are good plain and dynamite showered with hot sauce.
The real difference is ambience: Malecon is a cheerful, bright spot with a counter offering a view of the kitchen, tables covered in green plastic, and two TVs tuned to Spanish-language channels. Regulars slip into their seats and nod at the waitress, meaning "I'll have the usual." But if you're not a regular and your Spanish isn't fluent, the friendly staff will be glad to explain the menu.
NY Daily News reviews Hue (91 Charles St. at Bleecker): "Hue's dining room is elegant, but the food can be hit or miss."
Crispy melted goat-cheese roll with salmon, coconut and wasabi? Sounds frightful. No one is more surprised than me to find this Franco-sushi concoction a pleasing contrast of tastes and creamy, chewy textures. A hit of curry powder delivers a finishing frisson. Also good is the barbecued-eel roll — packed with avocado, cucumber and snow crab — which arrives full-length, tail still attached, on a stretch tropical leaf.
. . . . So much ink was spilled for Rocco's mama's meatballs when the spotlight should have been on Hue's all along. "Don't forget to dip them in the hot and sour sauce," says our waiter in the metallic "Star Trek" glasses. These succulent pork and beef spheres mangled with Vietnamese herbs burst even brighter postdunk.
NYTimes' William Grimes visits Dominic Restaurant/Social Club in Diner's Journal (349 Greenwich Street, near Harrison Street):
In a quick adjustment, Mr. Villa has converted Pico into a much more modest Italian restaurant, just one step up from a cafe. . . . I will miss Pico. But if it had to go, I can live with a smart little Italian restaurant at half the price.
Mr. Villa brings his usual finesse to rustic dishes like strozzapretti alla carbonara, an assemblage of long, curled pasta, fresh peas and small chunks of salty pancetta. No cream is used, so the pea flavor pops out. Preserved lemon gives a sharp kick to grilled quail with a smooth spinach and eggplant confit, and a gremolata made with bone marrow makes a brilliant match for grilled ribeye. Even chicken breast, the poultry kingdom's answer to Wonder Bread, takes on new life with an unusual sauce of cucumber milk, figs and scallions.