Today's review roundup includes: New Chao Chow Restaurant, Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar, The Biltmore Room, Divane, Lever House
Village Voice Robert Sietsema reviews New Chao Chow Restaurant (111 Mott Street):
At nearly every table someone is slurping "broth noodles" ($3.25), a Chiu Chow specialty known on the menu as "combination rice stick (soup on the side)." Filling the deep bowl, the thick rice noodles are heaped with ground pork, sliced pork, delicious homemade fish cake, and freshly cooked shrimp. Indeed, pork-seafood combos are a Chiu Chow passion. A green wad of cilantro sits on top, while bits of sour cabbage hide among the noodles. On the side there's a small bowl of tasty broth. The dish might be mistaken for a disassembled version of Vietnamese pho, except that the broth is so clearly Cantonese.
The duck (one-quarter, $4) is another of the restaurant's signatures, nothing like the crisp-skinned mahogany creature seen elsewhere in Chinatown. The orange bird has been braised in a rich soy sauce, and arrives moist and flavorful and garnished with sweet pickled radish. It comes with a fish-sauce vinaigrette, a cousin of Vietnamese nuoc cham, in which float flecks of garlic, ginger, and green onion. The same sauce accompanies the inglorious-sounding boiled chicken, an utterly white bird that carries the boiler's art to a new high. The resulting succulent flesh—not dry nor stringy in the least—would have astonished my Irish grandmother, who boiled a chicken every Saturday.
NYTimes Diner's Journal William Grimes visits Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar:
Jack's, in a small East Village carriage house, is the country cousin of Jewel Bako, the cult sushi restaurant across the street. It shares the same husband-and-wife owners, Jack and Grace Lamb, and it is tiny, but that's where the resemblance ends. Ms. Vines-Rushing, from Louisiana, specializes in high-style Southern cooking. She works pickled peaches and pecan oil into her vinaigrette, and pig cheeks into a powerfully flavored, terminally rich langoustine casserole. She puts Mississippi caviar on toast points and offers sweet-tea sorbet as a palate cleanser.
NY Daily News reviews The Biltmore Room (290 Eighth Ave. at 25th St.):
. . .I'm no fan of the latest trend that has chefs charging for essential side dishes.
Not only does Robins keep it all on one plate, but the sides are where he seems to funnel much of his creative spark: Consider the way he accessorizes his seared breast of duck: on the quacker's left, a mellow puree of butternut squash. To the right, an autumnal saute of chestnuts, Brussels sprouts, shiitakes, pancetta and itty-bitty turnips. Who needs autumn in Vermont? A strand of cranberries adorns the breast, itself padded down with ancho and sage.
The miso cod comes with its own teapot, brewing a blazing red pepper sauce that your waiter pours onto your plate. The porcelain white cod is so fine and sweet, it's hard to believe this was once such a blue-collar fish. Robins pairs it with a cone-shaped tower of somen-noodle salad buttressed by pickled lotus root.
NY Daily News reviews Divane (888 Eighth Ave. at 52nd St.):
Orshan Yegen strikes again. The talented Turk, known for starting restaurants and then moving on, has opened a new one, Divane. While his Beyoglu focused on appetizers and Effendi on home cooking, Divane (pronounced Dee-vah-nay) is all about well-seasoned, well-grilled meat.
. . . Main courses are all grills, and at first you think they're all the same. Then you discover that lamb shish ($13.95) is made of chunks of meat, spicy lamb ($13.95) of chopped meat, and Doner kebab of thin slices cut off a rotating roast ($13.50). All come with onion and carrot salads, a roasted tomato and bowls of rice and cracked-wheat pilaf. For lamb-loathers, there are chicken, beef and fish grills, and some of the dishes are available with tomato-yogurt sauce over crisply sauteed pita for $1 more.
NYMetro reviews Lever House (390 Park Avenue, near 54th Street):
. . . After two months, Lever House is dancing.
It turns out chef Dan Silverman knows some fancy footwork, too. His straightforward flavors and composition have become sharp and clean. You immediately know what you’re eating, and you almost always really like it. A refreshing meeting of spring onion and orange buoys a silken fluke tartare. Kumamoto oysters are enhanced by just enough brine in their mignonette. Lean slices of Peking duck are lavished with tart cherries. Crunchy fried okra is spiked by nutty Romano beans. Cilantro and lime transform salmon into a surprisingly bright seviche. Lobster tempura isn’t coy or cute. It’s just a terrific idea.