Bouchon Bistro, Beverly Hills

Bouchon Bistro is the (comparatively) casual arm of Thomas Keller’s restaurant group, which also includes two Micheln three-star restaurants, The French Laundry and Per Se.

There are Bouchons in Yountville (CA), New York, Las Vegas, and Beverly Hills, though the details differ. All four have a bakery/café that serves (mostly) pastries and sandwiches; New York has only that. The other three have more elaborate sit-down restaurants that take reservations, called Bouchon Bistro. The Beverly Hills branch also includes a no-reservations dining area called Bar Bouchon.

Keller says that French bistro cuisine is his favorite, so it was the natural choice when he decided to open something “more casual than The French Laundry.” It would still come across as a relatively formal restaurant by contemporary standards, with its white tablecloths, soaring ceilings, sparkling chandeliers, and a fairly traditional French service model. Only Keller or someone like him would open such a place today.

I thought about analogues in the New York market. In terms of the atmosphere and the clientele it attracts, the closest would be Café Boulud or The Mark by Jean Georges. In terms of the menu (French bistro classics, lightly tweaked), Benoit in West Midtown is the nearest equivalent.

The Beverly Hills branch opened in late 2009. My sister-in-law says that the reviews have been mixed. S. Irene Virbilia filed a rave in the L. A. Times. Jonathan Gold in LAWeekly seemed to feel that it was over-priced for what it is, though he conceded that a Beverly Hills restaurant could hardly be otherwise.

You won’t find a more rabid partisan for classic French cuisine than I, but they have to nail it, especially with entrées hovering around $30, and Bouchon Bistro didn’t. Among the five of us, we found a mixture of hits and clunkers.

There was no complaint about the bread service, though: a warm, twisting rope ladder of mini-baguettes with soft butter (below left).

Cod Brandade (above right) with tomato confit and fried sage was a hit. The light, crisp batter betrayed not a hint of grease. My brother also raved about a squab special (below left), which was rich, juicy, and much more substantial than we expected. This was the dish of the evening.

A beet salad (above right) was so insubstantial that it was almost insulting. Insubstantial too, was the Bouillabaisse (below left), nor particularly good, said both of my tablemates who tried it. And on “use-once” menus that are tissue-paper thin (wrapped around the napkin when you sit down), why must it be listed as a “market price”? It is not as if they are serving lobster or caviar here.

The so-called “Pekin Duck Breast” (above right) was much more satisfying, and cooked just about perfectly, and my brother had no complaint with Trout Grenobloise (below left). But my sister-in-law felt that a pork belly special (below right) was too heavy, with a gloppy glaze of barbecue-like sauce on an already fat-laden hunk of meat.

Service was attentive, though they were in such a rush to take our order that you almost sensed they wanted the table back. The wine list is presented in two parts, a lengthy reserve list in a leather-bound volume, in which nothing is under three figures; and another printed on card stock that is still fairly expensive. We found a decent 2008 Burgundy for a shade under $50, though there weren’t many like it. Even after we said we were done drinking, the staff returned with another bottle, ready to open if I had not been alert enough to stop them.

It’s a lovely, comfortable room, with tables widely spaced. On the whole, you will be well cared for, and you might even stumble upon their better dishes. Then again, you might not.

Bouchon Bistro (235 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA)

Daniel

I’ve visited Daniel twice previously, ordering the tasting menu on both occasions. The regular prix fixe might be the better way. Tasting menus are exhausting. It’s more like running a marathon than eating dinner.

The three-course prix fixe is now up to $108. In contrast, it’s $98 at Jean Georges and $120 for four courses at Le Bernardin. So there is a sense of getting a shade less for your money than at comparable establishments (though the absurd Gordon Ramsay is somehow getting $135 for three courses).

The staff won’t seat incomplete parties, and I over heard a gentleman at the bar being told that if his guests, who were 20 minutes late, did not arrive within another 10 minutes, they would lose their table. I do realize that a busy restaurant that turns tables cannot wait indefinitely, but I think the staff at Per Se or Eleven Madison Park would find a better way of handling it than: “Tough luck!”

But once seated, I have never had anything less than the first-class service than you expect at a restaurant of Daniel’s caliber. (I do not think they recognize me as a blogger—not that I would expect them to care anyway.)

The food, as I have noted before, does not offer the culinary fireworks of Daniel’s four-star brethren. There aren’t any dishes that you dream about, or that you remember vividly months or years later.

Yet, there is a technical accuracy that you have to admire, starting with a trio of exquisitely composed beet amuses (above left).

That same sense of precision was seen in a trio of Yellowfin Tuna (above left): a tartare with caviar, a confit with anchovy dressing, or cured with compressed celery. It was all very beautiful.

So too the mosaic of parsnip and Mallard duck (above right), a meticulous preparation far more elaborate than any ordinary terrine.

These are old-school French portions. Sea bass (above left) was wonderful, but it amounted to a fillet the size of a cigar. Québec suckling pig (above right) was perfectly cooked, but it was a tiny chop that amounted to, oh, about six bites, with a slightly smaller helping of crisp belly underneath.

Of the desserts, a Mandarin-Chestnut Vacherin (above left) was somewhat more worthy of multi-star dining than a mere quartet of sorbets (above right). However, it was my birthday, and I’ve no complaint with the extra cake that was sent out.

The concluding petits fours were lovely (above left), ending whimsically with two tiny cubes of chocolate (below right).

One could get lost in the wine list. The sommelier’s first suggestion (a bottle around $200) was more than we cared to spend, but after we rejected that, he came up with a Savigny Lavières Burgundy at $120 that paired well with both meat and fish.

Daniel offers less bang for the buck than the other restaurants in its class, but for most who choose to dine here, another $10 or $20 a head is really beside the point. If you have to ask, you don’t belong here.

The service, though falling short of extraordinary, is nevertheless excellent, and the artistry of the cuisine is classic. The dining room, re-modeled and updated several years ago, is one of the most beautiful in Manhattan.

Daniel (60 E. 65th Street west of Park Avenue, Upper East Side)

Food: ***½
Service: ***½
Ambiance: ****
Overall: ***½

La Promenade des Anglais

Note: As of September 2012, the restaurant is was renamed  “Bistro La Promenade,” serving straightforward French bistro fare. That shift did not improve its fortunes, and it closed in January 2014. Dave Pasternack, chef of the popular Hell’s Kitchen seafood spot Esca, will be opening an Italian seafood restaurant in the space called Barchetta.

*

Let’s go ahead and call it Allegretti 2.0, chef Alain Allegretti’s second attempt at a midscale French Mediterranean restaurant. I loved Allegretti 1.0, but the public and a number of critics disagreed. Frank Bruni gave it a respectful two stars in The Times, but in New York, Adam Platt compared it to “eating out with my grandmother in Westchester.”

Bruni wrote the more accurate review, but Platt had the more accurate prediction of the public response. They tried removing the tablecloths and offering various specials, but it was to no avail. Two years later, Allegretti “closed for renovations,” never to re-open. The chef consulted briefly at La Petite Maison while he waited to open a new place in far west Chelsea, in the old Bette space.

At La Promenade des Anglais, Allegretti has the particulars right. The tablecloths are gone, there’s a bustling bar, and the entrées top out at $30. (They went as high as $38 at Allegretti 1.0, and that was three years ago.)

V2.0 is not as good as V1.0, but the man has to make a living, and this is the food that a French chef not named Boulud, Ripert, or Vongerichten, can serve in New York these days.

The make-over is quite attractive, including the hard surfaces New Yorkers inexplicably favor these days, making it loud when full. Two months in, the crowds are thronging. Reservations at prime times are hard to come by.

The cuisine casts a wider net than V1.0 did, ranging across the Mediterranean. The chef’s well known Provençale Fish Soup has made the journey, but there’s also a selection of pastas and other Italian classics. The menu is on the safe side, but you can’t blame the guy.

The wine list runs to about seven pages, with good choices in a wide price range. (The 2008 Domaine Poulleau Père de Fils Côte de Beaune was $52. I can’t find a comparison price online, but that struck me as fair.)

Vitello Tonnato ($18; above left) was a happy re-imagining of the classic dish, with veal sweetbreads, sushi-grade blue-fin tuna, and romaine hearts. Ratatouille Raviolini ($19; above right) stuffed with Manchego were in a spicy chorizo tomato sauce.

A salad “Mille Feuilles” ($12; above left) was another re-imagining, with the Gorgonzola crostini taking the role of the puff pastry in the traditional preparation. It was a competent, forgettable salad.

Arctic Char ($25; above right) was beautifully prepared, but I didn’t at all enjoy the clash of ingredients underneath it: duck fat potatoes, endive marmelade, and pomegranate citrus jus. The endive marmelade seemed bitter, and the potatoes undermined the lightness of the fish.

The service was more attentive than I’d expect for a restaurant this busy. I suppose it says something about modern restaurant culture that I didn’t expect it to be very good—and it was.

The Post’s Steve Cuozzo was the first of the professional reviewers to file, awarding two and a half stars. That was my rating for Allegretti 1.0. This version isn’t as good, and although the space will never be an improvement in my book, the cuisine might get there someday.

La Promenade des Anglais (461 W. 23rd St. btwn 9th & 10th Avenues, Chelsea)

Food: *½
Service: **
Ambiance: *½
Overall: *½

Porter House New York

Note: Porter House renovated in early 2016. The restaurant is now branded Porter House Bar & Grill. The decor is now lighter, resembling an upscale tavern. The review below pre-dates the renovation.

*

You know the backstory, right? Michael Lomonoco, the executive chef at Windows on the World, fortuitously ran an errand to pick up a pair of eyeglasses, and missed the conflagration at the World Trade Center, where he would most assuredly have perished.

Five years later, he opened Porter House New York at the Time-Warner Center, replacing V Steakhouse, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s failed attempt at the same genre. Frank Bruni gave it just one star, comparing it to Outback Steakhouse. In a blog post three years later, he found it much improved, though not to the point of granting it a full re-review. The Post’s Steve Cuozzo is one of the few critics who continues to return to it, most recently in September of this year.

I’ve written about Porter House three times (here, here, here), and have paid other visits periodically. I continue to vacillate about where it stands in the NYC steakhouse pantheon. It has probably the loveliest dining room of any NYC steakhouse, with priceless views of Central Park. The service and the wine list are truly top-notch.

Yet, the steaks are often just a shade below what the best steakhouses deliver. Not way below, and not bad by any means. But not what they could be. Take the porterhouse itself ($51pp, below right). It’s sliced a hair too thin, and it doesn’t have the deep char that Minetta Tavern and Peter Luger have on their specimens. This is not rocket science. This is correctable.

Full disclosure: I was recognized, and the kitchen sent out a considerable amount of free food. We had not ordered appetizers, but we received the Wild Italian Arugula Salad (normally $16) and the Baby Scallops (normally $20; both above left) at no charge.

We ordered a side of Brussels Sprouts ($10; below left), and in addition the kitchen sent out the onion rings (normally $10; top of porterhouse photo, above right) and the mixed carrots with honey, dill, and ginger (normally $10; below right), all excellent.

So, you can go ahead and call me compromised, if you’d like, but Porter House ought to be the city’s three-star steakhouse, if only they could make some very correctable corrections to their steaks.

The menu has evolved considerably over the last five years. Where it once had “porterhouses” of beef, lamb, veal, and even monkfish, the standard beef porterhouse is now the only one offered. There remains a wide variety of beef cuts, including the excellent skirt steak at just $32, along with a small selection of seafood entrées (fewer than in the past) and the now-obligatory private-blend burger, for $26. The prices are reasonable for the location.

I’m afraid I don’t recall the wine we ordered off of the 500-bottle list, but I do recall that the sommelier steered me to a slightly less expensive one that he said was better, and then decanted it. This is a first-class operation.

Chef Lomonoco’s deal to open Porter House stipulated, among other things, that he would not open another restaurant for a significant period of time. I am not sure if that restriction has expired, but I’ve seen him on the floor just about every time I visit. This continues to be his only focus, as far as I can tell. (He is planning a wine bar in the adjacent space, on the top floor of the Time-Warner Center, which sounds like a complement to the restaurant, rather than a truly new venture.)

Unlike V Steakhouse, Frank Bruni’s one-star review did not hurt Porter House. I remember finding it near-empty during the dark days of the economic collapse, but on a recent Thursday evening it was full. Good for them, and good for New York.

Porter House New York (Time-Warner Center, 10 Columbus Circle, 4th floor)

Food: **
Service: ***
Ambiance: ***
Overall: **½

New York Times 3 & 4-Star Restaurants

This is a list of New York City restaurants currently open, that:
(1) Have now, or have ever had, at least one Michelin star; or,
(2) Have now, or have ever had, three or four New York Times stars.

For both Michelin and The Times, the list shows the maximum number of stars it has ever had (“Max”), and the current number of stars it has (“Curr.”)

The two rating systems are somewhat correlated. Most restaurants with at least one Michelin star have three NYT stars, or did at one time, and vice versa. Where this is not the case, it could mean that one service or the other has over- or under-rated the restaurant.

Unlike The Times, the Michelin ratings are anonymous (you don’t know who came up with them) and are published without explanation. But the Michelin ratings are updated annually, and are often reflect changes (for good or bad) that The Times fails to react to.

So you could think of this list as the set of restaurants that are plausible candidates for three or four NYT stars, or were at one time, whether or not they are now.

Restaurant	Michelin		New York Times
	Max.	Curr.	Max.	Curr.	Critic	Date
15 East	*	*	**	**	Bruni	7-11-07
Ai Fiori	*	*	***	***	Sifton	4-23-11
Aldea	*	*	**	**	Bruni	4-7-09
Annisa	*	*	**	**	Sifton	6-23-10
Aquavit	*	*	***	**	Sifton	7-21-10
Atera	**	**	***	***	Wells	7-18-12
Aureole	*	*	***	*	Sifton	11-11-09
A Voce Columbus	*	*	**	**	Sifton	11-25-09
A Voce Madison	*	*	***	***	Bruni	5-10-06
Babbo	*	–	***	***	Bruni	6-9-05
Blanca	*	*	**	**	Wells	10-16-12
BLT Fish	*	–	***	***	Bruni	4-20-05
Blue Hill	*	*	***	***	Bruni	8-2-06
Blue Hill at Stone Barns	–	–	***	***	Bruni	7/28/04
Bouley	**	*	***	***	Bruni	3-25-09
Breslin, The	*	*	*	*	Sifton	1-12-10
Brooklyn Fare	***	***	***	***	Sifton	4-27-11
Brushstroke	*	*	**	**	Sifton	7-13-11
Brushstroke (Ichimura)			***	***	Wells	9-26-12
Café Boulud	*	*	***	***	Bruni	8-15-07
Café China	*	*	**	**	Wells	5-2-13
Carbone	–	–	***	***	Wells	6-5-13
Casa Mono	*	*	**	**	Burros	1-28-04
Colicchio & Sons	–	–	***	***	Sifton	3/17/10
Corton	**	**	***	***	Bruni	12-10-08
Craft	*	–	***	***	Sifton	9-7-11
Daniel	***	***	****	****	Bruni	1/21/09
Danji	*	*	*	*	Sifton	8-17-11
Danny Brown	*	*	–	–	NEVER	NEVER
Del Posto	**	*	****	****	Sifton	9/29/10
Dévi	*	–	**	**	Bruni	11/17/04
Dovetail	*	*	***	***	Bruni	2/20/08
Dressler	*	*	**	**	Bruni	6/7/07
Eleven Madison Park	***	***	****	****	Bruni	8/12/09
Esca	–	–	***	***	Bruni	4/18/07
Felidia	–	–	***	***	Bruni	8/30/06
Four Seasons, The	–	–	***	**	Bruni	4/4/07
Gilt	**	**	**	**	Bruni	2/8/06
Gotham Bar & Grill	*	*	***	***	Sifton	5-17-11
Gordon Ramsay	**	**	**	**	Bruni	1/31/07
Gramercy Tavern	*	*	***	***	Bruni	6/6/07
Hakkasan	*	*	*	*	Wells	6-12-12
Il Buco A&V	–	–	***	***	Wells	3/14/12
Jean Georges	***	***	****	****	Bruni	4/19/06
Jewel Bako	*	*	*	*	Bruni	6/21/06
JoJo	*	–	***	***	Grimes	4/17/02
Jungsik	*	*	**	**	Wells	2-28-12
Junoon	*	*	**	**	Sifton	3-30-11
Kajitsu	**	*	**	**	Wells	6-18-03
Kyo Ya	*	*	***	***	Wells	4/11/12
Kurumazushi	*	–	***	***	Reichl	10/6/95
Lan Sheng	*	*	–	–	–	–
Laut	*	–	–	DB	Moskin	7/29/09
La Grenouille	–	–	****	***	Sifton	12/23/09
Le Bernardin	***	***	****	****	Wells	5/23/05
Le Cirque	–	–	****	**	Wells	9/19/12
Le Périgord	–	–	***	**	Grimes	10/11/00
Marc Forgione	*	–	**	**	Sifton	10/6/10
Marea	**	**	***	***	Sifton	10/21/09
Masa	***	***	****	***	Sifton	6-15-11
Minetta Tavern	*	*	***	***	Bruni	5/20/09
Modern, The (Bar Rm.)	–	–	***	***	Bruni	1/10/07
Modern, The (Dine. Rm.)	*	*	***	***	Wells	3-26-13
Molyvos	–	–	***	**	Asimov	7/17/02
Momofuku Ko	**	**	***	***	Bruni	5/7/08
Momofuku Ssäm Bar	–	–	***	***	Bruni	12/3/08
Nobu	*	–	***	***	Reichl	9/8/95
Nobu 57	–	–	***	***	Bruni	9/28/05
Nobu, Next Door	–	–	***	***	Reichl	12/23/98
NoMad, The	*	*	***	***	Wells	6/20/12
Oceana	*	*	***	**	Sifton	11/18/09
Palm & Palm Too	–	–	***	*	Sifton	7-27-11
Patroon	–	–	***	**	Asimov	7/10/02
Perry St.	*	–	***	***	Bruni	9/7/05
Per Se	***	***	****	****	Sifton	10-12-11
Peter Luger	*	*	***	**	Bruni	9/19/07
Picholine	**	*	***	***	Bruni	11/8/06
Public	*	*	**	**	Grimes	12/17/03
River Café	*	*	***	**	Grimes	2/13/02
Rosanjin	*	*	**	**	Bruni	3/28/07
Rouge Tomate	*	*	*	*	Bruni	1/7/09
Sammy’s Roumanian	–	–	***	***	Sheraton	5/21/82
Saul	*	*	**	**	Wells	10/7/09
Scalini Fedeli	*	–	*	*	Grimes	10/13/99
Scarpetta	–	–	***	***	Bruni	7/30/08
Seäsonal	*	*	**	**	Asimov	2/25/09
Shalezeh	*	–	–	–	NEVER	NEVER
Soto	**	**	**	**	Bruni	9/5/07
Spice Market	–	–	***	*	Bruni	6/24/09
Spotted Pig, The	*	*	*	*	Bruni	1/25/06
Sugiyama	–	–	***	***	Reichl	3/17/99
Sushi Azabu	*	*	*	*	Bruni	10/29/08
Sushi of Gari	*	*	**	**	Bruni(1)	3/2/05
Sushi Yasuda	–	–	***	***	Asimov	11-16-11
Tamarind Tribeca	*	*	**	**	Sifton	8/4/10
Tori Shin	*	*	–	–	NEVER	NEVER
Torrisi Italian Specialties	*	*	**	**	Sifton	6-8-10
Tulsi	*	*	*	*	Sifton	3-30-11
Union Square Cafe	–	–	***	**	Bruni	8/5/09
Veritas	*	–	***	***	Sifton	3-16-11
Wallsé	*	*	**	**	Hesser	5/5/04
WD~50	*	*	***	***	Bruni	3/5/08

Note 1: Frank Bruni actually reviewed Gari, the west side branch of Sushi of Gari. The latter does not appear to have ever been reviewed in The Times, but the two are quite similar.

Toloache (Upper East Side)

Chef Julian Medina’s mini-empire of Latino/Mexican restaurants is now six strong with the third outpost of Toloache, which opened on the Upper East Side in October.

In 2007, when I visited the original Toloache, in the theater district, the service was annoying, and not all the dishes quite worked. But the place was a hit. I wandered in without a reservation one evening last winter, and even at the bar they couldn’t accommodate me.

The new location, on East 82nd Street, couldn’t be more different. Here, there is no steady stream of tourists and theater-goers. The restaurant will need to develop a neighborhood following, which is certainly possible: Flex Mussels is successful on the very same block, as is Luke’s Lobster a couple of blocks away.

Toloache 82 is a smaller, more intimate space than its predecessor, with a series of connected rooms that aren’t as overwhelming as the bi-level cavern on 50th Street. The staff are friendlier, more polished, and they aren’t in as much of a rush.

The menu hasn’t changed much in four years: you can still get tacos filled with dried grasshoppers. I didn’t try them then, and I still won’t. I imagine serve about three orders per week. But Foie Gras tacos, which seemed gimmicky back then, are no longer on offer.

Prices have gone up by just a dollar or two per dish, which really isn’t bad over four years.

There are three preparations of guacamole. We ordered the traditional ($13; above left), an unremarkable version of this classic dish, not prepared at the table, as some of the better Mexican restaurants do.

There are ten varieties of tacos ($10–17 for two). We had the Suadero ($12; above left), with braised brisket, tomatillo salsa and horseradish crema. It’s not a huge portion, but they’re bursting with flavor.

We also liked the avocado fries ($9; above right), basically the consistency of french fries, made with avocado.

The Carnitas de Lechon ($26; above left), an entrée-sized order of shredded suckling pig, was more ordinary. It could have been shredded chicken or (non-suckling) pork, and it would have tasted the same. A carrot cake dessert called Red Velvet ($9; above right) was just fine. [Sorry about the blurry photo: pilot error.]

There’s a fifty-bottle wine list, with plenty of choices well below $50 per bottle, plus almost a hundred tequilas and fifteen cocktails, most of them margaritas, which is all we drank.

At 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday evening, there were hardly any customers at all, but by 8:00 it was packed—the exact opposite of an evening in the theater district. Service was fine. A drink purchased at the bar did not transfer to the table, but at this type of restaurant it seldom does.

Fried grasshoppers aside, this is not authentic Mexican cuisine, but Mexican interpreted through an American lens. But it’s a solid, reliable choice if you’re in the area, and certainly more interesting than the garden-variety Mexican found in most Manhattan neighborhoods.

Toloache 82 (251 W. 50th St. between Eighth Avenue & Broadway, Theater District)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: *
Overall: *

The Asimov Chronicles

Here is a handy list of all the “starred” reviews Eric Asimov has written for The New York Times, both in his first tour (June 19–December 4, 2002) and his second tour (October 26, 2011–present).

Both tours were as an interim critic, the first time while William Grimes was on leave; the second as a fill-in between the tenures of Sam Sifton and Pete Wells.

Date	Restaurant	Rating	Comments
FIRST TOUR
06/19/2002	Blue Smoke	*	Still open
06/26/2002	Butter	*	Still open
07/03/2002	Compass	**	Closed
07/10/2002	Patroon	*	Still open
07/17/2002	Molyvos	**	Still open
07/24/2002	Teodora	*	Closed
07/31/2002	MarkJoseph Steakhouse	*	Still open
08/07/2002	The Basil	*	Closed
08/14/2002	Fresh	**	Closed
08/21/2002	ROUGE	ZERO	Closed
08/28/2002	Il Gattopardo	**	Still open
09/04/2002	Django	*	Closed
09/11/2002	Zócalo	*	Closed
09/18/2002	La Caravelle	***	Closed
09/25/2002	Noche	*	Closed
10/02/2002	F.illi Ponte	ZERO	Still open
10/09/2002	Pazo	**	Closed
10/16/2002	industry(food)	*	Closed
10/23/2002	Alfama	*	Moved to East Midtown
10/30/2002	Diwan	**	Closed
11/06/2002	RM	***	Closed
11/13/2002	Le Madri	**	Closed
11/20/2002	Dos Caminos	*	Still open
11/27/2002	Sushi Seki	**	Still open
12/04/2002	L’Impero	***	Closed
SECOND TOUR
10/26/2011	Salinas	**
11/02/2011	Saxon + Parole	*
11/09/2011	Rouge et Blanc	**
11/16/2011	Sushi Yasuda	***
11/23/2011	Isa	*
11/30/2011	Fatty ’Cue	**
12/07/2011	Monkey Bar	**
12/14/2011	Seäsonal	**
12/21/2011	Lupa	*
12/28/2011	Mas (la grillade)	**

Tout Va Bien

Tout Va Bien, which opened in 1948, claims to be the Theater District’s oldest French restaurant. There can’t be many older than that anywhere in the city. It’s family-owned, now in its third generation.

The restaurant is low-key, old-school, and not especially charming. The cramped dining room has two dozen closely-spaced tables covered with butcher paper (and one lonely table outside). An old-fashioned L-shaped wooden bar has a TV showing a hockey game. The usual French posters share wall space with photos of B-list celebrities who’ve visited (probably none recently), augmented by chintzy Halloween decorations. A low ceiling lends an air of claustrophobia.

But I heard French spoken at the bar and at the tables, so to some visitors this must be a reminder of home.

The menu doesn’t change frequently (mine sported a cigarette burn), although I noted they now have a burger, which was probably not offered in 1948. Otherwise, it’s all French bistro classics, with many entrées under $20. A breaded pork cutlet in mushroom sauce was strictly diner food. My friend enjoyed the steak frites, but I found the fries a bit greasy.

I booked a 7:30 p.m. table, to avoid the pre-theater crowd, but they had a decent crowd even after that, so apparently the place is still popular. I suspect the pork was not their best performance, but I won’t be rushing back.

Tout Va Bien (301 W. 51st Street, west of Eighth Avenue, Theater District)

The Meaning of Meh

So, Pete Wells is the new restaurant critic at The Times.

As I expected, the job went to a NYT insider, as it has done each of the last three times it was vacant (William Grimes, Frank Bruni, and Sam Sifton). And like each of the last three, it is probably not a career move, but rather a sabbatical en route to some other job, a few years from now.

Sam Sifton was officially announced as National Editor on September 13. Heaven knows why it took two months to find a replacement, when he was a few feet away the whole time. Was he drafted, like Sifton? Or did he have to apply, and then twist in the wind while higher-ups decided whether to give him the big promotion?(*)

(*Technically, the restaurant critic works for the Dining Section editor, the position Wells is vacating. But given the visibility and influence of the job, this is a step up. They are not demoting Wells, trust me.)

Fortunately, we do have some evidence of what Wells will be like as a restaurant critic, as he filed several reviews during the last interregnum, between Bruni and Sifton. I have no argument with any of his starred reviews: Gus & Gabriel Gastropub (zero stars), Hotel Griffou (zero), The Standard Grill (one), and Saul (two).

On the other hand, when he had the opportunity to hit a home run, he whiffed. If you don’t understand that SHO Shaun Hergatt is a three-star restaurant, you are presumptively unqualified. He could, of course, eventually show us that this error was a momentary lapse, and not a fair indication of his judgment. I’m not holding my breath.

At least his full reviews, from two years ago, show none of the preciousness or pretension of Sam Sifton. If he can just keep writing in that style, the reviews will be a lot better than they’ve been the last two years.

Tertulia

The new Spanish restaurant Tertulia is this year’s “I-don’t-get-it” place. It isn’t bad: I visited three times, which I wouldn’t have done if I’d hated it. But I don’t understand the hype.

And hyped it is. Tertulia got an enthusiastic two stars in The Times, two-and-half in Bloomberg, three in New York, and four out of five in Time Out. Serious Eats was a notable dissenter: they rated it a B, and said, “We don’t get it.”

To be fair, I wasn’t taken with Boqueria, chef Seamus Mullen’s last place, which he left “amicably” last year. The two places are similar (same cuisine, casual vibe, reservations not taken, quite loud when full), so perhaps Mullen and I are just not on the same wavelength.

The printed menu changes frequently, and there seem to be announced specials every day. Most of the offerings are in two categories: breads, cheeses, and charcuterie ($5–20) and tapas ($6–16). There are usually two or three larger plates offered, for which prices can vary widely. A 40-day aged prime rib, shown on the website and mentioned in some reviews, was $72, but as of last Friday it was no longer on the menu.

Anyhow, the tapas are the core of a meal here, but very few of them pleased me. Either they were too bland, or too salty, or too greasy. A couple were pretty good, but Mullen’s batting average wasn’t high enough.

Tomates de Nuestro Mercado, a salad of heirloom tomatoes, melon, cucumbers, fresh cheese, and herbs (, $14; above left) was competent and forgettable. Spanish mackerel with Fabes beans ($12, above right) was so bland that it left no impression at all. Even the roasted and pickled peppers were unable to come to the rescue.

Cojonudo…Revisited ($5; above left) was a hit, and one of the better bargains on the menu. It’s just two bites of smoked pig cheek topped with a fried quail egg and pepper, but packed with all the flavor the first two dishes lacked.

Nuestras Patatas ($9; above right) ought to come with a warning: not to be ordered by one person. Crispy potatoes drizzled with Pimentó and garlic had a spicy kick, but you want at least two or three fellow-diners to share it.

Mullen touts Arroz a la Plancha ($16; above left) as a signature dish, but I hated it. The description (Calasparra rice, snails, wild mushrooms, celery, fennel, Ibérico ham) sounds promising , but it’s dominated by a torpedo of greasy brown rice that had none of the crisp char that you would expect from the plancha.

The flavors really pop out in the Ensalata de Otoño ($13; above right), with squash, kale, mushrooms, Idiazábal cheese, and mushroom vinaigrette. There is not a lot going on here, but it’s a successful dish.

The last item I tried was one of the large-format plates, the Fabada ($32; above left), a bean stew with pork belly, house-made morcilla and chorizo. The pork belly was crisped up nicely, and the chorizo had a strong, spicy kick. The morcilla, or blood sausage, seemed a bit too loose, and the Fabes beans still seemed bland to me, as they had the first time. The cold side of red cabbage that came with it (above right) did not add much.

The beverage program emphasizes sherries, ciders, and wine. There is no printed cocktail list, but the mixed drinks are good, if you ask for them. As I was alone, I didn’t have an opportunity to explore much of the wine list, but the Spanish ciders are worth a try. One one visit, I was served wine in a juice glass, which a Facebook friend said is common in Spain, but on another I was given a proper wine stem.

The dining room occupies a long, narrow space, with distressed brick walls, dark wood tables without tablecloths, and an open kitchen in the back. It is rather dark, and there are no windows, except at the front. Unlike Boqueria, Tertulia at least has real tables and seats with backs, though I didn’t get one: I sat at the bar three times. Last Friday night, there was a 10-minute wait for a bar stool at 6:00 p.m., with most tables taken. It was standing-room-only by 7:30.

That is the rhythm of dinner at Tertulia, three months in. Servers are friendly, knowledgeable, and good at multi-tasking, as they have to be in a place this busy. The cuisine here makes a nod at ambition. The menu seems to rely heavily on authentic ingredients, and the chef is not afraid to challenge his audience, but the ratio of hits to misses is not good enough.

Tertulia (359 Sixth Ave. between W. 4th St. & Washington Pl., West Village)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: *
Overall: *