Tom Sietsema Says Barry Koslow Cooks for the Eyes (and Taste Buds) at Pinea

Tom Sietsema files a First Bite review of the new Pinea in the W Hotel. The food there is gorgeous, the critic says.

Koslow cooks as much for the eye as the taste buds. Two of his more beautiful appetizers are an elegant version of the Provençal vegetable soup, pistou, served with a sauceboat of shimmering pesto, and charred octopus splashed with sherry vinaigrette. The smoky seafood shares its curvy black plate with saffron-colored potatoes and zippy coins of chorizo. [WaPo]

The $20 Diner heads to Sibarita where there are big platters of meat to be sampled.

Sibarita is a Bolivian restaurant that embraces the open-ended, reinvent- yourself nature of American culture. The place pays its respects to Bolivian cuisine with plate after plate after plate of meat — a menagerie of pounded, grilled, dehydrated or fried critters, from chicken to lamb. But Sibarita also cooks up some creative variations on its native foods. Think: a chicken cheesesteak, a spiced and thinly pounded version by way of La Paz. Such minor-key reinventions, however, are not the primary reason to visit Sibarita. The centerpiece of the place is its parrillada familiar... [WaPo]

Gypsy Soul earns 2.5 stars from Todd Kliman.

The crabcake is the Platonic ideal you almost never find: fat, all lump, lightly bound, and hit with just enough lemon. The deviled eggs—each supremely creamy yellow mound dusted with togarashi pepper and speared with country ham—take kitsch and make it exquisite. Ditto for the pimiento cheese. I stopped myself from polishing off the bowl of salty, fatty fried chicken skins. Not because I didn’t like them—I loved them. But I wanted to love myself in the morning.[Washingtonian]

THE BLOGS: Bitches Who Brunch give a C+ to Del Campo...Girl Meets Food tries out atsPlace.