Restaurant review extravaganza 39

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

Broward-Palm Beach

Bash Wine Café

Bash Wine Café is holed up like a dark cave in a drab suburban strip mall in Sunrise, a location born of frugality for owners Nikki Pettineo and Veronica Lopez. A Johnson & Wales grad, Pettineo had lucked into a job as private chef for former Miami Dolphins safety Renaldo Hill and star running back Ronnie Brown. When Pettineo and Lopez discovered they didn’t have the resources to cook for a party of 200, moving into the current Bash spot seemed like the cheapest way to get the job done. “We needed licenses and equipment we didn’t have, and this place provided that,” says Pettineo. “We thought, ‘Even if another soul doesn’t walk through the door, at least we’ll have done this party.'” More >>

Dallas

Geisha House

Like so many Asian restaurants, Geisha House sets its tables with disposable wooden chopsticks, the kind you break apart before using. The things are everywhere, so it’s hardly a confusing concept. Yet during my first visit to the vast new sushi/teppan spot on Cedar Springs, I overheard a stylish young couple conversing with the hostess. After several minutes, during which I gleaned a level of familiarity between guests and the restaurant, the young woman looked up and said, “I thought we were supposed to get chopsticks.” More >>

​

Denver

Paradise Asian Cafe

My favorite movie of all time is Blade Runner. It gave me a serious yen for the intersection of Japanese and American culture that’s flavored my tastes for years but still, I think, comes off as a bit more wholesome and less creepy than an obsession with Japanese schoolgirl uniforms or hentai. More >>

Houston

Kata Robata Sushi & Grill

During flounder season, I’m always looking for tasty flatfish dishes. I hit the jackpot at Kata Robata, the stellar new Japanese grill and sushi bar on Richmond at Kirby. Listed simply as “fish & chips” on the daily specials menu, the basket of lightly fried flounder fingers and french fries was the most imaginative flounder dish I’ve ever had. More >>

Kansas City

Julian

Like all new dining spots, celebrated chef Celina Tio’s new Brookside bistro, Julian, has a few troublesome kinks that need to be ironed out. Don’t even get me started on the adorable but dizzy hostess. But the potential for greatness is all over the little place. More >>

Los Angeles

Kiyokawa

Kiyokawa is a small sushi bar on the southern edge of Beverly Hills, a couple of blocks south of Wilshire and almost invisible among modest boutiques and storefront offices. If you’re passing it by car, the restaurant could be mistaken for one of the sandwich shops that speckle the neighborhood, the kind of place whose culinary ambitions don’t rise much beyond using two kinds of mustard in its tuna salad. More >>

​

Miami

Whisk Gourmet

It has long been an aphorism of the food world: Those who can’t cook, cater. Snarky, yes, but it is generally true that chefs of catering firms lack the professional training and/or talent of their restaurant-running brethren. Brendan Connor, top toque at Whisk Gourmet Food & Catering, is clearly an exception to this rule. In fact, he and sister Kristin, Whisk’s managing partner, could teach seasoned restaurateurs a thing or two about succeeding in the business — or at least it appears that way, based on the steady stream of customers traipsing in and out of the tiny storefront eatery every weekday. More >>