Critic Roundup: Shalom Japan Mixes Jewish And Japanese Food

This week in restaurant news, NY Daily News' restaurant critic Stan Sagner gives four stars to Brooklyn's Shalom Japan, a restaurant collaboration between chefs Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi mixing Jewish and Japanese cuisines. "As you pass through traditional Japanese noren curtains emblazoned with the Imperial Sun overlapping a Star of David, it's quickly clear that this is no garden-variety Brooklyn farm-to-tabler," he says.

In Califorina, the flame at Oakland's Penrose is "burning brighter," says the San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant critic Michael Bauer. "The kitchen looks like an elaborate stage," he says." A scalloped glass awning rises above two massive grills with flames flaring up the back; the kitchen crew tends the fire and moves in a choreographed manner to serve the guests in front."

In England, Heston Blumenthal's The Crown at Bray serves pub food in a 16-century building, according to Bloomberg's restaurant critic Richard Vines. "It's just down the road from the Fat Duck, which holds three Michelin stars, and from the Hinds Head, where the chef has won another star," he says. ."...You're more likely to see locals drinking beer than hear gourmets discussing gastronomy," he says. "Yet among the inn's low-beamed ceilings and open fires, the food is very good."

Restaurant Critic Roundup: 1/29/2014

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Haley Willard is The Daily Meal's assistant editor. Follow her on Twitter at @haleywillrd.