Restaurant Critic Roundup: Flay's Gato Gets Rich Rave

This week in restaurant reviews, Alan Richman dissected the celebrity chef craze and checked out Bobby Flay's new Houston Street Spanish-Mediterranean spot Gato. Richman greatly enjoyed his meal, writing that a crab risotto "could not have been more dazzling."

The Insatiable Critic Gael Greene sampled a three-course Peking duck dinner at the New York's Decoy, a new spot from the Red Farm team and chef Joe Ng. Greene was impressed with the meal even if she lamented the sheer quantity of food involved.

"I groan when not one but two entrées arrive," she wrote. "I gaze in dismay at the Jamaican jerk chicken and the extra entrée I insisted on ordering."

In Boston, Devra First wrote that despite new ownership and a new chef, the 20-year-old Les Zygomates wine bar and bistro feels "just the same."

"Its essence is in the brick walls of the place," she continued. "The food is comfortable, solid. Some of it is very good. Some of it less so. It balances out."

New Dallas seafood spot AmberJax received mixed marks from the Dallas Observer's Scott Reitz, who wrote that the restaurant "just about pull off the seaside seafood restaurant from your annual summer vacation. All that's missing is a sizable bar for sipping beer and slurping oysters when you're eating alone."

And finally, Pete Wells took a trek to France where he sampled a vegetable tasting menu of farm-to-table pioneer Alain Passard's L'Arpège.

"Mr. Passard's cooking pulled me in like a conversation with a smart, literate, funny friend," he wrote. "If vegetables can have feelings, these did. They tasted happy."

Critic	Publication	Restaurant	Rating
Devra First	The Boston Globe	Les Zygomates	2/4 Stars
Gael Greene	The Insatiable Critic	Decoy	Positive
Pete Wells	The New York Times	L'Arpège	Positive
Jonathan Gold	Los Angeles Times	Taco Maria	Positive
Alan Richman	GQ	Gato	3/4 Stars
Michael Bauer	San Francisco Gate	Kin Khao	2.5/4 Stars
Scott Reitz	Dallas Observer	AmberJax	Mixed

Adam D'Arpino is the Restaurants Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDArpino.