Moskin at the Morgan: A New Standard for Irrelevance

This week, as Frank Bruni recuperates from his Roman Holiday, Julia Moskin filled in with a two-star review of the Morgan Dining Room.

I suppose that if one is going to review a restaurant so far off the radar, the least one can do is award two stars — otherwise, why bother? But the Morgan Dining Room is open only for lunch six days a week, and for dinner just one day a week (Fridays, 5 to 9). And of the recommended dishes…

Green salad, beet salad, ricotta and Swiss chard tart, mussels, striped bass on squash risotto, salmon with baby carrots and parsnips, lobster salad, fruit cobbler, cookie plate

…most are salads or desserts. Of the mussels, striped bass and salmon, all we’re told is that they’re “successful.” All in all, if this is a two-star restaurant — and I’m not saying it couldn’t be — Moskin’s case is rather limp.

Steve Cuozzo of the Post says he doesn’t write reviews any more, but in a piece today called “Messed Western,” he seems to do exactly that, dropping the hammer on Ted Turner’s Montana Grill and Tim Love’s Lonesome Dove Western Bistro. The original Lonesome Dove carries the Zagat #1 food rating in Dallas, so Cuozzo’s review, if true, would be a significant fall from grace. Undeterred by Cuozzo’s review, I’m keeping my reservation at the Lonesome Dove a week from Saturday.