Vintage Insatiable Critic
As George Eliot observed while waiting for dessert, “It is hard to live up to our own eloquence, and keep pace with our winged words, while we are treading the solid earth and are liable to heavy dining.” Still I hope vintage readers of the Insatiable Critic in New York might be amused to see these vintage reviews. And perhaps newly arrived gourmands might be amused to discover our early obsessions. Many of the restaurants I loved or skewered or had high hopes for are gone. These older reviews are here for nostalgia or visitors in search of history.
If you have a favorite ancient critique you would like to see here email me.
Hot Topics
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June 4, 1990 | Vintage Insatiable The Newest Restaurant Trend is … Gulp… Cutting Prices! Call it bistro, call it …
Dark Night at the Circus
Sirio Maccioni frets over who can bring the stars back to Le Cirque …
On the Town with the Batterberrys
The Bats, as their pals call them, are out on the town again. Tonight begins at the American Ballet Theater …
Return to Vietnam
I worry that the languor and charm of the Hanoi I loved in 1997 will have fallen… …
Tabla’s Bread Bar
I’m a sample-sale junkie, so I love the discount prices and no-reservation spontaneity of bar menus. Back from two months …
Daniel: Double Your Pleasure
Now that Daniel Boulud has opened a $10 million celebration of the seasons just eleven blocks south of Cafe Boulud, …
Punsch Line
Did you know there’s a West 60th Street? It runs the unexpected way, west from Broadway. How perverse. But then, …
Eleven Madison/Gramercy Tavern
If you see Danny Meyer lurking in the bushes, he’s probably scouting a restaurant. The man is a fool for …
City Hall: We’ll Meat Again
For a moment, I feel I am stepping back in time. The warped pavement, the whitewashed façade of the turn-of-the-century …
Lespinasse Encore: Born-Again Christian
After stepping into Gray Kunz’s 4-star shoes at the St. Regis, Christian Delouvrier discovers depths he never knew he had …
The Joy of Excess
If there really can be too much of a good thing, then breakfast at Norma’s ought to be against the …
Michel Guérard Revisited
It may be “The First Slimming Village of France,” as a sign warns at the entrance to the somnolent hamlet …
The Pride of Gascony: The Daguins
Like André Daguin, all three of his children – Ariane, Arnaud and Anne – tried to escape their heritage. But …
Cyclo Hits the Street
Mint corsages gussy up street food at Cyclo in the West Village…Acrosstown Annam hits the Ho Chi Minh trail too… …
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November 10, 1997 | Vintage Insatiable ASIA DE CUBA: WILY CHAYOTE Billows of white, bathtubs of rum, and the frenetic …
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November 10, 1997 | Vintage Insatiable ASIA DE CUBA: WILY CHAYOTE Billows of white, bathtubs of rum, and the frenetic …
Into the Mouths of Babes
Let us pamper and indulge the ideal restaurant child. And give the other run-around space and non-destructible décor… …
Le Cirque 2000: Space Odyssey
Le Cirque 2000 struts into new quarters in a vintage palazzo and strains to live up to its vaunted reputation …
Balthazar: Kiss Kiss Before Dining
It’s bread and circuses as the Entire Eastern Seaboard piles into Keith McNally’s faux French brasserie and bakery on the …
Cellar in the Sky: 5 Wines, River Vu
Diehard grape nuts and tipplers-in-training are toasting Cellar in the Sky at the Trade Center. SoHo does lunch at the …
Where the Boys Are
Mario, Marco and Mauro Maccioni do the Sirio at Osteria del Circo. A second-generations Cipriani takes the act Downtown… …
To Grand-mére’s House
Over the year’s I’ve mastered tall towers of yellow tail, flying buttresses of rice cracker, chocolate pianos, feathers etched in …
Tall Orders
Fancy American food – already aggressively muscular – seems to be growing ever taller. I do appreciate a sprightly salad, …
Vintage Insatiable Critic Archive 11 (1995-2006)
Vintage Insatiable Critic: 1995-2006 11 TALL ORDERS March 20, 1995 Fancy American food – already aggressively muscular – seems to …
Aja, Lemongrass Roots
Stutters of cilantro and pastry flying buttresses trick up the East-West antics of the intrepid chef at Aja… …
Nobu: Toro! Toro! Toro!
The chef’s taste and bravado, honed on a path from Japan to Alaska to Peru and Argentina, had lured the …
Born Again Monkey Bar
Like their simian cousins at Le Cirque, these monkeys, lovingly restored on the barroom walls, ape human games: Damon Runyon …
Cub Room: Stylish Bedlam
Immersed In the ritual of Andre Soltner’s monastic cellar kitchen Henry Meer had waited for the perfect deal and dreamed …
Café Centro: French with a Moroccan Accent
Summer’s restaurant seedlings may still need weeding. But very quickly, Cafe Centro has become exactly what it promised to be …
Campagna: Ciao Down
In no time at all, Coco Pazzo’s coddled darlings have dropped by, along with the usual nighthawks and avant-garde fashion …
Match Ado
The instant overnight lunacy never ceases to amaze. As if a skittish flock of flutter-bys were poised in midair just …
Virgil’s: Amazing Grease
’Pig Out,’ says the menu. No arm-twisting needed. All of us are snatching from the Brobdingnagian smorgasbord at Virgil’s …
River Café: Of Thyme and the River
New Yorkers may take it for granted. Our sentimental nook under the crooning Brooklyn Bridge, reserved for ritual celebrations, an …
Of Thyme and the River
We may take The River Café for granted. But no matter the hour or season, even with rain veiling the …
Martini’s/Mustang Grill
There he is, Richard Krause, tall, with a long flip of braid flying as he conducts the kitchen chorus, his …
Shanks for the Memories
At Cascabel, the amazing lamb marches out of the kitchen in triumph. At Alison on Dominick, it’s good and juicy…” …
Fire and Rice
Folks who live below the Maginot Line (for some, it’s 14th Street, for others 23rd) like to think they have …
Les Célèbrités: The Sweet Smell of Excess
Not everyone was humbled in the nineties. Don’t you feel the frisson? Déjà moola. Grown men throwing billions at each …
Sizzling Steak Wars
Why, after a decade of fussing over our arteries, red meat cast as the enemy, are steakhouses jumping? Especially expensive …
Fresco: Penne from Heaven
At Fresco, pals and curious neighbors are dropping in– and loving the food. A killer gratin, macaroni baked for a …
Matthew’s Gospel – Demi in Carnegie Hill
Blink your eyes and it’s Ricks in Casablanca: billowing white veils overhead, ceiling fans revolving lazily, the ghosts of Bogey …
Celebrating FatBoy at Harley Davidson
In these not exactly carefree times, what could be sexier than a legendary hawg- our very own all-American Harley Davidson? …
Picholine: Olive and Kicking
We are a gaggle of tickled tastebuds gathered around a table at Picholine, not quite daring to be bearish about …
Morton’s of Chicago/Eastern Seafood
“New York is our kind of town,” trumpets Morton’s of Chicago, “the steakhouse every city wants.” But is Morton’s New …
Mad 61: Dressing on the Side
Imagine shaking down in the vortex of a tornado. Mad, indeed. And it’s not seasoned yet. But we’re all here …
Gotham: Grill Crazy
“…They want to know my favorite restaurant. When I say, ‘The Gotham Bar and Grill,’ they stare blankly. Noses wrinkle …
Lutece: My Dinners with Andre
He is the John Wayne of beurre blanc, defending the fort long after the rebels have hoisted the flag of …
True Brit
Merry Old England may be gone with the Windsors, but the pound is down—and the eating in London is better …
Street Food
The exhaust fumes we devour like some exotic chutney on a sandwich au jambon in Paris feel somehow menacing on …
The Book on Daniel
It’s not the month to launch an ambitious new restaurant. But even if Daniel weren’t slightly out of sync, its …
Flying Colors
After two decades roving and whisking, here and in France, gathering strength and certification in the wings while others danced, …
Blue Ribbon: The Comfort of PuPu/ Out of Our League at High Life
Flames of the once nearly extinct pu pu platter cast a soothing glow and the menu flits from suburban rec …
Petit Pan
The noisily ballyhooed search for a master to replace the decamping Daniel Boulud has run aground… …
The Vong Show
“I don’t want it to be too Thai,” says Vongerichten. “I just want people to leave with a mouth full …
Out of the Pool and Into the Grill
The Four Seasons’ Grill has always been sexy by day, in that perverse and tantalizing way in which power and …
Market Dinner at Chanterelle
Tonight’s dinner will have to be sublime to win us over and cool the choler from waiting 45 minutes for …
A Wok in Progress
The worst flaw in David Keh’s new venture is that it’s too small for the stampeding gourmands who are going …
Arizona 206: Hot and Sweet
What delicious shock to wander, by whimsy, into Arizona 206, a once-favorite haunt, unprepared for the roller-coaster thrills of a …
Zen Palate/Jewel of India
‘It must be ham,’ my friends cry, biting into vegetable bundles tied with dried -zucchini cords. Ham forbid. It’s smoked …
Zarela
Zarela Martinez is a tough city flower. Toss her out of the greenhouse into the cold and she’ll take root …
Zabar’s in Excelsis
Once, Zabar’s was just a little neighborhood deli, known for the haunting tang of its lox and the perfume of …
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April 18, 1988 | Vintage Insatiable Zabar’s: Valhalla á la Murray Klein Caviar Warrior Murray Klein with Zabar’s troops, Kenny …
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December 11, 1978 | Vintage Insatiable Zabar’s In Excelsis Once, Zabar’s was just a little neighborhood deli, known for the …
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December 11, 1978 | Vintage Insatiable Zabar’s In Excelsis Once, Zabar’s was just a little neighborhood deli, known for the …
List
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June 4, 1990 | Vintage Insatiable The Newest Restaurant Trend is … Gulp… Cutting Prices! Call it bistro, call it …
Dark Night at the Circus
Sirio Maccioni frets over who can bring the stars back to Le Cirque …
On the Town with the Batterberrys
The Bats, as their pals call them, are out on the town again. Tonight begins at the American Ballet Theater …
Return to Vietnam
I worry that the languor and charm of the Hanoi I loved in 1997 will have fallen… …
Recommended
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June 4, 1990 | Vintage Insatiable The Newest Restaurant Trend is … Gulp… Cutting Prices! Call it bistro, call it …
Dark Night at the Circus
Sirio Maccioni frets over who can bring the stars back to Le Cirque …
On the Town with the Batterberrys
The Bats, as their pals call them, are out on the town again. Tonight begins at the American Ballet Theater …
Return to Vietnam
I worry that the languor and charm of the Hanoi I loved in 1997 will have fallen… …
Tabla’s Bread Bar
I’m a sample-sale junkie, so I love the discount prices and no-reservation spontaneity of bar menus. Back from two months …
