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Frank Bruni Removes His Critic’s Cap For Good

  • Spence Cooper
  • August 27, 2009
Frank Bruni
Frank Bruni

Frank Bruni, restaurant critic for The New York Times and author of Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater, has written his last article for the Times as food critic. Bruni will be replaced by Sam Sifton, but will continue as a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.

I, for one, am sorry to see Bruni go. Last month I had the opportunity to write a short piece on Bruni’s new confessional autobiography, Born Round, and feel as if I almost know him — what a story.

But oh, how lucky we are, for in Bruni’s last Times article he provides little jewels of wisdom in the answers to many never addressed questions from his avid readers.

What follows are a few selected questions Bruni was often asked or that he wished had been asked, along with responses. More of each can be found on Diner’s Journal, a Dining section blog.

WHAT’S THE BEST SUSHI PLACE?

I have to give two answers, because the absolute best I encountered in New York over the last five years is Masa, but that’s a recommendation of limited usefulness. A meal there is upward of $400 a person. I haven’t been in a long time.

So I’d like to single out Sushi Yasuda as well. There you can have a wonderfully intimate, pampering omakase experience” a seat at the counter, a chef seemingly devoted to you and just a few other diners, sushi being prepared just moments before you eat it” for under $100 a person, not counting drinks. Still a major treat, but much, much more manageable.

WHAT ABOUT THE BEST STEAKHOUSE?

There’s no one answer to this, because steakhouse selection is so particularly dependent on a diner’s mood and sensibility.

If a certain corny, musky ambience is what you like, and a steakhouse need only have one great steak, then a place like Sparks” and its strip” will please you mightily.

But if you want a steakhouse with an array of strengths, and you’re after a more contemporary ambience, you’d do better at, say, Porter House New York or BLT Prime. Porter House has improved since my one-star review years ago; the porterhouse on my most recent visit was superb. And there’s a decent, accessible wine list, something many steakhouses, including Peter Luger, don’t have.

Peter Luger on its best night has an outstanding porterhouse, but the lights are always too bright and the service usually too gruff. That’s the thing with this city’s steakhouses: there’s almost always a drawback, a limitation.

Harry’s Steak down near Wall Street has a particular tucked-away charm. Strip House has great sides and an inimitably cheeky atmosphere. Keens has the most Old World charm; its mutton chop” a misnomer, but a glorious one at that” is worth the trip alone.

Minetta Tavern, while not billing itself as a steakhouse, might be my favorite, but is near-impenetrable by anyone without inside connections between 6:30 and 10:30 p.m.

IS THERE ANY BEST, SAFEST WAY TO NAVIGATE A MENU?

Scratch off the appetizers and entrees that are most like dishes you’ve seen in many other restaurants, because they represent this one at its most dutiful, conservative and profit-minded. The chef’s heart isn’t in them. Scratch off the dishes that look the most aggressively fanciful. The chef’s vanity” possibly too much of it” spawned these. Then scratch off anything that mentions truffle oil. Choose among the remaining dishes.

WHERE CAN I FIND GREAT VALUE?

At some of the more expensive, extravagant restaurants in New York, that’s where. Value doesn’t mean a low price: it means you’re getting a lot for what you’re paying.

At Eleven Madison Park, for example, the $88 prix fixe includes five one-bite amuse-bouches per person, terrific gougères, unlimited bread with both goat’s milk and cow’s milk butter, an appetizer, an entree, a dessert amuse-bouche, dessert and petit fours. Plus you’re sitting in comfort in one of the city’s most beautiful dining rooms, with many polished servers attending to you.

At Momofuku Ssam Bar, where you’re encouraged to build a meal from a sequence of small, medium and large plates, you’d probably need five selections, including dessert, to match that amount of food, and you could easily spend $68 in the process. And what you’ve given up, for a $20 savings, is the ability to make a reservation, a real chair (the restaurant is all backless stools), comparably pampering service, etc.

I’m not denigrating Ssam Bar: I love both of these restaurants. But you could argue that Eleven Madison is the better value” and there’s a larger point here to keep in mind before dismissing expensive restaurants.

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