Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/dining/tejal-rao-ligaya-mishan-restaurant-critics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OE8.KKoP.QC_vFBibJqPZ&smid=url-share
I enjoy both of these writers, and I’m looking forward to reading their reviews.
And I hope this doesn’t generate a discussion of restaurant critics in general. I think that train has already left the station, but whatever!
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I like one of them.
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Just curious - which one do you like?
I think Tejal Rao is a skilled, informative writer. I think the other one is more interested in flowery language and wordplay, which is fine in a poem and less fine in journalism.
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Did I miss something? I thought Melissa Clark and Priya Krishna were sort of competing for this post with their interim critic roles? I probably got the wrong end of the stick.
If how Priya Krishna was received here by some is any indication of a more common sentiment, I’m not surprised at all.
I vastly prefer Tejal Rao to Priya Krishna. There was just something about Krishna’s writing that didn’t appeal.
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And another thing. I am vehemently opposed to the focus switch from NYC to “starred reviews of restaurants all over the country.” Because “all over the country” has its own critics and doesn’t need the NYT weighing in. And because I don’t care about some random restaurant in some random place unless I have plans to visit said random place.
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The Guardian has the opposite problem with its readership, with a spirited comments section when they publish a review of a London restaurant - lots of complaints along the lines of ‘London does not represent the whole of the UK. Your critics should get out of London more often. Etc, etc’.
But The Guardian is not called The London Times! Its most infamous review was the one by Jay Rayner of Le Cinq in Paris. It was a hugely negative review of a restaurant I would never dream of visiting even without a negative review. But boy do I enjoy going back and re-reading that piece.
I suppose someone in NYT management has made a decision that it needs to cement its status as a national newspaper. Maybe they have more online readership outside of NY now and analysts told them to cater to this audience. I am an NYT international subscriber and don’t mind where the reviewed restaurants are located - as long as the writing is good and interesting.
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I take your point, but readers in London would have an easier time visiting restaurants all around their country than their counterparts in NYC. The two nations are very different sizes.
The NYT has for a long time been an essentially national paper, and thus it also has reviewers (or it used to) that cover other cities - I’m friendly with the former Miami critic. Adding two more feels redundant, and less of a service to readers than an excuse to send Rao and Mishan on field trips like the recent, dumbass tour of all the Carbones.
I read Jay Raynor for sport, not because I’m likely to dine where he does, but because he is bitchy and funny. Rao and Mishan may have chops I don’t know about, but I don’t see them producing that same kind of work.
Maybe they’re job sharing.
Tejal Rao might not engage with the sort of gimmicky ‘let’s review every single Carbone’ type of stunt. I don’t have much of a feel for the other new critic.
Well, yes, I think that’s the point. But I want (because it’s up to me, obviously) a dedicated NYC reviewer that I can get to know, so I can tell if I agree with them or not.
This will give you a feel. It made me cringe repeatedly.
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That was a word salad! I note it was from a while back. Maybe her style will mature.
Perhaps the NYT missed a trick. If they wanted two worthy critics, they could have hired you and saregama as a double act.
It hasn’t. But maybe she will realize that a review needs opinions, not just fanciful description.
Aw, that’s nice of you. I’ll be the one complaining about the service and that everything is too salty. 
Thank you for the reference to that Jay Rayner review. I just read it on what is a dismal day for me and will keep it available to read again on days when the news gets even worse!
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Certainly not “sweet simplicity” writing! I’m going back to Jay Rayner to clear my mind!
Ha ha! You just reminded me of this commercial:
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Oh, man, that is excellent! Now that we’re veering off topic anyway, allow me to share the greatest commercial ever made. It is for a food!
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