MUSIC ARCHIVES

Robert Sietsema at Rosemary’s; Tejal Rao at Hillside

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See what NYC’s restaurant critics have been up to this week:

Robert Sietsema files a piece on Rosemary’s in the West Village. He compares the restaurant’s recipes to that of Italian pasta guru Alfredo Viazzi: “While one is often well-advised not to stray into secondi in Tuscan-style restaurants because the pastas are much better and cheaper, that would be a mistake at Rosemary’s. Especially dope is the lamb leg ($23): four stout cubes of rare meat scented with smoke.”

Hillside, the sister of the “more beautiful” Vinegar HIll, is set up with its own charms. According to Tejal Rao, “soft slices of braised tongue ride in with spicy radishes and greens on a wave of horseradish butter ($10).” But not every dish is a catch. Rao wasn’t too impressed with the cola-braised pork ribs.

Adam Platt is at Calliope this week and gives them two stars. Although he’s not too fond of the location, Platt is rather pleased with the food: “the two house pastas–eggy strips of pappardelle tossed with ­rabbit and English peas, malfatti ricotta dumplings with Swiss chard soaked in luxurious amounts of brown butter–are as good as anything you’ll find in the far-flung pasta empires of Messrs. Batali and White.”

One star for Reynard’s by Pete Wells. He complains about the servers’ “occasional fogginess” about what is on the menu (which changes every day): “One day the skill with which the kitchen handles fire may carry over to the rest of its work more reliably. I hope so, because several dishes missed their mark by mere inches.”

Jay Cheshes for Time Out New York goes to Blanca in Brooklyn and gives them four out of five stars: “The finest ingredients are brought to life with just a few complementary notes–a streak of sauce here, a foraged leaf there. The raw materials alone are worth the price of admission, an introductory dollop of caviar with goat’s-milk granita setting the luxurious tone.”

Michael Kaminer hits up Toyko-based restaurant Ootoya this week: “Ootoya may rate high on the authenticity meter — witness hordes of homesick Japanese patrons — but wobbly service and uneven food means it’s still finding its footing.”

The New Yorker tries Super Linda in Tribeca, where the highlight seems to be watching rich men flirt with young women. As for the food: “The best of Super Linda’s offerings are the bar-snack-style starters, like the perky tostada de esquites, a little pile of corn and cotija cheese topped with lime-spiked house-made mayonnaise on tiny crunchy tortillas, and the shrimp balls, with chile de árbol and cilantro.

Highlights