Restaurant review extravaganza 19

Here are some of this week’s most noteworthy restaurant reviews from across the country:

Broward-Palm Beach

Al-Salam Middle East Restaurant

Obama is speaking in Cairo, even quoting verses from the Qur’an, glad-handing Arab leaders, and no doubt settling down for intimate talks with King Abdullah II over a pot of Turkish coffee and some sticky pastries loaded with pistachios. And here’s Hillary Clinton, touring the Middle East wearing a headscarf. I suggest we follow our leaders and go respectfully mingle with our nearest Muslim neighbors, who tend to congregate in a Plantation strip mall on Friday nights for a bit of kibbeh and foul medames. More >>

Dallas

Ava

Just why would anyone drive all the way to Rockwall? I mean, unless they happen to be stuck to a mortgage there.

Yeah, there’s the big reservoir, but if you venture out on the water some weekend, you’re probably not decked out in your Dallas clubbing best, right? So you’d think the folks at AVA (they indeed spell it with all caps, as if shouting via e-mail) would be used to the ragged shorts and T-shirt look. More >>

“A deft hand– and reliance on fresh, seasonal ingredients– is AVA’s signature.”

Denver

White Fence Farm

Everyone who lives along the Front Range must visit Casa Bonita once. Really, you’re not a resident if you haven’t seen the cliff divers and suffered the mariachis, climbed through Black Bart’s cave, muscled your way through the knots of sticky, rapidly greening children and eaten the sopaipillas.

I’ve been to Casa Bonita. Even better, I’ve actually seen the kitchen. It’s not something I’d ever want to do twice. More >>

Houston

Jonathan’s The Rub

The giant sea scallops at Jonathan’s The Rub were lightly dusted with an herb and pepper rub and seared so that they were opaque on the outside, but still a little translucent in the middle. Each bite of tender white shellfish melted in my mouth. The New England scallops were served on top of a pool of buttery grits, a terrific combination that seemed like a Yankee spin on shrimp grits. Expect such delicious witticisms from a restaurant with one foot in Houston and one foot in Brooklyn. More >>

Kansas City

Ophelia’s

I don’t know if there’s any connection between Ophelia’s, the attractive, upscale restaurant across from the historic Independence courthouse, and the more famous Ophelia who was driven mad in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But I do know this: In 2000, I was driven mad one night by the glaring incompetence of the Independence Ophelia’s staff and manager, and I walked out vowing never to set foot in there again. More >>

Los Angeles

Bottega Louie

Bottega Louie is the loudest place in Los Angeles on a summer evening, happy racket bouncing off the triple-height ceilings, caroming off the bare white walls and glancing off the moldings, pinging off the acres of marble and miles of brass, the roaring wood oven, the market up front, the gleaming open kitchen where military ranks of cooks sweat in their crisp whites. There is music, an odd selection of B-sides and jazz tunes pouring from the speakers overhead, but you won’t be able to hear it until the ebb of dinner service, when it is time to pay your check and go. More >>

Roasted golden beets with goat cheese at Bottega Louie.

Miami

Area 31 at the Epic Hotel / Canyon Ranch Grill at Canyon Ranch / Eos at the Viceroy / Pool Plaza at the Gansevoort / Vida at the Fontainebleau

Hotcakes are hotter than ever, but we at Flip-Off Headquarters humbly refrain from taking all the credit; we’re probably only 80 percent responsible, 90 tops. Of course there are those who attribute the palpable surge in pancake popularity to it being one of the few foods that working class Americans can still afford to eat. There may be a butter pat of truth to this, but the Flapjack Flip-Off, now in its’ ninth year, has been tireless in attempting to boost the battercake back to its’ rightful position atop the stack of American breakfast icons. It is this effort that has led us to being recognized, if not widely, as one of the planet’s grandest griddlecake events. More >>

Minneapolis

Trattoria Tosca

For the past five years, ever since Harvey McLain moved his Turtle Bread baking facilities out of Linden Hills, neighbors have been waiting, patiently, for him to make good on his promise to reopen the space as a restaurant. Periodically, rumors of a forthcoming launch would surface, but the date would always pass with no discernible change. Sometimes, heading down 44th Street, I’d think I’d catch a glimpse of sheetrock or table saws through the windows, though they always turned out to be new-restaurant ghosts. More >>