This is not a negative review at all! He wastes a lot of time talking about his lame table mates (maybe they're talking about him, too, since he concedes his own lapses into lameness as well), but all the stuff about Iliana and her food is about as positive a take on any chef or cook I've read in recent memory. Even when he notes a bum dish or something he didn't like, he contextualizes it as a step in an already brilliant chef's ascent on the way to something even more brilliant. It's one of the first reviews I've read of Elizabeth, I think, that serves as a pretty accurate portrait of just what's going on in that space, for better or for worse but almost always, when you're talking about the food, in service of something ambitious and inspired.

Regarding single visits, my guess is the price but more pertinently the ticket system makes multiple visits pretty tough.