Critic Roundup: The Food At Agua 301 Is Coated In Salt

This week in restaurant news, The Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema reviews Agua 301, which has a name that is a bit deceiving as nearly everything on the menu is coated in salt. "Did anyone taste this food before it hit my table? Both the basket of chips and the guacamole smack mostly of Morton's. To add insult to injury, the margarita "without salt, please" shows up with a white rim of the seasoning," says Sietsema.

In San Francisco, Alta CA "brings cool to Mid-Market," says San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer. "It's not that everyone is young — there are some diners who might be pushing their 50s — but they all have that cool, almost privileged vibe of empowerment and affluence."

In New York, New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells reviews Gotham West Market, where guests tend to like everything at the food court, except the inconvenience of the location on 11th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. ""But the inconvenient address is the reason this new eating adventure exists," he says. "It was built to lure renters to Gotham West, the 1,238-unit apartment complex above and behind it. As any New York real estate agent can tell you, even buyers who think of themselves as pioneers don't want to mill corn and slaughter hogs like Pa Ingalls. Gotham West's developer tried to answer that objection by bringing forth a troop of places to eat in a spot that had almost none."

Restaurant Critic Roundup: 2/12/2014

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