Food critics who make you laugh out loud

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkVhggpDRvm/


(Paywall on the review)

3 Likes

Jay Rayner, hands down.

2 Likes

My all time favorite was Pete Wells review of the now defunct Guy Fieri restaurant near Times Square. It is one of the all time greats.

4 Likes

Classic.

Pete Wells’ NY Times review of Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse is one of my favorites. I wish I could have gone there before it closed.

3 Likes

No, no you do not.

1 Like

No? It sounds fun…and crazy!

It’s a fun atmosphere. But the food was dreadful. And heinously overpriced. I remember reading that review and wondering how Wells had managed to have anything decent. To be fair, I’ve only had fish and vegetarian stuff there, but I wouldn’t feed that salmon to my cat.

2 Likes

Pete Wells (NY Times) on the new plant-based menus at Eleven Madison Park:

They used to do a similar beet act at Agern, a New Nordic restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, roasting it inside a crust of salt and vegetable ash. That beet tasted like a beet, but more
so. The one at Eleven Madison Park tastes like Lemon Pledge and smells like a burning joint.

and

In tonight’s performance, the role of the duck will be played by a beet, doing things no root vegetable should be asked to do. Over the course of three days it is roasted and dehydrated before being wrapped in fermented greens and stuffed into a clay pot, as if it were being sent to the underworld with the pharaoh.

And Jay Rayner. I didn’t keep the URL.

The mere use of an ingredient [foie gras] that I expect to be prohibited soon on grounds of animal cruelty tells us exactly where we are: wading through lakes of self-conscious, sod-you luxury. For emphasis, the website describes this restaurant as “the ultimate dining experience”. That takes the cliché “hostage to fortune” and adds go-faster stripes, turbo injection and one of those huge, redundant aerofoils that men desperately overcompensating for something put on the arse end of their Ford Escorts. Were the claim to be true, I’d never need to eat in a restaurant again after having eaten here. For the record, I do need to eat in a restaurant again.

3 Likes

Oh so true. You went to get drunk on vodka with a big group of people. Never for the food.

My favorite food writer/critic is Tim Hayward of the FT. Just marvelous writing. I’ve learned a lot from reading his columns. He has the wonderfully dry British sense of humor. Turned me on to the Hackney a la Mode twitter account which is so spot on and hilarious about the food is too precious trend.

3 Likes

Ahh… I went to this place. A friend of mine who is a big fan of Fieri wanted her birthday dinner there. I gently reminded her that it didn’t get such a good review. Nevertheless, we relented and went.
It wasn’t completely terrible, but considering we were in NYC, there was so much better to be had.

A couple days later she calls me, laughing hysterically. She finally read the review! And apologized profusely. I’m glad she got a good laugh out of it. And yes, we are still friends.

3 Likes

Intentionally or unintentionally?

Come now, you don’t judge a steakhouse by the salmon and vegetables.

And Sammy’s wasn’t really trying to a be a restaurant, it was about the experience, never the food anyway.

2 Likes

I judge a restaurant by the food. And the food sucked. If you want the experience, though, Dani Luv is still doing shows. Hopefully in places where the food is better.

1 Like

I often enjoyed good oysters, crab & lobster at steakhouses, either when I’ve been pescatarian or not in the mood for steak.

Again, never the point.

Not the point FOR YOU, maybe. For me, yes, crazy fool that I am, I think food should be good in a restaurant. I had fun, because it was my company’s holiday party, so someone else was paying. We got the vodka ice block thing and everything.

I went with a huge group for the same reason — it was a party no matter when. That’s what I meant by food wasn’t the point. It was the atmosphere and the entertainment. And that’s from someone to whom food reigns supreme the rest of the time :slight_smile:

1 Like

22 posts were split to a new topic: Where it's not about the food - #22 by small_h

Here in Portland (ME) dowtown we had a movie theater that tried serving a limited pub menu in its biggest screen room. (They had 8 screens–2 big ones & rest tiny). Had a burger & fries. It was good. But they went oob.

The bigger movie chains seemingly all have a Starbucks or equiv in them.

2 Likes