Frank Bruni reviews

Wednesday, October 01, 2008 - What's in a name change? In the case of Convivio, which used to be L’Impero, a whole lot more than a new alignment of vowels and consonants. There’s a new color scheme, with red supplanting blue, and a new mood, warmer and looser. There’s a new menu, which adds a category of uncomplicated snacks, and a new, lower price for a four-course prix fixe of appetizer, pasta, main course and dessert...

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - Let’s pause to praise an invention of the new restaurant Delicatessen, whose audience isn’t so much grizzled epicures sniffing out luxurious treasures as it is frazzled night crawlers looking for foodstuffs that double as alcohol sponges...

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - In many ways the General Greene is a cautious restaurant, performing so many popular riffs that it's the culinary equivalent of a song written solely to go Top 40. The menu trots out the big-city comfort foods of the moment and dutifully labels them "snacks." Other dishes, labeled "share plates," are modestly portioned and seldom more than $12...

Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - If you've ever wondered what Barbie might binge on when Ken's getting her down, the new restaurant Elizabeth has the answer. It's called a cotton candy sundae, and it's a strawberry jubilee: strawberry ice cream and macerated strawberries topped with swirls of spun sugar colored pink and blue…

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - First a friend mentioned it. Then a popular blog mentioned it. And then it came up in a conversation with a new acquaintance, who said he'd just tried it, and what do you know? He was wild about it, too. What was going on at Perbacco?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - At Megu, which is only a few blocks from Matsugen, you can marvel at the gigantic bell that hangs from the ceiling, at the ice Buddha beneath it or at any number of other decorative exclamation points. Matsugen, in contrast, has some fish tanks between the dining room and the kitchen, but no other particularly striking visual flourishes.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - This new, tiny, relatively un-frenzied restaurant in the East Village flouts any number of conventions, chief among them an obvious, all-out effort to turn a handsome profit. When the check is delivered, the first stage you'll experience is puzzlement, followed by relief, giving way to a grateful transportation epiphany: you may well be able to afford a taxi instead of the subway home.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008 - Drat! The gods must be lazy. It’s 10:00:09 and the computer is saying that every reservation has just been taken. Try again tomorrow, and the day after that. Promise the gods your chocolate Lab as well. Ko doesn’t come easy, and that’s a big part of why it is, and will no doubt remain, the most talked-about new restaurant this year.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006 - When a late-October milestone of my own approached and I surveyed the restaurants in my sights, I decided to celebrate the occasion with the last in a series of visits to Picholine. What a happy birthday I had. What an impressive turnaround Mr. Brennan has accomplished.