Robert Sietsema at Cupola Samarkanda II; Lauren Shockey at Salinas

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema was lucky enough to sample “some of the best Uzbek fare in the city” at Cupola Samarkanda II. Lauren Shockey finds “textbook tapas, many of them spot-on” at Salinas.

Sam Sifton declares Manhattan’s Chinatown not dead, after all, with the revival of 456 Shanghai Cuisine, which “serves outstanding soup dumplings and fried fish, cold noodles and stir-fries. ” [NY Times]

Steve Cuozzo has high praise for the Dutch: “Places that flaunt a gleeful demolition of culinary boundaries usually make me gag. But The Dutch is about fun food done seriously by a chef at the top of his game. Not since Balthazar opened has there been so good a reason to fight for a table in SoHo.” [NY Post]

Ryan Sutton visits two kosher steakhouses, declaring that “pig is not missed” at Le Marais, while the Prime Grill “may be unimpeachable by religious standards, but for a great steak? Pray harder.” [Bloomberg]

Gael Greene attends several friends-and-family previews at RedFarm, which despite not being open yet “is already impressive,” she says. [Insatiable Critic]

Tables for Two approves of Brushstroke: “The fish dishes (a scallop-and-lobster dumpling, like a scoop of ice cream; miso cod with a sea urchin glommed onto its side, like a barnacle on a boat) are on balance more interesting than the meat ones (duck salad with a plumlike Japanese eggplant; wagyu beef with sansho pepper).” [New Yorker]